The World Out There - 20. Twenty

The first person he really met at Nurton Cross was his nurse, Aiden.

He’d been sat there in his room waiting for whatever was going to happen to him, when he heard someone knocking at his room’s door. He’d looked up at it but didn’t say anything - he couldn’t deny anyone entry there. It was just like at home - he could never stop his mother entering his bedroom. He just waited for what was to come next.

He heard the sound of a key turning in the door’s lock. The moment the door was pulled open, he saw a man standing in the door way.

The man seemed so tall, filling the door way. So many people seemed so tall back then. The man’s body was lean: his clothes shrugged off his body as if they were slightly too large for him. His body seemed in portion to itself: his arms and legs matched the length of his torso. He certainly wasn’t “all arms and legs” as the older boys at school had seemed. The man was wearing a grey linen shirt which had small but obvious creases in it, especially around the collar, and was untucked from his dark blue jeans. The man’s head was covered in thick black hair that hung there in large, open, and almost haphazard, curls. There was no parting separating the man’s hair; instead, it looked like he let the curls grow naturally, and he just raked them into place with his fingers. The man’s hair was a little longer than his ears, but it didn’t cover them because the man had obviously pushed it back behind them, leaving his ears uncovered.

The man’s face was solidly handsome, strong and neatly organised - features that drew the eye to them. The man’s face was also graced by his black hair, thick and straight eye brows that arched over his eyes, and black stubble which graced his top lip and chin, as if the man had forgotten to shave that day. But what dominated the man’s face were his bright blue eyes that almost shone out from his face: they were in obvious contrast to his black hair but seemed natural against his pale skin. The man’s pale lipped mouth was wearing a very welcoming smile.

The man was certainly handsome, and Liam’s eyes fixed on that handsome face with a moment of pleasure, something nice to look at in this very clinical world.

“Hi, I’m Aiden. I’m going to be your Named Nurse,” the man said in a voice that held an echo of a Northern Accent, giving it a rich and pleasing tone.

“What’s a Named Nurse?” Liam asked. Was it something different to other nurses? He’d never heard the term before.

“It means that I’m your ‘go-to nurse’ for anything, any questions you have. I’ll also be especially involved in your care. I’ll do your reviews with you. I’ll go to any MDT Meetings with you. I’ll be involved in all your case reviews and such,” Aiden said.

Liam didn’t understand most of that, but just nodded his agreement. Aiden’s rich and calm voice had reassured him that Aiden was there to help.

“Shall I help you unpack?” Aiden said as he stepped into the room.

“Yes, thanks,” Liam replied.

As Aiden entered the room and stepped over to Liam, where he sat on his bed, the room’s door closed behind him, but Aiden didn’t turn back to lock it.

“Aren’t you going to lock the door?” Liam asked.

“I don’t think you’re going to overpower me and try and abscond from the ward, are you?”

“No,” Liam quietly replied.

“Then I can leave the door unlocked,” Aiden said.

He didn’t feel embarrassed as Aiden helped him unpack his bags. He didn’t even feel embarrassed when Aiden unpacked his underwear, though he was sure Aiden’s underwear was much more attractive and newer than his. He’d felt a prickle of embarrassment creep up that back of his neck at the thought.

When they had finished unpacking his belongings, the room didn’t really feel full. His clothes barely filled a third of the wardrobe and Aiden had stacked his school books and notepads along the wall at the back of the table/shelf and they didn’t even fill half of the space there. At home it hadn’t felt so bad: his room was so much smaller, and his wardrobe had been filled with his old toys, which he’d hung onto despite his mother’s protests, and even though he never even touched them now.

“Let me show you the ward,” Aiden said pushing the room’s door open again.

Liam had followed behind him as Aiden took him on a quick guided tour of the place. He’d chatted on about different places on the ward and several of them Liam didn’t even know what he meant: what was a Nurses’ Station, a Clinical Room or a Sluice? He didn’t ask though. Aiden seemed happy in taking him around there. He did remember the Dining Room, the Boy’s Bathroom, the Common Room and the Laundry.

The Dining Room was as dull and clinical looking as the rest of the ward: it was just a large square room, with grey lino on the floor and the walls painted a pale blue, though on one wall was a dull metal shutter filling the top half of it. The furniture included a lot of square, Formica tables, though the tops of them had all faded away, surrounded by dull red plastic chairs. He recognised those red plastic chairs - his old school had had a huge population of them.

The Laundry was a narrow and long room with four, large shiny metal washing machines standing along one wall. He’d stared at them with surprise. He’d known how to use a washing machine - his mother had expected him to wash his own clothes for ages before, but these machines looked so alien and complicated, like giant factory machines.

“We do expect everyone on the ward to do their own washing,” Aiden said.

“I don’t know how to, with those machines,” Liam replied, discomfort seeping into his voice.

“Don’t worry, I’ll show you how to use them, it’s not difficult. And I’ll get you some washing powder.”

“Thank you,” he told Aiden.

The last room Aiden showed him was the Common Room, and he did know what one of them was. The room seemed to have been made from two rooms knocked into one, one room much larger than the other. As soon as he entered the room it seemed to be full of noise, activity, and people. Two people there, a man and a woman, were obviously nurses. They were older than everyone else and they wore those thick leather belts around the tops of their trousers with a thick metal chain attached to them, though both of them had tucked their keys into their trouser pockets. The rest of the people there were obviously other patients: they were kids and teenagers.

In the larger part of the room was a table tennis table and a pool table. Two lads were playing table tennis, though one of them was obviously better that the other because one kept missing his return shots. Two lads were playing pool while a group of three lads and two girls looked on, shouting encouragements from time to time. Liam paid it all little attention: he neither liked nor was any good at either game. He didn’t like games like pool or table tennis because he never had any chance of winning at either.

The smaller part of the room was dominated by a flat-screen television which was mounted on the far wall, with sofas and chairs and low coffee tables haphazardly arranged in front of it, most of them facing the television. It reminded him of an uncomfortable sitting room. The television was playing a brightly coloured and rapidly moving music program of some pop princess dancing in synchronisation with her backing dancers. Liam didn’t recognise either the program or the singer. Sat in front of the television, on different chairs and sofas, were two girls and two lads. The girls were sat together on one of the sofas, while the lads sat alone in different chairs. Down the middle of the room was a narrow, brown-topped Formica table with half a dozen chairs or so pushed under it. No one sat at this.

Liam tried to hide himself away behind Aiden. He didn’t know anyone in this room, and just that idea made the place seem scary and almost threatening. Everything sounded so noisy, looked so busy, and he couldn’t see anywhere to hide away. There were no nice corners into which he could disappear.

He wanted to go back to his room. He turned his head towards Aiden, ran his tongue over his dry mouth, his mind racing for the right words to say, but before he could find his opening word, Aiden said, “I’ve got another meeting I need to be at. You go and join in one of the groups. Get to know the other kids here. I’ll be back for you in about half an hour.”

“Okay,” Liam replied. What else could he say.

Aiden turned around and left the room, using his bunch of keys to open the door. Liam spied an empty sofa at the far end of the room. Trying to look like this was the most normal thing in the world for him to do, though his nerves were pounding in his head, he slowly walked over to the sofa. To his relief, no one sat on it before he reached it, and Liam was able to push himself right to the far corner of it and sit. He stared out at the room in front of him. There were so many different people there, so many new people, so many strangers. How did he get to know them? Why had Aiden left him there? What should he do?

Falling back on old strategies, he just sat there and did nothing. Aiden should be back soon.