Subj: Twylyght Tyme Part 3
Date: 7/23/00 5:15:29 PM Central Daylight Time
From: Kallie
"The Old Folks At Home"
Time: November 31, 1969
Place: Twylyght Tyme Manor
"Oh dear," Lucie Suffern moaned Eyore like, when she heard the knock and spotted the woman at the door.
"I brought your paper dear," Clara Belle informed her, in her sweetest southern accent.
Lucie grudgingly rose up, snatched the paper, and frowned. Then scratching her snowy white dome, as if to stimulate the brain cells, she reluctantly sighed, "I suppose I should see if my name is in there today." Plopping right back down in her faded, but comfortable chair, she immediately turned to her favorite part of the newspaper...... the obituaries. After scanning the section for a while she declared, "Nope, not in there today, I must still be alive."
"I am happy for you honey." Clara Belle replied. Then catching a whiff of eau d'urine emanating from the ancient armchair, she turned to make her exit.
Before she could make her escape, Lucie added, "You might as well tell the kitchen, I don't want to eat anything today. Putting on her most pitiful expression, she took a deep breath and exhaled, "I am just not hungry anymore."
But as soon as Clara Belle was out of sight, Lucie made a beeline for the small refrigerator, then ravenously polished off a whole chicken that her family had brought her the night before.
************
Clara Belle Tipple enjoyed her job delivering papers to the residents every afternoon. It made her feel useful and that was important, to be useful. Her family was all gone now, so visiting with those along her route was all she had left. She was known to always have a smile for everyone she met.
************
On her way down the hall she passed Adele Biggins and Edgar Small. Adele was a tiny wee bit of a thing. She looked positively dwarfed next to Edgar's tall frame. But every day they could be seen walking down the hall holding hands. No one had ever seen them say anything to each other, or to anyone else for that matter. But they were cute together and all the nurses considered them as their favorite couple.
************
They slowly made their way past Dolly Lovejoy's room where country music blasted forth everyday. She had been told to turn down her radio on numerous occasions, but being hard of hearing she would always forget and the volume would go right back up again. At the moment Dolly was not even in her room. She, as many had suspected all along, was out to lunch.
************
Also on her way to lunch was Wendy Butts. Wendy suffered from a severe arthritis problem. Luckily, she had a daughter who was into healing herbs. Nothing the doctors ever prescribed ever gave her the relief that those miraculous herbs did. Unfortunately these herbs had a rather unfortunate byproduct. They produced an enormous amount of gas. Being so extremely fluctuant had been frustrating. It came at the most unexpected times and with such force it was frightening. Poor Wendy was one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet, but she often sat alone.
************
Wendy made her way past the nurse's station leaving invisible trails behind her. Standing behind the counter, Nurse Porter observed that the light for room 23 was on again and she was beginning to get more than a wee bit annoyed. It meant that that crazy Agra woman had pulled the emergency cord yet again. Vi Agra had a little problem with narcolepsy. She could fall asleep at the drop of a hat, but had a little trouble getting up. Sure enough, when Nurse Porter arrived at the room Vi had already assumed the position for catching flys. Her mouth wide open and snoring quite loudly. Finally the force of one colossal snore scared her into wakefulness. At first she looked a little disoriented, but then she saw Nurse Porter and smiled and said, "Oh finally room service has arrived, would you please bring me a cafe au lait?" What a pill! Nurse Porter thought as she explained for the umpteenth time that the cord was to be used for emergency purposes only.
************
While Vi Agra was being lectured, in the next room Constance Stoolfire was having a visit with her grandparents. It wasn't often that she visited, for Roxanne was a flighty girl with a very short attention span. But being in-between plays she had felt the sudden need to come and visit the old folks.
And so she sat with her grandparents in the dead of winter, in a room that was so hot it could rival any sauna, watching a baseball game without the sound. Constance was getting bored.
"Why look at all those people standing up." Mildred Stoolfire seemed totally confused sitting on the couch trying to figure out what was going on. "Do you think someone could have gotten a home run?"
Constance fanned herself with a magazine as she replied. "If you just turned on the sound you might find out."
"Oh no child, we can't do that. The sound would bother your grandfather" Then she looked at him and smiled.
Having no idea what had just been said, but wanting to participate in the conversation, Otis Stoolfire barked, "Damn straight!"
Just about that time, Constance spied a man lugging a tool box, walking slowly past the room. She had just finished a run of "Streetcar Named Desire" and found herself attracted to his rough sort of bad boy look. She liked the way his reddish blonde hair fell carelessly over his eyes. Eyes which betrayed a hint of sadness about them. I will have to do something about that, she thought while she quickly checked out his derriere.
"Hey you!" She called, "my grandma needs a dance partner."
"Sorry lady, but I've got a sink to fix." Combing his hair out of his eyes with his free hand he continued," Ya see Ole Willie Loomis is the handyman around here."
Then grabbing him by the arm she replied with a laugh, "Then come on in and make yourself handy, man!"
