෴Hildolfer෴

෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴

Old News

෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴

Ashley pushed the wheelchair along the smooth walkway. The beautiful grounds were truly a pleasure to walk through. Part of her was still marveling at the idea that she was not only being paid but paid well, to simply walk her patient around what amounted to a lovely park. Mr. Hildolfer dozed in his chair, letting out soft broken snores as the chair rolled along.

She found herself reflecting on the oddities of the past day and weighing the pros and cons of the job she’d decided to take, even if she wasn’t sure she knew why just yet. The path wound its way out through the carefully manicured grounds that would have fit a top-tier golf course. She noted several paths leading into the heavily wooded forest surrounding the grounds but remembered Mary’s stern admonition to stay out of the forest.

When her patient woke up and resumed the earlier conversation as though he hadn’t dozed off, she made agreeable noises and let him go on. She’d found him to be quite the talker, even if what he had to say often made no real sense.

“—s hard to keep track. I’ve tried lotta ways to keep my mind healthy, but the years just blur together. The mind. It starts as your greatest asset but eventually starts to betray you. Memory is a fickle friend indeed. These days it’s all I can do to remember the big moments.”

She tuned him out and started heading back to the manor. The sunny day combined with the slight uphill slope was just enough to give her the light coating of sweat her mother always called her ‘womanly glow’.

“What kind of weapon do you prefer?” He asked.

The upward tone of the question had caught her attention, but without context, she flailed mentally before just going with an honest answer.

“I never even used a weapon before basic training. All I know is what they issued me.” For reasons she couldn't articulate, she felt like she was admitting to something shameful.

“Guns,” he muttered with a dismissive tone.

She realized he was about to launch into another lecture on how spears were the best weapon ever, a topic he was endlessly fascinated by and eager for any segue into. She wracked her brain for some way to derail the topic.

“So Mr. Hildolfer, you—” she started to say.

“Don’t get so hung up on names and proper addresses,” he snapped.

“Well, I was taught that knowing something’s name makes it easier to handle” she replied.

“You’re right, but I don’t need to be handled.” he sniffed at the thought.

As she pushed the chair, she thought she saw a tiny mote of light, floating above his hand, but when she looked again it was gone.

“I didn’t mean I’ll try to handle you, I just–” she paused to find the words. “I just want to speak to you in the way you’d like to be spoken to.”

He shook his head. “No. No, you wouldn’t. I’ve had far too long, to get used to things being very different from today.”

She kept walking for a moment, thinking about how to deal with a patient making such a trivial thing difficult. “Well sir, how would you like me to address you?”

“I’ve gone by too many names. I can’t even remember them all. So Mr. Hildolfer is fine.” he commented mildly.

She took a few long breaths, silently mouthing several uncouth things as she looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and irritation.

“Well ok, Mr. Hildolfer”, she added a touch of emphasis to the repeat of the same way she’d tried to start the conversation. “you mentioned you follow world news,” she said as an open-ended conversation starter with her best attempt at an upbeat tone.

He shrugged, then sagged into the seat. “Didn’t say that. I follow news of the weird around the world and terrorist activity.”

“So would you consider the unfolding of events surrounding the Kathmandu chemical weapons attack terrorist activity or news of the weird?”

He nodded. “That’s a good question. Starts as one, shifts to the other I suppose. Eventually, it’s just terrorism to allow the reds to do what they want. By the time the dust settles in a month or so they’ll be in power there, and no one will think it's worth a war to change that.” He sighed and shook his head. Of course, they’re going to blame him for it in the meantime, even though it makes no sense.”

They kept walking in amiable silence until a turn on the sidewalk jostled the old man enough to wake him from his dozing.

“Let me tell you, missy. When they find the plane with the remotely detonated missile, that story will start to unravel. It’s going to get even more interesting when they verify the launcher held three and realize one of them is missing.” He said out of nowhere.

She nodded, “You’re right. I saw an update the other day. They traced it to a modified stolen plane, just like the Barcelona bombing.” She looked toward the clear blue sky and shivered despite the warm day. “I hope this isn’t going to be a new type of terrorist attack that keeps happening.”

He let out a soft snore. A few minutes later he jerked upright straight and started talking about ancient warfare again.

Despite her best efforts, he’d managed to work the conversation back around to weapons, then metallurgy, and finally back to spears, before she’d made it back to the manor.

At his invitation, they ate lunch together. Ashley enjoyed the grilled salmon and roasted cauliflower and had to admit to herself that the food was top-notch. When she commented on the food quality, he just smiled and spent several minutes rambling on about enjoying the little things in life while he could.

When they finished the food, he rolled himself out to the balcony to look over the grounds. “I love this place. It reminds me of a home I built when I was a much younger man.”

She joined him on the balcony. “Oh, really? Were you in the building trade?”

He laughed hard until he started coughing, then laughed some more. “You could say that. I’ve certainly done a lot of building over the years.” He looked up at the rich azure sky. “The only real question about that is whether I’ve built more than I’ve destroyed.”

She wasn’t sure how to take that, nothing in her schooling or experience had prepared her for this sort of conversation. “Well, which have you done more of, building, or destroying?”

He shrugged, the movement was tired and frail. “I don’t know. That's why it’s the only real question.”

She clasped her hands together and sat down on the bench sitting beside the balcony door. “Do you feel that you have a lot of regrets?”

“Hah!” He turned his chair and looked her in the eye. “Listen, kid, going and fixing past mistakes is its own mistake.”

She blinked, not expecting him to have said anything like that. “So you don’t believe in trying to fix your past mistakes?”

He shook his head. “It's an endless Sisyphean nightmare. Instead, do what you can to make up for your mistakes with those you’ve hurt, then move on, and at least you’ll be making some new mistakes.”

