A Strawberry for Mel

"Brought you some fresh strawberries. Bought them from Whole Foods, and just picked."
Mel lies in room 135 B. It is in the rear of the Wax Museum on Florida Street in Surf City. It is called the Sea Cliff Health Center and is a ;prominent nursing home in Huntington Beach.
 Mel attempts to arise and does on the second try. No longer does he resembled the brother that came here almost two years ago from the Huntington Hospital. He is slim and can barely sit up in bed. I have been his advocate for over ten years now. It is not a miracle he is alive. I have supplemented his diet with fruit and meat.
  "Also got you Panda Express." Mel smiles. In bed one, Charles lies flat and complains The 86 year old wishes to rise. He is big with size thirteen feet
   "Help me up!" Charles explodes in anger. Mel is legally blind but the thought of eating Panda has juiced his appetite for life
   "You been away two weeks. Thought you might be in hospital."
    I take a fold up chair from closet as he had enough vision to dig into hit orange chicken, chow mien and rice. He smiles. I set a  basket of $2.99 big and bright red strawberries on his food table.
He grabs one and places it in his mouth. Again he smiles
    "Wow George these are real good."
   He continues to eat and with a new found gusto. In bed one he continues to get out of bed, but without any success. Mel is upset.
   "They promised to come and take me. My teeth still hurt." He has had the tooth decay for over six on months and has only four biting teeth left. I feel like singing, and begin to sing a Eddie Fisher song
    If I ever needed love, I need it...All of a sudden bed one finishes the song. Bed one is happy now as one song follows another. The forty year sailor in bed one must know thousands of songs Mel joins in as he is almost finished with the food. He with Charles sings  another Fisher ditty.
    "Oh My Papa...to me he was so wonderful..."  Well we jammed for about thirty more minutes. A few other patron entered and joined us.

I needed to get Mel outside. The Patron seldom, if ever, eat fresh fruit or sit under the sun. Much thinner now with less energy, He follows me to the patio area in the back. He needs help to find a chair. I don't know how much medication he takes now, but Norco has certainly slowed him down. Mel continues to sing but wishes to return to soon. No longer bulky, he can no longer withstand cold weather, and rain drops begin to all on hsi head. He pants keep falling down as we head to the front office where he attempts to get ten singles from his account. He has employees go to the coke dispenser every day.
   We walk back to room 135 and he finds his bed. He thanks me and smiles.

It is going on four and the thought of waiting for buses in the rain causes me to walk the two miles to my apartment. I never buy fruit at Whole Foods but the smell of freshly picked juicy strawberries could not be ignored.