As he was pulled into the room, the heat and an odd smell hit him all at once. The room was small, as all the rooms were at Twylyght Tyme Manor. Things accumulated over a lifetime had to be given away, leaving only those few most cherished items that would adapt to the limited space. Mildred Stoolfire was no longer able to keep up with the house work herself. And although housekeeping came once a week to tidy up, it was far from being clean. But she sat confused, but content on the decrepit couch wondering what her granddaughter was up to now.
Willie was wondering what was going on too. His abductor wasn't a bad looking girl, he observed as she went over to turn off the TV. She had long blonde hair with curls that bounced like hyperactive springs whenever she walked. Her baby blue eyes were probably her best asset. But she wasn't at all Willie's type. She was a pushy little bugger and Willie didn't like pushy broads. He had had enough of pushy people to last him a lifetime.
"Let's have a little music" Constance declared as she turned on the radio to the Beatles tune "When I'm Sixty-Four." Then in her loudest stage voice so that Mildred would hear her, "Where did Gramps get off to?"
An even louder voice from the bathroom shouted, "I'm in the can. Damned hemorrhoids!"
Constance shrugged her shoulders and said, "Well since he is busy Grandma you can dance with Mr. Loomis."
"But I've got to go....."
At the thought of dancing again Mildred's sunken and wrinkled eyes brightened, she got up off the couch and flashed Willie a big happy toothless smile. She had misplaced her dentures that morning and forgot that she wasn't wearing her choppers. Willie didn't want to be rude so he figured a few minutes wouldn't hurt.
Mildred grabbed a hold of Willie's hands and shifted from side to side almost in time to the Beatles tune.
Send me a postcard, drop me a line,
stating point of view,
Indicate precisely what you mean to say,
This was the extent of her dancing ability these days, but she was having more fun than she had had in ages. "My Granddaughter is very beautiful isn't she?"
Willie was really wishing he was fixing that sink right now, "Yes, she is very pretty." Constance was grinning like a Cheshire cat.
Yours sincerely, wasting away,
Mildred was in her element now. Giving him another one of her best gummy grins she informed him, "You know my granddaughter is a single girl. Are you married?"
Give me an answer, fill in a form,
mine forevermore,
Will you still need me, will you still fee me, when I.....
THUMP! The sound seemed to come from the other sign of the wall. "What was that?" Willie asked.
"Don't worry about it, it's nothing" But Constance was wrong.
THUMP, THUMP! The last thump against the wall was powerful enough to knock over the little transistor radio and stop their little Beatles concert. When it hit the floor the music stopped, but an odd sort of humming sound could be heard coming from the other side of the wall. "Hum-hum, hum-hum. Hum-hum, hum-hum. Then the thumping sound stopped all together.
"I'd better go check that out." Then before anyone could object he was out the door.
Mildred still had a goofy sort of grin on her face, "You know I think he would like to marry you" she told her granddaughter. Who totally ignored her and went out the door to find Willie.
From the look of Vi Agra's room, she seemed like the kind of person who was used to the finer things in life. Although her room was just as small as everyone else's it was decorated with the finest furniture. All which looked brand new. Expensive glassware and porcelain figures were on display. In his younger days Willie won't have thought twice about lifting some of the merchandise while he was there, but things had changed, he was a different person now. He heard a suspicious sound out the back way, but then Constance arrived and by the time he was able to check, whatever had made the noise had vanished.
"Whoa, this old chick must really be loaded!" Constance proclaimed with glee.
But Willie was feeling far from gleeful. He had felt that strange prickly feeling on the back of his neck and he just knew something wasn't right here. In the bedroom they found the body. A pillow covered Vi's head, her arms flung out, frozen in an attempt to rid herself of her attacker and summon help. her hand was beginning to bruise where she had pounded with such force on the wall to no avail.
"Oh Gross, gross, gross!" Constance complained while Willie pulled the emergency cord to summon help. Strangely enough, Vi had never had the chance to use it herself when she needed it the most.
Nurse Porter came almost at once steaming in the room madder than a hornet at being called again. She looked shocked to find that this time there had been a real emergency. She removed the pillow that covered Vi's face. A face frozen in utter terror, preserving her horror at being smothered to death, for all eternity.
"Man, I think I am going to be sick." Constance announced just before racing off to find the nearest bathroom.
Nurse Porter leaned over to check for the vital signs that she knew no longer existed. Everyone in the room knew Vi Agra would never rise again.
*************
Later that night The Angel Of Death wondered about the handyman. It had been a close call today. But did he see anything that would point the finger in the angel's direction. He mustn't be allowed to interfere.
When the Angel Of Death started on this grand mission in life it was only to end the suffering of those in need. What they call mercy killing. But on this day something snapped inside the Angel's mind. It happened when Mrs. Agra started screaming for her cafe au lait. Such a useless creature she was, always demanding of others, but not contributing anything herself. Yes, the world was a better place without such people in it. And it would be the angel's glorious mission to rid the world of such pests. But what of the handyman? There would be time to think of that tomorrow.