Trouble with Mercy

PART I

Things kept going missing at the Mercy Home for Aging Citizens, or M-Hac as the citizens would have it. So there was trouble with Mercy in this no-longer happy home.

Staff, of course, tried to keep an eye out for a thief. But that was difficult because, really, the home was understaffed and over populated. Some residents were sharing space in single rooms.

Citizens reported their eye glasses had gone missing. Even dentures disappeared. One citizen complained that his autobiography had been filtched from his bureau drawer. Items such as scarves, sweaters, and other personal possessions were gone; just gone. Even a painting disappeared off one of the hallway walls, and nobody noticed; until a relative pushing his wife in her wheelchair on a routine trip around the building, spotted a clean square shape on the faded wall beside another painting.

Ultimately, there was a clamour at the nurses’ station. The citizens were demanding action. But the staff refused to call the police. They said “the stuff” must me somewhere inside. But their cursory searches turned up nothing, except a deeper mystery.

However, a sharp-eyed student aide spotted something. Nell, a tall, willowy resident from Room 320 took herself apart from the noisy mob, which refused to obey the senior nurses’ aides. Nell quietly mosied down the hallway and slipped into Room 319. The student, Ruthie, tiptoed quickly down the hall.

Nell popped out of 319 just as she Ruthie arrived at the water fountain nearby. Ruthie ducked and hit the fountain lever. She slurped the water noisily. Nell took a quick look and scampered into her own room. She was carrying something, which she shielded from Ruthie’s view.

Ruthie, as nonchalantly as she could, sauntered toward Nell’s room. The door closed before she could catch a peak inside.

Ruthie returned to the nurses’ station, where the fray was raggedly dispersing. She snagged Dawn, one of the senior aides.

“I think I may have found your thief,” she said.

Dawn signalled the nurse and the trio walked down the hallway to Roonm 320. Nurse knocked on the door and called out, “Nell. Nell, may we come in?”

There was what is known as a pregnant pause. Then, slowly, the door opened a crack and Nell’s left eye, brow and cheek appeared.

It took some persuading, but Nell finally opened the door. The trio looked around. They could spot nothing out of place or anything that didn’t belong.

NEXT: PART TWO

CREDIT: Clip Art