In the Skin of Dragon

Chapter 5: Working week

The weekend always ends so quickly. Just a few hours ago it was Friday and I had finished school and suddenly it was  Sunday evening. Really, I didn’t understand how time flew so quickly over those two days. It just didn’t make sense. Mom was back at the hospital because today she wanted Friday night off so she switched her shift. From tomorrow morning I will be working at the same hospital for five days as well since we have training lessons instead of theoretical ones. Another five days of hardly seeing my mom because of our opposite shifts and on top of that I would  not be seeing Kendra or Andrew either. The only good thing about it was that I wouldn’t be seeing any of my schoolmates and could actually focus on other important things.

I made a bowl of popcorn and went to our cozy living room. It was a small space with one sofa suitable for three people and two one seater chairs around it. In the middle, we had a table. The backs of the sofas were up against the windows since the hallway and the living room were not separated by a door. It was originally connected but my mom put up two heavy curtains on either side to make the opening smaller and if necessary, we could even separate the area when we closed them in case we had someone sleeping on the sofa that could be made up as a bed.

On the wall, we had some decent shelves, and our small TV, around thirty-two inches, was placed in the middle. It was not too much for us, it was more than we needed and I was happy. Luckily, we were allowed to have internet at home and usually, everyone had smart TV which meant I had full access to every cartoon and an animated movie that was ever made.

I curled myself into the sofa with a fluffy blanket over me, the bowl of my popcorn right in front of me and started browsing the menu to see which movie I should watch today.

I tried to focus on the movie but my mind was still keeping me busy thinking about what Kendra had told me at  the beach yesterday. ‘I know you can’t feel it or see it but since the first day I saw you at school I saw something around you. I saw something in you, it sounded like a song which you can’t get out of your head and I wanted to know what she meant by that. And what did she mean by wanting to see the world change? I was both confused and curious at the same time. I ate all the popcorn then realized I didn’t remember a single scene of the movie which had already finished and I was now watching the credits roll.

I made a mental note to ask Kendra more about it when we saw each other again which would be tomorrow. Sadly, she works on the other side of town at her mom’s bakery. They start work at around three o'clock in the morning to make sure that byt six o’clock everything is ready and they can open so Kendra would be going to sleep early which made it almost impossible to spend some time together. I guess once I started working permanently, I would simply ask for night shifts too so I would at least be able to spend a little of the afternoon with her after she finishes work at the bakery.

Adult life is really tough, not to mention that most likely if I don’t get a boyfriend by the end of my graduation class, I would probably end up marrying someone from the hospital, if there will even be someone suitable there. Meeting someone decent after school is like mission impossible.

I sighed deeply before I stood up and went back to the kitchen to make another bowl of popcorn. I found the last of the honey flavoured microwave popcorn on the shelf and since it was my favorite, I took it. I wrote a honey popcorn on the list of what to buy next month and waited for my portion to finish popping.

I should probably make a mental note not to cause any problems next month so they would not cut any money from my moms’ salary and we might finally have normal food too. I never complained openly about what we ate but having spaghetti with sauce only because we couldn’t afford to buy meat or sausage was a little too plain. I wanted more and I especially wanted my mom to have more.

I was getting paid a little money for my work at the hospital but since I was still a student and, in their words, a trainee, I had no right to t a full salary for those two weeks so what I earned I usually spent on nice shampoo and perfume with extra cosmetics for my mom and I because I knew my mom would not buy anything for herself. She would be too afraid that we might not have enough money for food or our bills. Giving my mom something nice and seeing the tears that formed in her eyes every time I gave her something that she wanted but didn’t want to spend money on because of our tight budget always made me happy. If my mom did not have me, she could have had a nice life and maybe even get married again.

The microwave pinged and I could already smell the sweet honey scent of the freshly made popcorn. I took it out carefully and put all the popcorn into our popcorn bowl heading up into my room.

It was around nine in the evening but I still didn’t feel like sleeping so I picked up the book from the shelf above my bed. I had shelves with books all around my room. My room was the smallest of the two bedrooms we had upstairs so my mom and I tried to imagine how we could maximize the usage of the space we had available for our stuff. I had a queen size bed in the right corner of the room with a fabric tapestry on the wall to warm up the place during winter and cover the wall. There was a small stand right beside my bed where I had a place to put my books, drink or phone, or whatever I needed during the night before sleep so I didn’t have to get up. The other corner to the right of the door was empty because I used that little space as my private changing area. Right beside the door, I had a mirror mounted to the wall so I could see myself after getting dressed.

