Chapter 2: Proving One's Worth (Part 2/7)

Swallowing the knot that suddenly grew in my throat, while retaining my distance a couple of feet away, I peered more carefully into Mr. Smith's eyes. Sure enough, green reptilian eyes gazed in a seemingly unfocused manner into the distance, as if he was still unaware of Miss. Lenard's unhappy presence in front of him. "Um, uh, Lacy?" I said in a hissed whisper hoping to catch the attention of the CNA assigned to watch the main unit. She was watching the group while the others took care of putting the residents down to bed. Taking a quick look behind me to see if she heard me, I saw the back of her head where medium length brown hair touched just above her shoulders. She was engrossed in watching what the other residents were seeing on TV. More loudly I hissed, hoping nothing bad would happen. "Lacy!" Finally, she turned around to look at me. Motioning for her with my hands to come over, she carefully got up and began making her way towards me. Of-course this entire time Miss. Lenard certainly hadn't been giving up on antagonizing Mr. Smith. "I know you are a demon, Mister! As God is my witness, I will strike you down!" Saying this she lifted up her cane again and made as if to hit him on the head. "No!" I exclaimed as I grabbed the cane before it could descend. Sadly, that did not dissuade her from exacting 'God's Judgment' upon the poor 'lizard eyed' man. Screeching back at me in frustration for stealing her weapon, she began to tear into Mr. Smith's face with her decent length fingernails. "Holy ****!" The exclamation came from the third CNA, who had apparently finished up with his latest patient shower as he was back on the main unit now. The use of profanity was definitely not allowed in the prestigious nursing home, but at this moment, I had to agree with his choice of words. Lacy had already reached me and together we struggled to get Miss Lenard off of Mr. Smith. "Jeremy!" I cried out, "We're going to need your help too." Even as I said that, his dark figure was already running over, dodging the few residents in the way who were becoming Very interested in what was happening in their home. Keeping a careful eye on Mr. Smith, I gaged his awareness of the situation that he was eliciting as together we managed to pull Miss Lenard off of him. Bleeding gouges covered his face with red droplets streaming over his eyes. That's one of the down sides of working with senior dementia residents. The thin, tear susceptible skin, brittle bones, and a frequent inability to learn from their mistakes, could be downright frustrating. Although their various intermixed personalities, made at times for some entertaining dramas and situations throughout the usually routine day. At this very moment however, I could have done without the break from monotony. It appeared we were too late. As Jeremy had managed to get Miss Lenard turned around and preoccupied with anything but the continued beating upon Mr. Smith, I was closely watching his eyes while Lacy had apparently ditched us to go find the nurse, who was on her 30-minute break to deal with this disaster. The previously hazy and distant expression that had been at home upon this elderly man's face for as long as I had worked with him, now met my eyes with an intensity that froze me in my steps. His dark green reptilian eyes glowed with an inner hunger that denoted a more primal side having taken over. Despite the outrageous circumstances, my mind raced through various ideas of how to deal with this. For as of that moment, I was torn between protecting the safety of the other residents, versus wondering if I was having my very first episode of an acute hallucination or mental breakdown. Seeking to cover both bases on the assumption that Mr. Smith was dangerous and without discounting the possibility that I was going mad, I cast my eyes around for a blanket or something to better secure the elderly man to the chair. As I searched, I could hear odd popping noises coming from the old and wizened body of the man in front of me. Each pop and crackle added a new wave of hair raising across my skin. However, I refrained from turning back in these precious few seconds, as I felt a great urgency to take action and avoid time wasting distractions. Shivers coursed through me as my own inner energy rose up seeking to fight off the fear that was creeping up on me from this alien experience. My eyes continued to dart about for a quick fix or at least quick containment of the situation. "Yes!" I cried out in relief as I saw Mrs. Guntle about 4 meters away clutching her blanket to keep warm. "Sorry Mrs. Guntle." I said under my breath, as I carefully yet quickly stole her blanket. I would have felt incredibly guilty at the shock that filled her face, in accordance with my betrayal of her comfort. That would be had I not been desperate to not let things escalate beyond what they already had. Dashing back to Mr. Smith, I could see his body contorting into anatomically painful positions in his chair. His previously leathery and wrinkled skin appeared to be bubbling. Underneath it, what looked like a sheen of dark green and brown scales, looked to be forming themselves from beneath the skin layer he was shedding. The once thin and fragile limbs made disgusting popping noises as they sounded like they were breaking and reshaping themselves into something entirely new. While attempting to wrap the blanket around his waist to then secure it to the chair, I felt Mr. Smith buckle in the chair. Taking a glance at his eyes I saw them widen in what I believed to be in surprise and more than a little pain. I was then startled by a splash of liquid which soaked my ankle socks and bottom of my blue scrubs. Not knowing what to expect I diverted my eyes for a brief moment to the ground between the two of us. "Phew." The scent of concentrated urine assailed my nose. I could only imagine how much surprise someone might feel at having their still inflated catheter being dislodged from their urethra. Being soaked by a dislodged catheter rather than something else, seemed to give an odd counter rhythm in my mind to the accompanying and growing chaos. Despite