She nodded. “Oh! Oh, that makes a lot more sense than what I thought you were getting at.” She laid her hand over his and gave it a gentle, companionable squeeze. “It sounded like you were advising me to never try to fix past mistakes.”

He nodded. “Yes. That's what I’m saying.”

Ashley wondered if her patient had some form of dementia. “But you just said—”

He looked at her with irritation on his face. “I said, don’t go fixing past mistakes. It makes things worse more often than not. You do what you can to make your mistakes right, especially with the people your mistakes harm. The rest, you live with, and do better.”

She sat there in silence for a long moment as she tried to make sense of what he’d been saying. “It sounds like you’re talking about acceptance of your own failings.” she ventured.

He made a soft humming sound. “Yeah, that’s in there for sure. Thing is, you don’t always know when you’ve made a mistake, and you never know for sure what the alternative to your mistake was. It’s the same way no one ever really knows their own fate, or when the end of their line will arrive.” He coughed. “Although I can tell you mine is getting closer than I’d like.”

She nodded. “I think I understand.”

He made a slightly dismissive grunt. “If you do, you’re millennia ahead of me,” he glanced back at the sky. “For now, I think I’ll exercise my ability to look an attractive young woman in the eye, and tell her to take me to bed.”

She suppressed a giggle and wheeled him back inside.

After helping him to bed, Ashley completed her nursing tasks checklist in his room and, with only a slight hesitation as she looked back at the large metal sculpture on the far end of the room, left him alone for his rest.

Downstairs, she met with Mary. “Well, he’s all tucked in for the afternoon nap.”

Mary nodded. “Excellent. Once Barb arrives, you and I are heading down to the range to see where you’re at.”

“The range?” Ashley thought she’d misheard something.

“Mary smiled. “Oh yeah, we’ll start on the indoor basic marksmanship. Once we see where you’re at, we can have some fun on the tactical courses.” She saw the confused look on Ashley’s face and grinned. “I know this is all very new to you, but he clearly likes you, so unless you choose to leave, you’re going to be here for a while.” She looked out the front door and waved at Barbara climbing the steps to come relieve them.

Mary led Ashley to the elevator. “My recommendation is that you just go with the flow until you get your bearings.”

Ashley shrugged and went with the flow.

*** *** ***

Two hours later, they came back upstairs to find Barb reading a book.

“—derstand what my rifle skills have to do with patient care.” Ashley was saying as the elevator door opened.

“You lose! She did great!” Mary called out.

Barb made an exaggerated, mocking frown in their direction before letting her smile surface. “Glad to hear it! I was hoping you’d kept your skills.” She made a big production of pulling a single shiny coin from one jar and putting it in the other.

Ashley looked at both of them and shook her head. “Am I going to become a degenerate gambler if I hang around you two?”

They both nodded.

“The degenerate part is really up to you though. But we do have a little ongoing pool.” Barb pointed at the third jar, sitting empty next to the other two.

Mary smiled and spoke up. “Yep, I’ll give you the rundown on that and—”

A warbling alarm cut her off. Mary didn’t hesitate, she took off running up the stairs toward the old man’s quarters. The other two followed close on her heels. They burst into the room together. The old man was nowhere to be seen. A device next to the workbench was flashing in time with the wailing alarm.

Ashley followed her training and searched the room for her patient. Checking behind the furniture and in the bathroom. She couldn't shake the feeling that something about the room was wrong.

Mary strode across the room and silenced the alarm. When they reached that end of the room, the floating words made of light became visible. A simple message scrawled in the air in floating words made of static light promised to be back soon.

“Where did he go? Why is his chair gone? What the hell is this place?” Ashley didn’t mean to say any of that out loud, especially that last part.

On his desk, they found a browser open with several tabs devoted to recent world news regarding the Kathmandu massacre and the Barcelona bombing.

“Oh, no,” Barbara uttered with trepidation in her voice. “I think we made a mistake.”

Mary shook her head. “Who’s this we? That was your call.”

Barbara sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I made the call, I’ll take the heat. Nothing for it but to make sure we’re ready for whatever comes next.”

Mary nodded. “So hon,” she patted Ashley on the back. “We’re going to need to show and tell you a whole lot of things that we’d have preferred to break to you gently, and over enough time for you to gradually take it all in.”

The three made their way to the door. Ashley followed the other two in a daze. “How can you both be so calm? Where is he? We have to find him!”

Suddenly she noticed the balcony door was ajar and broke away from the other two. She ran to the balcony. Unconsciously, she held her breath as she looked down, dreading what she might see.

The neatly trimmed bushes and lawn below was just as it had been a few hours before.

She turned to see the other two standing by the door with uneasy half-smiles on their faces. Mary’s smile broadened into a wide grin. “Aww, you do like him!” she teased the younger woman.

“Stop!” Ashley shrieked. “Stop being so casual about this! Where is my pati—Oh hell no.” Her eyes narrowed at them, then she stopped short and looked around the room again. “If this is some kind of ‘mess with the new girl bullshit’, I’m out of here, and you can expect a call from my lawy...”

She trailed off when she saw their faces. Something in their eyes told her it wasn’t anything as trivial as hazing the new employee.

Barbara held out her hand. “It’s nothing like that. Come with us, we have a lot to show you, and more to tell you.”

Mary smiled faintly. “And if you’re still willing to stick around after we dump it all in your lap, we can tell you why we’re not worried about him, even though we’re both very worried about him.”

Ashley blinked several times, trying to parse what she’d just heard. Finally, she sighed and approached the older women. “Alright, but you better make all this start making sense soon!”

She looked again and realized what was wrong in the room. “Hey, where’d the statue go?”