A continuation/edit from an old story...

"Charlie... CHARLIE." The door swung open, and the harsh neon hallway light hummed its way into the dark room. Two figures entered- a man and a woman- both pausing near the door.

"He wasn't always like this, you know. And Charlie... well, he's a little senile," she smiled almost apologetically.
The man acknowledged her with a slight nod, and wandered over to the windows, drawing the heavy curtains back to allow the late-afternoon sun to enter. Charlie started a bit as the light hit his face, but didn’t respond when the man turned and asked, "HOW ARE YOU FEELING TODAY?"

"He doesn't speak much," she stated, almost apologetically. "You'll have to learn to understand his signals. He's usually a pretty easygoing patient; he only eats at meal times and doesn't really leave his room. The only thing you'll really need to know is when he needs to use the bathroom."



He nodded, looking into the glossy eyes of the old man. "I'm PAYTON," he nearly yelled, searching the old gray eyes for some sign of recognition.

"You don't have to shout. He can hear quite well. Ever since his wife, Jean, died, though, he really just gave up on talking..."



_______________________________________________________________________


"Boy, Charlie, of all the pretty nurses in this place, you get the one named Payton," he chuckled slightly.

"Dontcha know it. Ain't that just my luck, though, Charlie. Ain't that just my luck."


They sat quietly for a moment, with the light still highlighting their wrinkled faces. The winter sun was setting fast now, changing the colors in the room from yellow to orange to red until eventually settling upon a heavy grey.

"Well." He turned slightly, looking the other man directly in the eye as if waiting for an answer to a question that was never asked.

Charlie stood up and crept over to the flood of light coming in from the hall, catching a glimpse of 'Wheel of Fortune' on the television in the common room as he shut the door as quietly as possible. "Well?"



"What do you think? Is it him?" He asked, with such a spark of excitement that he was almost unrecognizable to the other.

"I dunno, Charlie, old man," Charlie’s voice trembled.

__________________________________________________________________________

Payton wasn’t terribly new to the profession, according to his resume, but Lauren thought there was something odd about him as she studied him from behind. The way he spoke to the patients, the almost callous bedside manner- something wasn’t right. Still, though, Lauren had to admit that his timing was impeccable, as he’d come just as an older nurse, Nancy, was set to retire. It was decided by the facility’s management that he would simply take over her patients- a fluid change that would leave the patients as undisturbed as possible.

As they walked silently down the wide, empty hallway, Lauren’s mind drifted through all of the names and faces of the patients who would now be in this man’s care. Mr. and Mrs. Calloway, who, upon admission to the retirement facility, were not expected to live past the first six months, and had somehow made it through for almost four years; Saul- an older resident, well-known and liked throughout the place for his trademark smile; Dolly, who took more medications than even Lauren could keep straight; and then there was Charlie. Lauren had been new to the facility on the day that Charlie had arrived, dropped off by a weathered-looking couple- probably his son and daughter-in-law who, according to Charlie’s file, lived almost fourteen hours away. She still remembered the genuine nature of his first hello, the years of wrinkles that surrounded his smiling eyes.

Lauren’s claim that Charlie was an easy resident to care for hadn’t come across as truthfully as she had hoped; while it was true that he didn’t ask for much, Lauren had come to realize that Charlie wasn’t simple at all. His quiet looks while she was speaking to him before he went to sleep, the way he had grabbed her wrist last week as she set out his dinner, something had been brewing in Charlie since he had first arrived. She had feared this when she finally got Charlie to speak to her- his few words had been ones of burden.

“Ugh,” Lauren groaned aloud, startling herself with the sound of her own voice. Lost in thought, she had completely forgotten that she was in the company of this new employee. “Oh, I… uhh...” her embarrassment burned in the redness of her face, and Payton smiled faintly.

____________________________________________________________________________________

“That new nurse is awright… I guess,” Charlie turned his question mark glance towards his counterpart, who stared blankly back. A silence took over the room for a few long seconds, as the two considered him.

“Oh Charlie,” the one said to the other, turning sadly. “Oh Charlie, we need to get out of here.” The thought had crossed Charlie’s mind every now and again as he had watched the long-term care nurses come and go. Nancy had been the most recent to leave, and before her had been that beautiful little blond… Sara? Charlie couldn’t quite remember- the name wasn’t important. Even with the senility that was setting in, thought Charlie to himself, he still knew how to appreciate a tasty little behind. Now, though, this Payton fellow- well, he wasn’t Charlie’s type.

Charlie’s mind briefly drifted to his Jeanie, the reason he had come to the Assisted Living Home in the first place. She had been even more beautiful than that cute little blond nurse when they first met. She was almost fifteen years younger than he was, a waitress at a roadside diner in some little town that he’d never bothered to learn the name of. A curvy little brunette, sixteen, serving all of those truckers their coffee and burgers, she had sauntered up to Charlie sitting in a booth by the window and simply offering him a cup and a menu she had saved his life.

SIXTEEN- the number struck him for a moment as the fuzzy memories of his wife drifted through his failing memory. Sixteen seemed so long ago- his beautiful wife, dead for almost ten years now.