the unpleasantness of having his urine splash over me, I continued to focus on the problem at hand. Reaching around to my left, I tied one end of the blanket around the lever that would raise and lower the feet of the chair. Then looking to the right, I searched for something, anything to tie the other end of the blanket to. . . . Nothing! . . .There was nothing there to work with! I gave the twitching elderly man a look of great apprehension, making calming noises in hopes that it would help to soothe this . . . . creature before making a very undesirable choice. Quickly bracing myself, I took both my hands and thrust the loose end of the blanket between the cushion and the left seating side of the chair, hoping to find something that would allow me to secure it to the framework inside. In the process, I brushed against his cool slick skin, which had transformed entirely into scales by now. The old shed skin lay in a loose wrinkled heap around his body. Goosebumps shot up my arms again from the close contact. I thanked my luck that my touch didn't seem to create any additional response from the former Mr. Smith, as he still seemed to be in shock from his continued various transformations. That however didn't stop my own body from reacting to touching him, as a shudder and chills wracked my adrenaline powered momentum. Desperation made me hasty and fumble around a bit more than necessary and certainly much more than I desired. All I could find was a thin space that I could press my fingers into but couldn't quite push my whole hand down. My mind raced at thinking how to make that work. With a quick thought, I slipped as much of the end of the blanket as I could into the thin space at the inner edge of the chair. Then I moved around to the open side of the chair and under to feel beneath it for the loose blanket end. Finding it with seconds ticking by, I pulled it hard in order to tie it around the entire left side of the chair. Pulling it tight, I certainly got a reaction then! Reptilian eyes glared at me in what I thought was reproach and anger as I rushed to tie the blanket off in a knot. Finally done, I thrust myself away from the chair, landing on my rear several feet away as I stared up at the temporarily contained senior resident turned creature. Now it was time to deal with the fallout of my actions. Slowly getting up and chancing to look around, I noticed a distinctive lack of other medical personnel. 'Where was everyone?!?' I wanted to scream aloud in frustration but held back in fear of inciting the creature to preemptive action. Even as I wondered about everyone's location during this predicament, I saw Jeremy rushing back out of a room to grab and carefully yet swiftly guide another resident out of the general area. It seems like he had the right idea to rid the premises of fragile targets. I dared not to leave Mr. Smith alone while doing my best to assuage the curiosity of the other residents. Moving a little further away from the danger and more towards the TV I called out with vastly exaggerated excitement, "Hey everyone, did you see what they just did on the TV?!" Pointing in feigned interest at whatever random action was being done on the screen, I managed to divert some of their attention away from their tied up fellow senior resident, as they shuffled over to see what was so exciting on TV. "Hisssss." An unnatural noise that again set my hairs on end, sounded in the direction of my captive. Slowly turning towards the sound that was just a few meters from me, I took in the new sight. "Oh, Dust it all!" I exclaimed in exasperation. He looked to be fully transformed now with a fully scaled body and reshaped limbs reminiscent of a lizard man. Already, he was slipping out of the poorly constructed restraint. And right nearby him, was one of the few residents that was still very slowly making their way through use of their walker, to the Television for the "Exciting" show. I was torn between saving the one versus saving the rest. Conflicted on the hopeful premise that this was all still just a Very vivid and unreal hallucination, I eased my way towards Miss. Clifford as she made her slow but steady journey with her walker to join the others that were watching the TV. *Shiver* I struggled to remain calm while both I and the now free monster slowly made our way towards the unsuspecting Miss. Clifford. Its steps made a kind of squelching sound as excess body moisture and the shedding of the old man's skin was trampled beneath its feet. I wanted nothing more than to claim temporary insanity, and run from this place while allowing whatever may happen to happen. Arriving at nearly the same time next to the clearly oblivious senior resident, green reptilian eyes stared across at my mixed blue and green with the aluminum walker between us. Breaking away from the staring contest first after a few seconds as though unconcerned, the creature began sniffing in curiosity at the old lady. As if just now realizing her situation, Miss. Clifford stiffened in place, while she was slowly pawed over with the clawed scaly hands of the new Mr. Smith. I was at a complete loss as to what to do now. Those claws were obviously sharp and dangerous and yet I had NOT been trained for this kind of situation in Wandering Dementia. At that moment though, as I dealt with my inner struggle in deciding what to do, my choice was taken from me. The familiar beeping tone of someone pressing the code on the exterior pad to get into the unit sounded for a short 5 beeps before the door opened. There stood the afternoon nurse with a trailing Lacy as they both entered the unit in a rush. I don't know how long it had taken for them to get there after Lacy had left, but I'm very certain that they had not expected to see this when they returned. The short brunette nurse stopped so fast just inside the doorway, that Lacy ran into her almost knocking her down. Becoming rigid in fear, she took in the crazy tableau that lay before her. As the CNA behind her recovered from almost knocking them both down peered around her to look into the unit, her eyes widened before her mouth opened up. 'Oh ****' I thought a microsecond before IT happened.