VII
At the firm I worked for, every patient was to have some outside activity every week. Many times the patients would suggest or choose what they wanted to do. From musical productions, (in the park and/or in a commercial building), to Sat night strolls in a local mall, each and every one of the patients had a chance to get out into the world.
The brothers above, enjoyed going to malls. Although both would talk with other visitors of the mall, the younger brother was the flirt. He had a crooked smile that won over the hearts of many a young lady. Although his older brother could converse with almost anyone, it was this younger man who could attract the attention of the ladies.
We would travel the length and breath of the malls eating at fast food restaurants and window shopping. Occasionally someone would buy some item. The patients received a few dollars a month and were quite good at saving up for a radio or a stuffed animal or whatever item caught their fancy.
As with any home situation where there are a number of people, ever so often tempers would flare and words would be spoken.
One of the ladies in the home normally spent her hours in her own room. But she would come out ever so often usually demanding some item or something to be done for her. Her voice was one of those voices that just grate on your nerves. The older brother above could hardly stand the sound of her voice.
He could be just as demanding as this lady. His most common demand was to shut her up! What made this so comical was that his voice was just as grating. More so, he usually spent his time in the living room and he talked almost continuously. So he is yelling at her to shut cause he can’t stand her voice and she is yelling back at him- at least this didn’t happen very often.
Before I continue on , let briefly note a couple of other examples to allow you to see the variety of characters we had in the different homes. We had one lady, probably in her late 40’s or early 50’s who had a bad habit of lying. And usually her lie had something to do with the fact that she had stolen the cigarettes of one of the help. She seemed to spend a lot of time wandering around the yard. Another little lady in her 60’s had been the child of a rich couple who had traveled the world taking her with them. She had a slightly nicer room because they had left her secure in her old age. She worked as a bus lady at a local restaurant on Sundays and the help at the restaurant loved her. Every time I saw her she had to show me her muscle and I just had to feel how much bigger it was getting. One time she picked up a bowl of pine cones from under a tree in the yard and gave them to me. For some time, every time I saw her, she had to know if I still had her pine cones.
But now we go to another patient who would “get under my skin”.
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