"The night sure is dragging."
Kai ran his fingers through his messy, blonde hair. His green eyes glanced over at Liam, who was taking a drag off of a cigarette.
The pair were employees of a local long term care facility, better known as a nursing home. They worked the overnight shift, so there was often more time to chill out and take breaks in between the utter chaos the geriatric residents stirred throughout the late-night hours.
Kai had been working in his position, as a nurse, for the past four years. He pretty much knew most of the residents and staff. Even so, Kai tended to be shy and not mix in well with new people, so he had a hard time opening up to any new coworkers.
For some reason, the new nursing assistant, Liam, had been dragging him around during the night. Kai didn't smoke himself, but he would often find himself standing by the dumpsters while Liam smoked.
"How old are you again?" Liam looked over to the blonde, his blue eyes studying the man's face.
"Why?" Kai tilted his head and shifted his short, thin frame against the nearby outer wall.
"I'm just curious," Liam chuckled lowly as he put out the cigarette.
"I just turned 28," Kai stated as he kicked a random rock he saw on the ground.
"You look even younger than that," Liam laughed as his taller frame approached the nurse. "I'm 30."
"I guess we better go back inside so Nancy doesn't lose her shit."
Kai still wondered why he was out there to begin with. He would rather spend his free time playing on his phone. He really wished Liam wasn't such an annoyance.
The two walked down the long hall back to their station. They worked in a long-term care facility, so their tasks from day to day were pretty routine.
When Kai would get to work at 7 p.m., he would immediately have to jump into the medication pass. It was time-consuming as he was responsible for twenty residents' medications, but over the years he got a routine down, so everything was pretty easy.
After around 11 p.m., he would be the only nurse in the hall, with two to three nursing assistants to help with resident care tasks. Usually it would be two, as really, most people who started there would end up quitting within a few weeks, as the workload was rough.
Liam pointed to a call light that was lit up as they walked back to the unit. "I bet he shit."
Kai groaned and darted into the room. When he entered room A8, he noticed a resident with a double amputee playing in his shit.
"Jack, what are you doing?" Kai asked as he raised a brow, dying inside as he saw the man with no legs wiping poop all over his clean dressing.
"Shitting," Jack growled as he wiped a large piece of it on his round stomach. "and pissing."
Liam followed closely behind. He stood next to Kai. He towered over the short nurse and looked down at Jack.
"This is going to take awhile," Liam started with a sigh. "It's all over him."
"Yeah, let me go get supplies," Kai stated. "You start… with this."
"Get the hell out of my house!" Kai could hear Jack yelling as he walked out of the room.
"Jack, I have to clean you up," Liam said to the man.
"Piss face!" The elderly man screamed back.
"Stop, please," Liam replied.
Kai groaned. Of course, one of the difficult dementia residents would end up painting themselves with their bowels.
Kai went to the supply cart and dug out a bottle of wound cleanser and clean gauze wrap. He took a deep breath. He wasn't looking forward to going back into Jack's room.
He heard a chuckle and a voice. "Did Jack shit again?"
Kai turned around and nodded as he held the supplies.
The voice belonged to Nancy. She was an older nursing assistant who had been working in various facilities for 20 years. She was very capable, but she had a tendency to be lazy and take ages to answer call lights.
"That's the fifth time tonight," Nancy sighed, pushing up her thick, red glasses. "Could you give him some imodium?"
"I already have," Kai responded.
It sort of annoyed him when the nursing assistants would suggest how he did his job. He was usually a step ahead of them when it came to administering medications.
Kai didn't wait for the assistant's reply. He didn't want her to follow him or watch him do his work. He quickly went back to Jack's room.
When Kai went back to the room, he saw Liam struggling to keep the man from touching himself with his feces.
"Ugh," Liam groaned as he obviously tried to hold his breath. "Stop."
Kai put the dressing supplies down on the bedside table and put on a pair of gloves. He walked to the opposite side of the bed.
