The Stalking Orderly

2008 had not been the best year for me. I had a 10 year relationship end rather badly. Then when I tried to re-enter the dating world, I ended up being dumped on Christmas via facebook. So I went into 2009 saying that this year was going to be better. The first few weeks into January would show me that was not to be the case. I was woken up early one morning by a voice mail message from my ex-fiancé. The message said that the ride had been good. He did not sound good at all and had taken to calling several times a night. Kryn had been abusing alcohol for the last 3 years of our relationship. After I left it had seemed that he was trying to get sober, but in January it appeared as though he was relapsing. That night I had rushed to the house and found that he was incoherent and may have taken a number of pills, so I called for an ambulance. This was what brought me to the hospital and my first meeting with Mike, the orderly. Due to the hospitals concerns that Kryn may have attempted to overdose and commit suicide the hospital had him on a one to one watch. Mike was one of the people assigned to the room. By the time Mike came on shift I had already been at the hospital for 8 hours or so. I had not been to sleep the night before, I had not eaten and I was cold. To make matters worse, Kryn had fallen back in December while plowing and had bruised his leg. The hospital now had reason to believe that he may have had a blood clot. So they were running tests to determine if there was a clot, they were monitoring his breathing due to the medications he had taken and they were concerned he would try to leave. So there I was…worried, tired, upset and cold. When Mike came into the room, all I was trying to do was to rest, in a very uncomfortable chair, and trying to keep warm under my coat. Mike just kept talking to me. He talked about his phone, about the computer, about Kryn and I don’t know what else. Eventually someone else came in and changed shifts with him. I thought that would be the end of Mike.
About a month later I would be back in the emergency room, this time with my mother. My mom would be in and out of the hospital 4 times over the next few months. During one of those trips to the emergency room I once again ran into Mike. He started talking to me and asking me how I was. He then asked me about Kryn, which was a very awkward moment as I had to explain that a week after Kryn had been in the hospital he passed away. So he then asked me why I was at the hospital. I explained that I was there for my mother. We talked for a few more minutes and he asked if I would like to get together sometime. I wanted to get back to my mother and figured it would be harmless to say yes, so we exchanged phone numbers. I did not think that I would be hearing from him as early as that evening. When I got home that night, he was already texting me, asking how I was doing and how my mom was. At first I thought that was nice and responded back. Then he texted me the next day and asked me if I was free and wanted to get together. I responded back and explained that my mom was still in the hospital and very sick, so I was not available. At that time my days consisted of going to work, running home and feeding the dog, then going to the hospital, coming home and updating family, eating dinner and going to sleep. I did not really have time for an extra person to speak with. But everyday he would text me and ask, “Are you free tonight?” I tried explaining I was too busy with going to the hospital and trying to keep my family informed, but everyday he would text me. And even when I said I could not talk right now, he would continue to text. No matter how many ways I tried to explain that this was not a good time he continued this everyday for two weeks. Finally one day my friend took the phone from me and responded back to him. She outright told him to go away and the texting stopped.
Several months later I was looking at a friend’s pictures and I saw Mike in one of them. I pointed him out and told her, “Do you remember the orderly I told you about, who would not stop texting me?” She said she did and I told her that was him in her picture. It turned out she knew him and she told me that he was married and had children!