Everything written here are facts, what I heard, saw, or tried to forget. The Butcher Shop is called the Sea Cliff Health Center...but it really is just a butcher shop where hospitals displace meaty cuts their last chapter in their lives.
Abe the butcher, yes it was Abe the butcher that I saw every day in the fist part of the forties. Steak was reserved for the war effort so my Mom "Edie". The best cuts or steak had been rationed for the war effort. But it did not stop her from buying liver. In time, a long long time, I grew to enjoy liver. fine cut was reserved for the soldiers, but could buy as much liver as possible.
Brother Mel had been inside the above nursing home for about two months. Mr. sweetness, or Jacob told me that he some good news. I told him to speak to my brother, next to the offices in hallway number one. Pudgy looking Jacob with a phony smile spoke to me in the T.V. room while i watched Tender is the Night on the Turner channel.
'Your brother is lucky. We are sending him to a larger room. I will get him an eye exam and make sure that he gets to all of his appointments."
"Better speak with my brother. Am sure he will not like it, since he doing swell in his room."
Later in the late afternoon, I saw a maintenance man wheeling Mel's clothes down the hall. I knew that he would be next and no longer be able to speak to Robert, an ex-Pasadena principal. The worker er returned and allowed Mel to finish the Panda Express that I had bought. Now Tired I left.
I returned late afternoon of the next day. At the end of the entrance is the last hallway, I have been told it is the hospice area. I signed in and cleansed my hands. At the end of the hallway I took a right turn. The smell of stench overwhelmed me.
Was this the Wax Museum. Several wheel-chairs with their occupants looked asleep. All appeared ghost-like, a pale white. I continued my walk along the last corridor of the butcher shop and turned right to Mel's room. I heard loud groaning across the hallway. A long full bearded one laughed down the hallway.
A body lay in bed number one. The room appeared larger than the first room and the gentleman in bed one welcomed Mel. Mel was asleep. The body in bed one introduced himself, while Mel slept. The man in bed one spoke.
"The one hundred year old Indian lived in bed two about one week ago. He croked and they hustled him out the back. They serve dinner here at about seven o'clock. Mel must have overheard what Bed One said. and his eyes opened.
""Do you mean this is a dead man's bed?" Mel responded after sitting up in a wheel chair.
Now I can't repeat what Mel said about Mr. Sweetness but will later. I tried at best to sooth his nerves but couldn't. His mood now had changed to a gloomy one. a large patio area a-joined the room. But Mel must have smelled the blood of the man from India. Mel felt faint but hungry.
""Hey Greg, what time is dinner?'
"Bout six thirty."
At seven, the meals entered carried by a Mrs. Dippy. When she removed the top of the plate one small sliced pizza winked at Mel. The little pepperoni told Mel that it was all for tonight as this was upset with Bed One's secret about the dead Indian. It appeared that an intercom was inside the room, and possibly heard by the Nurses station.
I bade Mel good-by and left for the Java restaurant. I felt mad since Mel had been doing so well but knew the House of Wax was more than I could handle in one day.
As of today, Mel had still not been seen by an ear specialist. He has had a growth on his ear for a lon time and Nurse David told me it was cancerous I was scared that Mel had been given drugs to dull his feelings...Jacob or Mr. Sweetness quit and Mel was supposed to go to the Huntington Hospital on Tuesday, or tomorrow.
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