The space between the bed and the corner had a table with a chair and plenty of the study material from my school and my laptop. Above the table was the only window in the room. To the left of the door in the corner, was my wardrobe and drawers and I used the top of the drawers for my cosmetics. It was not big or anything special but I liked my room. It was a cozy and warm place and I felt safe in it. On the side, with the window, I could not mount any shelves because that wall was a part of the roof so it was not straight but starting right above the entrance door and all around the other three walls and above my wardrobe, I had one big shelf. My mom had asked our neighbor to make it for me several years ago when I first asked her for books. She already knew that I would probably need lots of space. She started with the shelves above my bed at that time and when I had filled those with books, she made me another. Now I had all three walls filled with my favorite books.

So, I turned off the light and curled myself under the blanket placing the popcorn beside me and taking my book. Don’t ask me why but even in summer I can’t sleep without having at least a thin cover over myself. I always have to be covered.

I didn’t remember when I fell asleep. I had finished my popcorn and placed the bowl on the stand next to me and at some point, I had fallen asleep with the book falling beside me. The alarm went off announcing that it was five in the morning which meant I should get ready to go to the hospital since I needed to be there at six. Being late for school and apologizing to the teacher was one thing but being late for work even as a trainee one was something totally unacceptable. Not only would my mom’s salary be cut in half but I would lose the little money they paid me and this would be a big problem for our small family.

So, for working weeks I made sure I had enough time to get ready and I even set several alarms just in case I closed one without waking up properly and just continued to sleep. I put my clean uniform into my bag first thing to make sure I would not forget it. I went to the bathroom to wash my face, brush my teeth and do my hair. The working week routine was really simple and already something I followed without even thinking. My mom always taught me that the sooner I learned this routine, the easier waking up would be at such an early hour.

My stomach never worked early and I knew that if I ate anything so early I would vomit so once I packed my clothes and was sure I was ready to go I took out the box with my lunch and placed it into the bag. I then prepared breakfast for mom and I, except I packed my breakfast to take along with me. Later, when my body finally caught up with my brain, my stomach would wake up and want to eat, I would eat my breakfast then. You might think it’s stupid but this was the only way my body worked. And trust me, working twelve hours when your stomach is grumbling and you are nauseous is not something you would want to try.

I checked the time and it was already five-thirty. If I didn’t want to be late, I needed to get going. There was no school bus taking us to work or any other transportation so for this week I would be using the bus like every other working person in this city. The bus station was not so far from our home, just around five minutes’ walk but walking five minutes in this weather was different to five minutes during the winter.

I made particularly sure to leave in time because the bus would not wait for anybody even if the driver saw me. Waiting a few seconds even for one person would mean that at the next station he would have to wait for another late person and then another and if he was late to arrive at the station his manager would make an example of him and he would be severely punished. My world was strict especially with adults but when you looked at it from the other side, we had clean streets, shops full of the food and products we needed, there was almost no crime and we got all the medical help we needed without the necessity of paying for it.

“Good morning.” I greeted the receptionist in the hospital heading straight to the changing room “Good morning Ella.” She greeted us before I disappeared around the corner. Nour was around forty years old and was working as a receptionist for about twenty years now. She was a smiley, cheerful person so I always thought that she was the perfect person for the reception area. I had around ten minutes to get changed, get to my station and start work. It was enough time since I had already prepared everything.

The shift leader would come check on us and allocate the departments of the hospital we would be working in. I was happy to get anything except the children's department. Cleaning the children’s department was really painful and I was not talking about the cleaning part. Seeing those sick babies and kids was something I really could not bear. I always thought that my mom probably told the shift leader because she never placed me at the children's hospital. I never asked my mom but I didn’t believe in my luck so since I talked to my mom after my first shift there and cried out my heart as I was telling her about the kids, I assumed after that my mom took the initiative and asked her never to place me in that department again.

I put my uniform on and placed the food into the fridge in the kitchen-like room where we usually ate our lunch and took our breaks. The clock just struck six in the morning and Susan, the shift leader entered our room with her grumpy face as she did every morning since I started my practical training at this hospital. My five day long t*****e had just officially started.