The dry erase board in my room, told me the nurse for the morning shift was somebody named “Veronica”. It turns out that Veronica was a hand full of years older than me. A young nurse from school. She still had that freshly pinned shine about her. My eyes followed Veronica around the room as she checked on everything. She seemed a little ill at ease.

“Mark?” She said to me at last as she reached down and picked up my chart. “It seems somebody has crossed out your name and replaced it with the name ‘Madeline’.. is this a mistake or a prank?” She said as she sat on my bed and peered into my baby blue eyes.

I blinked and blinked again and gently shrugged my shoulders. Finally after a few tense minutes, I broke the silence with a response.

“Nurse Mindy might have changed it last night.. I told her last night I wanted to be called ‘Madeline’ and she said it was a very pretty name.” I nodded my head as if to affirm my answer. “She was the pretty blonde lady.. She said she was the evening nurse last night.”

The nurse blinked and blinked again. All the color drained from her face, it was like she had just seen a ghost or something. Slowly she looked down at the chart. After a few minutes she reached up and took out a pen from breast pocket of her blouse. Pushing the trigger of the pen down she quickly jotted down a note.

She nodded her head.

“Go on..” Veronica told me. “I’m listening.” She quickly added.

“Nurse Mindy put my hair in pigtails too! And she bathed me and tucked me in.” I said listing all the thing the nurse did last night. I peered toward Veronica who seemed to be jotting all this down. Finally she eased her pin down , once the pen was down she peered right at me and offered a small little knowing smile.

“It seems, it seems last night you encountered the friendly side of are local ghost. Nurse Mindy. See back in the early two thousands there was a women who worked here. Her name was Amanda and the children loved and adored her. One day.. She was killed in a car wreck coming as she leaving work. Since then, we’ve been getting reports of her appearing to children in need.” She paused and smiled.

“Anyway, ghost stories aside. We have a big day ahead of you. Your sister Kayla is coming by. The doctor has agreed to discharge you in a few days. Two I think, we just need to run a few more test first. A social worker will be here too, she’ll be interviewing you, nothing big just some basic questions. And your Uncle, William Bell will be here too. Legal questions and such.” Veronica paused. “So shall I address you as Mark or Madeline?”

“Madeline.. Please ma’am.” I said feeling a blush form on my face.

“Madeline it is then.” The nurse said with a small smile as she gave me a wink.

“Now, Madeline. Your going to have a few visitors today. The first one will be your Uncle William. And Later today your sister, Kayla Brewer.” She informed me with a small smile.

“Did somebody mention me?” Came a voice from the tall man who appeared in the doorway of the room. He was dressed to the nines, a cream colored button down shirt with ebony buttons. A dark blue tie, a charcoal colored coat with matching pants and leather dress shoes. Appearing by his side was a women wearing a deep blue dress. Her deep blue eyes fell on me and a small smile quickly formed on the bow of her lip. Her flaming red hair hung down and was curled up at the edge.

“William, darling. She adorable!.” She said peering toward me.

Uncle William blinked and blinked again. Reaching up he started to rub the back of his neck and a deep blush colored his face as he flushed with embarrassment. Slowly in his educated southern voice he said.

“Please Pardon us. I thought this was the room that my nephew Mark was assigned too.” His deep blue eyes fell on me. And for a minute I felt like he was peering into my soul. Then in a slow, measured tone of voice said. “Unless my nephew is now my niece. Not that I have a problem with that of course.” He said catching himself as he peered toward me.

Veronica was the first one to speak. She cleared her throat and in a clear voice said.

“Mark, now wishes to be called Madeline.” She said taking a deep breath. “As her caretaker, I respectfully ask you abided by her wish’s or I’ll be force to ask you to leave.” She said closed her eyes and waited there response.

The women was the first one to speak.

“Madeline! Such a darling name!” She said smiling as she walked over to the bed and reached down and took me by the hand. “I’m your aunt, you call me Aunt Isabella. I’m sorry we have to meet like this. I have a daughter around your age. Her name is Susan. Susan Elizabeth Mari Bell. That her full name, we call her Sue for short. She has a younger brother, James William Bell, we call him Daisy for short.” She said reaching down and giving my hand a tight squeeze. “Were here for you.”

William was the next to speak.

“As you know, I’m William Bell. I’m Lisa’s older brother.” He paused and took a deep breath. “Lisa was different than the rest of us. She left the Episcopal Church over the direction the mainline church was going. That was choice I guess. I respected the choice, but I can’t respect the choice she made regarding you. It was wrong for her to flip out and disown you like she did.” He said drawing in a deep breath. He then walked over and kneeled by my bedside.

“I understand, my sister did not want you around us a lot. But your family, and me and my wife Isabella here wanted you to know that.. If you ever needed us. Where one phone call away. I promised Kayla.. That if she ever needed any legal advice or anything legal drawn up. I’ll be there for her.” He said in a solemn tone of voice.

I felt my eyes started to moist.

“Its true darling. Now, if your going to be Madeline, your going to need a new set of clothes. Once your settled in Benton. Like once you and your sister has settled down. And you have settled into your new life. You and I are going shopping. One full day of wall to wall shopping. Where going to tear the doors off of North Park and Flowood.” She said smiling as she gave my hand a little squeeze.

A small smile crossed my face as I peered toward William. William for the most part took a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders. Finally he said in a totally defeated tone of voice.

“Consider it.. Just consider it a birthday gift. A birthday gift for the last fourteen or so years we’ve missed.” She said smiling as she stroked the top of my head. “Am I right William?” She said turning toward her husband, who stood there, looking down at the ground. I felt sorry for the poor man, as I thought he was wishing a hole in the floor would open up and swallow him whole.

“Of course.” He said finally. “Madeline will need some more clothes and Kayla would welcome to help. Speaking of Kayla, I need to have a meeting with her.” He said his voice trailing off. “It's just some legal documents she needs to sign. Nothing really retaining to you.”

With that being said, William left the room and closed the door behind him. Once the door was closed, all eyes became centered one me as the nurse and Isabella peered toward me, both wore little smiles plastered upon there faces. As both turned to me and smiled a soft smile.

“So, Madeline.” Isabella said smiling a little as she started to pat my head. “I must say, you did a remarkable job styling your hair in the classic pigtails. Did you do this yourself? Or did one of the nurse’s help you?” She inquired.

“Nurse Mindy did them.” I said quickly. “First she gave me a bath, then she did my hair and then she tucked me in.”

Isabella blinked and turned toward the nurse and in a serene tone of voice asked.

“May I please speak to this ‘Nurse Mindy’?” She paused and followed up her question with a statement. “Because I would like to thank her. She did a amazing job with Maddy hair. And her wonderful bedside manner no doubt a comfort for my special niece, who must be going through the seven rings of hell.” She said in a simple, matter of fact tone of voice.

Finally after a few tense minutes. My nurse finally broke the silence.

“She not here today. Nurse Mind is are evening nurse, she just left a hour or so ago.” The women paused and quickly added. “But I’ll pass the message along.”

The women then drew a deep breath and in a commanding tone of voice said.

“Anyway, I need to bath and redress Madeline. She has busy day ahead of her. She has a meeting with her doctor and her sister. So, if you please.” She said leveling her gaze toward Isabella.

“Of course.” She said smiling. “Madeline, I’m about to pop down and get a cup of coffee from the coffee shop in the lobby. Anything I can bring you?” She asked with a small smile.

“A hot chocolate would be nice.” I answered.

“One large hot chocolate coming up.” Isabella said before she vanished down the hallway.

And with that another episode comes to end.