The Nurse: A Short Story by Joey Bidan

A short story by  Joey Bidan Jr.

I

n 1998, Mario was once a "habal-habal" driver in Isabel, Leyte. It was about twelve o'clock and he was on his way home when he saw a lady in white waving her hand at the corner of a silent street. When he braked near her, he found out she's a nurse lost after looking for her pregnant friend in that rural area of ​​Isabel.

"Mister, can you please take me to Matlang?"

"Miss, that's a forty-minute drive from here and I'm about to run out of gasoline. Do you have another friend in this part of town to spend the night with? "

The lady was still pleading to him. He felt pity and he found himself driving her home for the fare of only one passenger.

Even though Mario was wearing a jacket, he felt his back getting colder and colder. She was just silent all those time and it seems he felt awkward so he tried to have a conversation with her.

"Miss, you should not do this again next time. It's not safe you know. If it's an emergency, you ought to have a boyfriend with you at least. "

Oddly, she was not responding and she was thinking she could not hear him due to the wind noise. He tried to check up on her but somehow he could not see her on the side mirror. The silence ended only past the forty-minute ride when she told Mario how to find her house in Matlang.

"Thank you so much for the safe ride!" She said as she was fumbling in her purse when she got off the motorcycle taxi right in front of her house. She frowned and told him she ran short for the fare. "Is it okay for you to wait here while I ask Mom for more coins?" He smiled back at her pale face persuasive then she went inside the house.

He waited for twenty minutes but she did not come out of that gloomy small hut.

The hut's door was open and just with a few hesitations, he slowly comes near to knock and ask for her. It took a short while, when an old woman appeared that made him step back.

"S-sorry f-for bothering maam. I'm looking for the nurse to ask for her fare. "The old woman stared at her for like five years before she answered him.

"I'm sorry mister too but there's no nurse living here for a long time." She told him with sad eyes. "My daughter died five years ago. Today is her birthday and every year on this day, a motorcycle taxi driver would always ask me for her fare. She was killed by her rapist at this same hour of that day. "

His legs were shaking as Mario leaves the crying old woman with the promo still on his hand. As he was about to leave the place, he glanced back at the house near the window. There, he saw the bloody nurse waving goodbye to him.

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