A few weeks later. . . . . . . .
It has been a few weeks since Mehr and Nirvan last spoke of the managerial duties of observing the routine operations through the night, and the fateful day has come, when Mehr finds her name on the list.
"Okay madam, so you are finally on the roll of honour" Nirvan smiled at Mehr. She was excited to stay back, overnight. What Nirvan did not know of was, that Mehr, and her obsession with horror movies had made her want to stay overnight with full access to the entire premises and her excitement was more about that.
Checking in to see her recall power, Nirvan did a little rapid fire with her before leaving her with Ms. Nirmala Kaamat, Senior nursing in-charge.
Nirvan :So Billing and OPD?
Mehr: Ground floor
Nirvan : Critical Care and nursing?
Mehr: Third Floor
Nirvan: Security?
Mehr: Everywhere? (Chuckling) Okay serious, 5545
Nirvan: If you feel overwhelmed?
Mehr: I call you. (Mehr Smiled reassuringly)
Proud that he had prepared this eager chicklet for the battle field that lay ahead of her, he knew he could not have prepared her any more than this.
Briefing her about the different departments involved in maintenance of the robust network of services, Ms. Nirmala Kaamat gave a lengthy speech to Mehr on the importance of administrative support as Mehr cursed her fate in her head. (Why did I have to pretend to be so damn interested in understanding the role? Now I have to sit through the lecture I have anyway memorized by heart over the past weeks)
Mehr smiled and thanked Ms. Kaamat for her time and took her leave.
Left alone in the manager-on-duty room, Mehr now browsed through the space, closely inspecting each and every article there was. A computer, some maps, a directory with contact details of each and every person working in the space. Master keys to every floor's fire exit in case of emergency. The room was pretty basic, like any of the other consultant rooms, minus the medical charts and informative paraphernalia.
It was a rather usual, average busy day at the facility. Patients being wheeled in and out of procedure rooms, routine checks, a few calls about delayed food service and vacant nursing stations. Nothing unusual or unexpected. These issues were a regular occurrence in a business like this. This was a high-end healthcare service establishment and people who walked in through the doors expected their money's worth.
The monitors on the screen were all working fine and as the day ended, so did the activities, with patients and caregivers retiring to their respective wards and beds. Nurses to their duty stations and security staff patrolling the gates on every floor. Everything was under control and as Mehr viewed it, as exciting as a lizard on the wall. Not at all that is.
It was about 1:30 am in the night, when Mehr got bored and decided to take a stroll in the vicinity. The corridors were icy cold with A/C working on full blast and barely a soul to see. The nurse on duty at the nursing station was browsing lazily through the lifestyle magazine from the reading station, as no new alarms had gone off on the floor. It was a rather dull scene with occasional sounds from equipment breaking the silence of the floor.
There was a light blinking at the end of the corridor, coming from the peep hole of one of the ward doors at the far end. Mehr walked around till the extreme end, beyond the fire exit and there in the corner she stood at the entrance of room 913, lit dimly, with a light flickering on and off. The corridor was way too chilly here, almost like a walk in freezer. Strange, she thought, maybe the engineering staff needs to be informed about this too, she took a mental note to do so next morning. Mehr thought she would inspect when she heard an elderly voice coming from the inside asking for the nurse. Mehr stopped and stepped back, pressing the emergency button for the room to call the nurse in charge. The button did not seem to work as the light did not turn on in it, she decided to go back to the nursing station instead. Walking with brisk steps, she asked the nurse at the station to go check on the patient in 913. The nurse simply stared at her with surprise, and stared right past her in the direction of the room.
"Madam, the patient there was asking for a nurse, and the button seems to be dysfunctional. I tried pressing but it did not work" Mehr tapped on the table trying to break the stupor of this lady who was obviously overworked and given the late hour, probably a little sleepy.
"Ma'am aap new ho idhar?" The nurse asked politely.
"Yes, But i'm also on the managerial duty today and I would not want to get a call from 913 for no response", Mehr explained, "So aap please jaogey"
The nurse complied and walked, with hesitant steps. She asked Mehr to have a word with Ms. Kaamat in the meantime instead.
Annoyed by the unusual response, Mehr decided to go back to the her designated room. She would take this up maybe tomorrow morning with Ms. Kaamat, with a better mood. She too was getting a little tired and this place had nothing scary or exciting to offer anyway.
Trudging back she came back to the designated sitting space, sipped on the rest of her cold coffee which was more of a luke warm by now. Plugging in her headphones, she jotted down the observation points she considered important for her report, and waited for her shift to end.
Next Morning
As Mehr walked into Nirvan, who was just walking in.
"Hey, How was it",Nirvan joked.
"Hey so how was your first time staying over in this hell hole?" as Salil chimed in. He was a regular at this responsibility and well aware of the technicalities around it.
This was a duty not many appreciated, and now Mehr knew why. There was nothing much to do, and hearing angry care providers complain about petty issues was not an ideal way for someone to spend their evening after work.
"Was Okay, jaise se issues aap logo ne describe kiye the usse zyada kuchh nahi aaya. I did not need to call you. Bas engineering department se baat karlena, ye log A/C bhot zada chalaate hain, plus wo 913 ka emergency button kaam nahi karta."
All of a sudden both the men lost color in their face. Did she just mention room 913? They were perplexed and looked at each other with a question mark painted in bold across their faces.
"What happened?" Mehr was too sleepy to notice the sudden shift in their experessions and Salil took the opportunity to change track of topic.
"Arrey wo engineering wala so gya hoga. Main dekhta hun, baat karke kya dikkat aayi. Aapne form bhar diya kya, duty handover wala" He enquired, worried she might have mentioned the issue in her report.
"Koi form bhi bharna tha? Meko to mila nahi. I noted down my observations diligently on a sheet of paper. Table pe hi hai." Mehr tried thinking hard, how could she have missed out an instruction like that.
"Koi baat nahi, hum dekh lenge, itna bhi zaroori nahi hota, feedback types hi hai. Apne de diya, hum ne sunn liya kafi hai. Chalo see ya " They waved her good bye.
"Bhai isko bataya kyun nahi, 913 mein koi nahi jata. Wo manhoos kamra hai and humesha locked rehta hai." Salil stared at Nirvan.
"Mujhe kya pata tha ye udhar chali jaegi, nayi nayi to aayi hai. Isko khana pina and system room access sab de to diy atha, game khelti baithi rehti. Mujhe koi pata tha ye tehelne nikal jaegi wo bhi raat mein."
"Bhai wo corridor mei A/C vent bhi band hai 913 k saamne wala. And uske patient ne jabse do nurses k ko maar karke suicide commit kiya hai uske baad se, wahaan koi patient wapas thik hoke nahi nikla." Salil stated matter of factly. A secret only a trusted few knew in the system while the rest were simply told the room was off limits for security reasons.
"Ab kya karein? Isko kya samjhaayein?" Nirvan looked at Salil for suggestions. Salil raised an eyebrow, to do what was done for the rest of the staff. Explain of barr access. "Bachchi si to hai, sach bataya to darr jaegi, mana kiya to bagaawat pe aaegi" Salil observed.
"Wo management level pe aayi hai, uska access nahi hata sakte. Roaster se naam hatwa de uska, na MoD karne aegi, na sochegi na sawaal puchhegi" Nirvan concluded, having figured out the stubborn nature of Mehr by now, this seemed like the most feasible option to protect her and the cursed secret of 913.
Already she had garnered much intrigue with the elderly case of holistic healing, her spirit was powerful but her heart was fragile. Trusting her with this knowledge was risky business which neither Salil nor Nirvan wanted to risk.
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