Hero by Wrath James White, J. F. Gonzalez Page B

Rachael called out from the kitchen. “Can you pick up a few things for me?”
    “Sure.” Rachael shut the closet doors, set the notepad down on the bureau and exited her mother’s room. “What do you need?”
    And for the time being the thought of what her mother could have possibly meant by those two words was gone from Tonya’s mind.

Chapter Twelve

    Adelle awoke slowly, becoming aware that it was morning in gradual stages: the position of the sun as it shone through the open blinds of her room; the sound of cars outside; of the morning talk shows coming from the television in the living room. Other things slowly filtered in as she wove in and out of slowly dawning consciousness; the woozy, stoned feeling she felt throughout much of the past two days was wearing off; she was feeling more aware of herself and her surroundings.
    And she was focused.
    Adelle looked at the clock on the bureau by her bed. It read ten thirty-five. Some talk show was on the TV and Adelle tried to remember what day it was. Talk shows only came on weekdays, which meant…
    The sound of purposeful footsteps coming toward her room brought a feeling of impending doom as time seemed to slow down for her.
    Natsinet emerged in her doorway, that evil look on her face.  Dressed in a clean white nurse’s uniform, she looked like something out of a nightmare. She was carrying a metal tray, which she set down on the edge of the bed.
    “Good morning, Mrs. Smith! So good to see you again!”
    The nightmare of the past week still fresh on her mind, Natsinet tried to move away from the nurse and only succeeded in rocking back a few inches into her pillow.
    Natsinet laughed.
    “Well, looky you! You moved three whole inches! See, we are making progress!”
    Stacked on the tray was the stun gun, what looked to be a cattle prod, and a butane grill lighter. Natsinet ran her fingers along the instruments, as if debating which one to choose.
    “So…” Her face had a look that Adelle usually associated with cats who were anticipating playing with the field mouse they’d just caught, “Ready to get back into your therapy again?”
    No, not this, not this, I was supposed to see Tonya this weekend, please not this …
    Her therapy session that day was the longest by far.
    Or so it felt.

    *      *      *

    It didn’t take much to reduce the old woman to a quivering lump of flesh.
    Time seemed to spring forward quickly for Natsinet the first few days of that week. She didn’t think it would be that way, but then she supposed the saying “Time flies when you’re having fun” had some validity to it. It certainly flew by for her. Of course, it was probably agonizingly long for Adelle Smith as it should be. Worthless sack of shit wasn’t worth anything anyway, so why bother even working at trying to maintain the old woman’s quality of life. Natsinet had spent the weekend trying to convince herself to feel some guilt over what she was doing to the old woman, and as much as she tried she honestly couldn’t find it in herself to feel guilty. She knew that most people would think she was a monster for abusing the woman, but Natsinet didn’t care. For the first time in her life, Natsinet didn’t care about what people thought of her. She was doing what she wanted, what made her feel good. No one else would understand. They were incapable of understanding. They hadn’t lived her life. She knew that from her interview with her supervisor at Hospice Nursing. Racist old cracker woman. If it weren’t for the fact that she needed this job, Natsinet would have bitch-slapped that old fossil the day of her interview. Unfortunately, she couldn’t lose the chance at this job and she was fortunate to have it now. She couldn’t lose it, and she wasn’t  going to lose it. In fact, her abuse of Adelle Smith would go unrecorded. Natsinet had it all figured out.
    The fact that Rachael didn’t suspect a thing was heavily in her favor. Natsinet had things set up