Author note: This is my entry for the Halloween Contest 2024.
"It's already eight o'clock, Mandy, if you're not up in two minutes I'm leaving without you," I yelled through my housemate's bedroom door, feeling utterly ridiculous in a leopard print leotard, black tights, and matching leopard print heels and headband. The headband had two cute leopard ears on it, sitting on top of my work-appropriate blonde ponytail.
"I'm too sick to go in," Mandy replied hoarsely, almost too quiet to hear.
"For fuck's sake, Mandy, you could have told me ten minutes ago."
"Sorry, Brittany."
"Do you need anything? Medicine?"
"I'll be okay. You go."
"See you later, then."
Back in my bedroom, I checked my outfit looked okay, then pulled on a clean nurse uniform over the top before grabbing my bag and my keys.
"I'm leaving now, Mandy."
"Bye." She erupted into a coughing fit as I walked past her room on the way to the front door.
"I doubt she's really sick. I reckon she's faking it to get out of the costume thing," I said to Briony, the head nurse, after I arrived at the clinic.
"Probably," Briony said, exasperated. She was wearing all-grey under her scrubs and had a plastic rhino mask on elastic around her head. "Bit of a nightmare, though. With Angela on maternity we're already short-staffed."
"Give me half of Mandy's appointments and let Jeanne do the other half. We'll be busy but we'll manage," I told her.
She nodded. "Well, if you're sure. I can always ring round and cancel a few of them if you want."
"It's fine. It won't be that bad."
An hour later, I was eating my words. Why did it have to be the case that at Halloween, when the staff were doing 'Go Wild For Sexual Health!' awareness and dressed up like zoo animals, we were also short-staffed
and
every appointment seemed to overrun? It really was like a zoo in the waiting room, because one woman had brought her three kids with her ("bus were cancelled, love, couldn't get 'em to school") and Maeve the receptionist had put a particularly noisy children's programme on the big TV to try and keep them occupied. They were ignoring it, obviously, preferring running around feral instead.
"All these people wanting to have kids, and the perfect example of why not to have them right there," Briony commented as we sheltered from the chaos in the staff room for just long enough to neck cups of tea.
The next few appointments ran more smoothly, although picking up Mandy's workload meant I barely had a minute to rest, and by eleven I was back on track and the woman plus kids was safely in a treatment room. I stood in reception, filing paperwork and getting ready to call my next patient.
"Eh?" I said out loud, staring at the names on the file.
"What's up, Brittany darling?" Maeve asked, rolling her chair over to me. "Spelling error?"
"No, it's... it's nothing. I'll sort it out."
"Suit yourself."
I'd done the double take because the names on the file, Mr & Mrs Chris and Lucy Walls, were the names of my brother and his wife. I peeked out of the window to see if there was any chance it was a different Chris and Lucy, but there they were in the waiting area. Lucy looked nervous, holding Chris's hand, while Chris, ever his usual self, was relaxed.
"Chris and Lucy Walls?" I asked, getting their attention as I stepped into the waiting room.
They saw me at the same moment and I watched identical looks of recognition, surprise and then confusion cross their faces.
"Hi Brittany, is our appointment with you?" Lucy asked, her brow creasing. "I thought we had Mandy Overton. That's what it says on our appointment confirmation."
"Mandy's not very well today so I'm taking on her patients," I explained, giving Chris a quick hug to say hello. "I hadn't realised you two were booked in here."
Lucy and Chris looked at each other, embarrassed.
"We might as well go through to the consultation room," I said, leading them down the corridor and then turning right into the room, which was brightly lit, far too warm, and had a potted fern in one corner. I sat on the roller chair by the computer and asked them to take a seat on the sofa.
"I'm sorry about this," I said, glancing at their file. "Obviously if I'd known you were coming I would have made sure you'd been seen by Jeanne."
"It's okay," Chris said, smiling. "Love the outfit."
I rolled my eyes. "Har har." Chris, being my little brother, was always as cheeky as he could get away with. And our parents indulged him, since he was the youngest, so he got away with a lot.
"No, seriously. Nothing says 'professional nurse' like leopard ears."
"Nothing says 'asking for an arse kicking' like having a face like yours," I replied, getting straight down into the mud with him.
He laughed. "I'd like to see you try, in those heels."
Lucy jabbed him with her elbow. "Can you please be serious for two minutes?"
"Sorry, love."
I took her point too. "I can transfer you over to Jeanne but we're fully booked today, so unless she's willing to squeeze you in during her lunch break, you might be waiting until the end of the day."
Lucy and Chris looked deflated.
"I'm supposed to be back at work by two," Lucy said, sounding frustrated.
"You can rebook, but I know the waiting list is still up around six weeks," I said, apologetically. "I'm really sorry about the mix up."
Chris shrugged. "Well, can't we just see you? Or is it against some kind of code of ethics to treat family members?"
"Are you sure?" Lucy asked him, sounding surprised.
He nodded. "Better than waiting another six weeks. It's only a consultation, anyway."
"But she's your sister, won't it feel weird?"
"I'm happy to do the consultation if you're happy. We can always stop if it becomes uncomfortable," I said, picking up their file again.
"Let's do it," Chris announced, sitting back in his chair. His hair, which he'd been growing out since his wedding, was pushed back on his head and he looked good, with a dusting of stubble and wearing his work suit. As much as we fought, I had a soft spot for him and it had been amazing seeing how happy Lucy made him, drawing his confidence out of him.
"The leopard ears have already made me uncomfortable, actually," he added, and I gave him the finger.
"Okay, so your file here says you've been trying for a baby for over twelve months but no success so far," I said, reading from the sheet. "Was that before or after the wedding?"
"I heard that it can take a month or two after you come off the pill for it to really wear off, so I stopped taking it a month before the wedding," Lucy explained.
