One week later

After one week of constant learning, I was finally beginning to find my way around the enormous hospital. All the nurses were so friendly despite the different ages, experiences, and departments.

There were three of them from the ward that I got a special connection to almost right away. The first one was Harriet Campbell, the woman who was responsible for my introduction. We connected very fast by the time she showed me around and taught me about the patients and all of the different routines.

At lunch on the first day, she introduced me to her friends, Mildred Darwin and Janet Sullivan. The three women were kind and funny and they welcomed me very well to come and sit with them every day during lunch or supervising hours.

All of the nurses worked in different shifts and it appeared that me, Harriet, Mildred, and Janet shared the same schedules.

Then there was Donald. It was obvious that he tried to get my attention every time we passed by each other.

I was flattered by his flirting and he was indeed a handsome man, but I had only spoken to him a few times in the span of a week. I felt like it was impossible to catch interest for someone in such a short time if you weren't only focused on the looks of a person.

The most important thing right now was to focus on my job. I didn't feel like it was a priority for me to flirt with the hospital guard when I already had trouble with the big, maze-like hospital.

The weekend was finally over and I was longing to go back to work. I didn't do much this weekend, I was just trying to focus and study the things I learned the past week.

Dolores always told me that I was too ambitious, but I did never really get how that would be possible.

I closed my locker in the changing room and looked in the mirror to check that everything was in its proper place before I walked out in the hallway to get to the elevator.

Harriet and Janet were walking beside me and I could hear how they talked about some patient I didn't know anything about. They laughed at each other and I smiled at them to show my interest even though I didn't understand a thing.

"Beverly, you have a session with Jacob Clarke today, don't you?" Janet asked and I picked up my scheduled calendar from my chest pocket. I still hadn't learned all the names of the patients, and I realized that this Jacob Clarke probably was the person they just talked about. I found the name in my calendar and I looked at Janet again and nodded my head.

"Yes that's right, he's my first patient after the furlough planning for Grace Jackson, why?" I said while I looked at her with a curious face. I was a little bit ashamed that I didn't pay attention enough to their earlier conversation.

"Well, he's a little bit.. tense, sometimes so I would recommend to make sure that he get his meds before the session begins," Janet's voice got a little more serious than before. I still looked at her like I had a question but as she didn't continue her talking, I decided to just nod my head and not ask any further questions.

I guess that she was just trying to help me to manage my work. Even though the nurses had professional secrecy, it could be important sometimes to share information if you were treating the same person. I was still new at St: Nicolai and every tip I could get, I gladly received.

The three of us split up when we reached the second floor and began to walk our separate ways. I entered the office room and walked over to the journal archives to find Grace Jackson's files. After a couple of minutes of searching through the whole J section, I finally found the girl's journal.

I took a seat by one of the desks in the silent room and I began to read the journal attentionally.

This patient was only seventeen years old, with several different types of neurological disorders such as bipolarity, borderline, and OCD. It was always heartbreaking with patients as young as Grace but this wasn't the place for me to be emotional.

After four years in and out of different institutions, and one year at St: Nicolai, Grace was allowed a furlough after good behaviors and mental stability, meaning that she wasn't a danger to herself or others and that she got to spend time out of the hospital, in the custody of her parents or other caregivers.

The job I had to do was to decide when, and for how long Grace would have her furlough and who was going to be responsible for her during that time.

Even though a person with borderline was regularly medicated, the disorder was serious and could in a second turn into something threatening for the suffering person.

Because of her other disorders, the decision was hard to make. It was never worth it to take any risks when it was regarding a person's life.

I made the decision to meet with the patient myself before I would make any further resolutions. Even though she was allowed her furlough, I wanted to have a session with her myself before I decided for how long she could be away from the hospital.

As the clock was nearly 10:30 am, I wrote down my conclusions and closed her file again to put it back in the archive. I grabbed my stuff and left the office again to head to my next session.

I walked through the hallway of the ward while I searched for room number 334. When I reached the room in the middle of the hallway, I checked the list on the outside of Jacob Clarke's door to make sure that the round of medication was done for this morning. When I saw the green spot on this day's date, I carefully locked the door up and stepped inside.

"Hello Jacob, I'm nurse Beverly Frazier, how are you today?" I said with my professional, friendly voice as I looked at the patient who sat in his bed with his blanket around his head and body.

I could only see the young man's face and he was not making any expressions. I sat in silence for a couple of seconds until I made another try.

"We haven't met before, it is nice to meet you, Jacob," I made sure that my words were clear.

After another couple of silent seconds, the boy turned his face in my direction and his eyes met with mine. I smiled at him while I let him take his time to inspect me. His earlier relaxed, stone-like face suddenly turned into a big, intriguing, gruesome smile.

"Are you new here?" He asked with a raspy voice. I nodded my head carefully while I kept the smile on my lips and responded to him.

"Yes I am, Jacob,"

The blue-eyed boy's smile got even bigger. I didn't really think that was possible but apparently, I was wrong. The shivers reached my spine, not knowing about what would happen next.

"I like new people," He said.

It looked like his face was frozen in that smile.

"That's good. Can you tell me how you are today? I would like to know more about you," I continued, as a try to get somewhere with the conversation.

"I like new people, I like new people, I like new people, I like new people, I like new people, I like new.."

The boy got stuck with repeating his words in between the frightful smile and I allowed him to take the time that he needed. He rocked his body back and forth while staring at the same spot, not even hesitating to blink even once.

When a person is manic or having a seizure of any kind, it is very important not to disturb on impulse. You have to reach the person's brain and make them realize that you're not a threat or there to disturb their state of mind, otherwise, it could turn out aggressively.

I decided to leave the room to do the process one more time, from the beginning.

I opened the door up carefully and I looked at the boy, sitting at the same spot in his bed, no longer repeating the previous words.

My choice was a success. Now I was just wondering how many more times I would have to do this before I could get real contact with him...