He watched as Jack was flailing around, his shit-covered fingers waving in the air, attempting to scratch the two men.
"Jack, please stop moving," Kai stated in a soothing tone. "We're trying to assist you."
The old man looked at Kai and flipped him off with a shit covered finger.
Kai visibly recoiled.
"I don't need your help!" Jack screamed as he continued to struggle against the men. "I like my shit."
"Well, it seems you do," Kai said as he reached for the old man's arm, pulling it closer to him. "But we can't leave you covered in your bodily waste. You could get some skin breakdown."
"Yeah," Liam began with a smirk. "Use your manly muscles to hold him down while I wipe."
Kai flashed Liam a frown. He was sure he was being made fun of, because he was anything but muscular. The aid definitely had more muscles than he did.
"This is a girl," Jack stated, staring up at Kai.
"It might as well be," Liam mused. "Prettier than most women I've met."
Kai sighed.
Liam pulled out a pack of peri care wipes, which are an adult version of baby wipes, and began to wipe the bowel movement off of the man's leg.
Kai looked away and cringed.
"Don't tell me you're grossed out," Liam stated as he cleaned.
"A bit," Kai replied.
"You work at a nursing home, what's worse than this?" Liam laughed.
"You'd be surprised," Kai started with a serious look on his face.
"Sometimes the stuff that comes out is only partially digested."
Liam raised his brow, but then looked down and noticed the man had corn hulls scattered all over his body, seemingly having come out of his ass.
There were a few beans thrown in. For good measure, of course.
"Delicious," Liam stated.
"Like I said..."
As Kai held onto the man's arm, Liam undid the brief and tucked in one side as far as he could. He pulled down the other side and groaned when the adult diaper was opened up.
It was a huge, messy shit that was all over his private parts.
With a sigh, Liam began to clean up the man. The man attempted to kick with his dual stumps but was unsuccessful. There really was nothing left to use for kicking. He was a diabetic who had lost his legs due to terrible diabetic ulcers that didn't heal.
"Stop touching my dick!" Jack yelled out.
Kai couldn't help but laugh a little. It wasn't a funny situation, but the old man's comments were humorous.
"Stop laughing," the old man scowled. "It ain't funny."
"Yes, it is," Kai said.
"Yeah, it is," Liam added as he wiped the shit off the old man.
"Fuck both of you!" Jack cried out.
"Oh, no, you didn't!" Liam stated this and chuckled.
"No, I didn't!" The old man said that and cackled.
Liam rolled his eyes. He was obviously getting a kick out of the old man's
The two rolled the old man toward Kai, and Liam pulled the old brief out from underneath him. He placed it in the trash and then tucked a new brief underneath him. They then rolled him onto his back and clasped it shut.
As Kai began to unwrap the soiled dressing from Jack's stump, Liam worked on cleaning the shit out from underneath the man's nails.
"I always wondered," Liam began as he picked it out from underneath his fingernails. "Why does corn come out whole?"
Kai laughed as he worked on redressing the surgical wound. "We digest the inside but can't digest the outer fibrous matter, so it ends up as a little poop pocket and mixes with the rest of the stool, so it just looks like it's whole.
"Interesting," Liam hummed as he finished cleaning the grime from underneath the man's nails. "So, poop is inside the corn?"
"Yeah," Kai nodded.
They took off their gloves and tossed them in the trash, then pulled the man's covers over him and clipped the call light to his chest.
"You have any corn?" Jack asked. "I could use some corn."
"No, Jack, it's one in the morning," Kai stated. "Get some rest."
Liam laughed and shook his head.
"What?" Kai asked.
"You're cute," Liam replied.
Kai's face flushed a deep red.
"Shut up," Kai replied, storming out of the room.
"Embarrassed?" Liam called out.
"No," Kai responded.
Kai was annoyed with Liam. He didn't like being teased. He was used to being picked on when he was in school, and it had been years since anyone had bullied him.
Though it wasn't actually bullying. Kai just didn't realize it.