Coffin Money - 4

Day 7 at the hospital

David came from work to visit his mother and one of the nurses told him that she first verbally abused and then slapped her on her wrists as she was changing Sarah’s sheets.

“Apparently, I don’t do it right! I don’t know how to do my job, according to your mother!”

“I’ll talk with her,” David said.

“Please do, although I don’t know if it’ll help. She is always complaining about something and seems like a deeply unhappy woman.”

“Tell me about it,” David said, sighing sadly. He was accustomed to trying to soothe out the consequences of his mother’s behavior.

“Mother,” he told her when he entered her room, “it would be greatly appreciated if you stop fighting with the nurses.”

“Appreciated by whom?”

“Everyone, and me in particular, as I won’t have to hear their complaints about you.”

“Well, I can complain about them too! They are absolutely incompetent and don’t know how to take care of their patients! If they don’t like me here so much, they should just send me home!”

“They probably will, if you keep at it!” David said.

“Then I will definitely keep at it! I am so tired of being stuck here!”

“The doctor called me today and said that you couldn’t keep your food down and started to throw up. How are you feeling now?”

“Same. I don’t feel any pain, but the food just won’t stay. It’s all because they feed me this disgusting porridge! At this point, I wouldn’t mind even your wife’s bland soup!”

“Didn’t the doctor tell you that from now on you can only eat what they give you, what is on your diet list?”

“Yeah, but I can’t stand it! You know I can’t live without good red meat.”

“If you eat it, it will make you sicker.”

“I’m going to die anyway, so why not enjoy something good while I can?”

And on and on they went, arguing about what Sarah could and should eat. David was trying to be polite and patient with her, but even he was on the verge of blowing up a couple of times.

“You know,” Sarah said when he was sitting with her in the evening, “I never liked any of your wives.”

“I know, mother, none of the three were up to your high standards.”

“Exactly! And this one hasn’t even come to visit me here. Not. A single. Time.”

“I didn’t realize you wanted to see her. We would have come together.”

“Not that I really want to see her. But isn’t it what people in the polite society do – visit their sick relatives?”

“I’ll ask her to come tomorrow if you’d like.”

“Don’t bother. I don’t even know what I’d talk with her about.”

“See, that’s the problem. You never accepted Anna. But she is a very smart and caring woman. She asks about you all the time.”

“Does she now? Probably only because she can’t wait to see me dead.”

“Oh, mother! Please stop it. Anna really cares for you, even though you don’t.”

“You know, I’ve been thinking. I will not leave a will behind. I know your wife will have to sort out all the inheritance paperwork because you are a moron in things like this. I will be looking at her from above, chuckling at how she’ll have to deal with Sam’s family if they decide to claim their half.”

“Oh, mother!” David shook his head. “Why do you have to be like this? I don’t even think Helen would want to do that. You cut them off, remember?”

Sam was David’s older brother who died about 18 years before in a car accident. His wife Helen had not been a fan of Sarah, so she took her two young children and moved to another part of the country, closer to her parents. Sarah cut her off completely, didn’t even want to stay in touch with the grandchildren who were adults now. David called them regularly in secret from his mother and sent his nephews Christmas and Birthday gifts regularly.

“Oh, you just wait!” Sarah chuckled sinisterly. “Nothing breaks families apart like disputes over property and money.”

“Not that there’s much to break apart, you’ve made sure of that, mother,” David wanted to say but kept his mouth shut. He was a good son and when thoughts like that came to him, he forced himself not to think them.

Day 9 at the hospital

At work, David got an urgent call from Sarah’s doctor, “You need to move your mother home right away.”

“Why? What happened?”

“I’ll explain later. She cannot stay here any longer.”

The doctor sounded rushed and dead serious, so David called Anna and they went to the hospital together. When they got to the doctor’s office, he plainly said, “Your mother has bitten a nurse today.”

“What? How?” both David and Anna exclaimed.

“The nurse was helping her eat, and your mother just bit her hand. Blood and teeth marks, and all. I managed to talk the nurse out of pressing assault charges, but you must move your mother home. No staff at this hospital would want to deal with her. She is now literally an urban legend. I haven’t told even the tenth of insults, threats and mistreatment our staff gets from her.”

“But… we can’t take care of her the way you would take care of her here,” David said.

“I know, but she is too high maintenance for us. And may become a liability for you. You can apply for hospice care and hire a private nurse in the meantime. You can rent a bed for her downstairs, and we will even arrange for an ambulance ride. She just can’t stay here anymore, I’m sorry.”

When David and Anna entered Sarah’s room, she pointed her chin at Anna and asked, “What is she doing here? I told you not to bring her!”

“We are moving you home,” David said dryly.

“Thank God for that,” Sarah responded. “These people drive me nuts!”

“Tell me about it,” David sighed.

As David and Anna were helping Sarah move to the rental hospital bed, she looked at Anna and said, “At least they didn’t kill me here! But you… If you are thinking of poisoning me or something, you are not getting anything from me! Not even my coffin money! Not a penny of it!”

“Wouldn’t even dream of it,” Anna responded, tucking a blanket around Sarah and helping David wheel the bed out to the hallway. “We are just taking you home.”

“Home, sweet home!” Sarah said, leaned back on the pillow and smiled.

Next part:

Earlier parts of the story are here: