I walked into a hospital room and came face-to-face with the woman who had made my teenage years miserable. I stayed professional no matter what she said, but on the day she was discharged, she looked me in the eye and told me to quit. What she said next threatened to ruin my life.crsaid
I froze the instant I saw my high school bully’s name on the chart.
Margaret.
For a moment, I stood outside Room 304 with the clipboard in my hand, trying not to fall apart on a med-surg floor at 7:12 in the morning.
Twenty-five years had passed since high school, but some things never really leave you.
I told myself there was no way it could be her.
If it was… this shift was about to become harder than I could handle.
Then I walked in.
She was sitting upright in bed in a pale blue hospital gown, one leg crossed, phone in hand, reading glasses perched low on her nose.
She had aged, but it was unmistakably the same Margaret who made my teenage years unbearable.
“Good morning,” I said, because I had been doing this job for 16 years, and muscle memory is a gift. “I’m your nurse today. My name is Lena.”
