Let’s spend a day discussing making money. Here’s how your first day probably shouldn’t go….
My friend Marcus’ mother was ecstatic when she landed a job an orderly job at the hospital. What a dream come true. Sure, she’d have to pay her dues and work the midnight shift, but so what? Before long, she’d move to the day shift and then up to supervisor. Before her first day, in her mind, she was sure someday they’d tell her to run that whole facility.
She showed up early the first night of work, she was so excited.
The job seemed easy. After some instructions from her boss, she was left on her own to do her duties. Her mind was filled with all the money she’d be bringing home. Things were looking up.
A hospital is a quiet place after midnight. The hallways are empty. This helped her think. In fact, she was liking how fairly uninterrupted her thoughts were—so much so that she was even reconsidering moving to the day shift when she got the chance. Four hours into the night, this was shaping up to be a dream job.
–until her boss caught up to her.
The 8th Floor
“I need you to go upstairs to the 8th floor, room 814. They need someone right now.”
Sure thing, boss. No problem.
She went to the 8th floor, barely noticing that this was the ICU. Walking along the hallway, her thoughts were so full of credit card bills and upcoming holiday expenses, that she didn’t notice anything until she turned the corner into room 814.
There was a bed. A sheet covered a body.
Completely.
The nurse smiled at Marcus’ mom. “There you are! I need you to take this to the morgue.”
Morgue?
The nurse was too busy flipping the locks off the wheels on the bed to notice that Marcus’ mom was frozen. Morgue?
That wasn’t part of the job.
The nurse was talking again. “Okay, it’s ready.”
As she walked out of the room, Marcus’ mom asked, “Where is the morgue?”
The nurse smiled again. “The basement. East elevator. All the way to the bottom.”
To the bottom.
Marcus told me his mom couldn’t get these words out of her head as she began wheeling the bed and dead body to the elevator.
All the way.
To the bottom.
The morgue.
Elevator To The Bottom
It was 2:45 a.m. when the elevator doors opened, inviting her in to the tiny compartment. She didn’t want to go. Would you? Ride on an elevator with a dead body? No thanks. The bed rumbled across the metal strips and into the claustrophobic compartment. As the doors closed, she couldn’t breathe.
I’m in an elevator with a corpse. She eyed the sheet. This is always the part of the movie where the orderly dies, she thought.
It was so ridiculous, Marcus told me, she started laughing.
How silly. It’s a dead body, not a zombie. What’s going to happen? What possibly could happen?
The elevator doors opened ahead of her onto a long, downward sloping corridor, which ended at a set of swinging doors.
The morgue.
She walked around to the far side of the bed and began to push.
The bed hit the elevator rumble strip and shook the mattress.
Marcus’ mom heard a belching sound. The body sat up and the sheet fell away.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Marcus’ mom shrieked. The dead woman, eyes closed, sat straight up and seemed to stare through closed eyelids at her.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Marcus’ mom let go. Because of the slope, the bed began rolling down the corridor. The dead woman stared straight ahead as the thing picked up steam and rumbled down the hall.
Marcus’ mom got back on the elevator and pressed the “Lobby” button.
As the doors closed, she watched the bed roll through the swinging doors.
When the door opened at the lobby, his mom threw her badge at the security guard, walked out of the building, and never came back to work again. Total time worked: just over half a shift.
That’s my true Halloween story. What’s yours?
Oh, my! I guess your friend couldn’t work with me at the mortuary!!!!! =)
Actually, being a mortician, I ride in elevators with dead bodies all of the time. I love the story, but I think Marcus’s mom may be embelishing it a bit. The belching sound/death rattle is pretty typical. If the dead person sat up, the person either wasn’t dead or she experienced something nobody I’ve ever met in the business has experienced:) If dead people start sitting up on me, I’m going to find a new job too!
Fun story though:)
Halloween story? Embellished? Never….
I have to disagree with my man here. There was one time a few years ago that I swear on my life that a deceased person was singing in one of the chapels. No one was in the building but “us” and there was no other explanation. The chapel door opened on its own down the hallway from me and I heard very low singing. It was the freakiest thing that I have ever experience and nothing has ever happened like that before or after that occasion.
The deceased person was someone who had killed himself the day before and caught his family by surprise because no one had expected it. I will never forget it…I can still see/hear everything that happened that day clearly in my memory. It will stick with me forever.
Okay, Holly. You just won “story of the day.” 8:30 Halloween morning. In my office alone. And creeped out. Wow. What was he singing? Something old? A current song? Was it like a whisper?
Actually, it was kind’ve like an old person humming….for one brief second I thought it sounded like one of our part timers voices, an older guy that smokes and sounds raspy. I quickly realized that no one was in the building but me and the dead guy. It was very very strange. I am usually not someone who believes in the paranormal and am around dead people daily. This is the only strange thing that has ever happened and I do not have any explanation for it all. The hair on my arms just stood up remembering all of this!
Wow. That’s what I imagined. I have a story like that, but I’m saving that one for next year.
This story was…AWESOME! How funny 🙂
What a story and just in time for Halloween! You may want to forget this finance stuff and go into short stories or novels. Entertaining and I was on the edge of my seat!
haha so funny and perfect for Halloween.
It’s kind of impersonal that the nurse referred to the body as an “it” rather then he/she after death.
If i was Marcus’ Mom I think I would’ve finished out the shift. What are the chances of two dead bodies in one shift?
I was surprised that she didn’t, either. But it definitely made his story funnier when he told me that she walked out.
I don’t even care if that story was partially embellished, I can totally imagine it and it cracked me up/freaked me out! I was a hospital volunteer when I was 14, which pretty much taught me that I never want to work in a hospital. Freaks me out!
Very well written Joe… I strangely want to know what happens! I feel a part 2 coming on
Now that Disney bought Lucas, anything could happen!
Dead bodies freak me out! I am always respectful at funerals of course, but it really makes me uncomfortable to be so close to a corpse! I know it’s childish thinking, but I kind of always expect the dead bodies to jump up and yell “gotcha!”
Me too! It always is gross when people kiss the body, too. I know they’re loved ones, but Elvis has left the building (if you know what I mean….).
That sounds like a campfire story if you ask me. That is pretty funny that she just walked out. I haven’t worked in a morgue, but I don’t think it would bother me. It’s not like your clients would complain or anything.
He loves to tell it. His mom stands by it (no matter what Greg the bah-humbug says).
Bah!!!! Humbug….. *grumble, grumble*
Ha! I was hoping you’d see that….gran’pa. 😉
Creepy! When my sister and I were young we were visiting my grandfather in the hospital we got lost looking for the cafeteria…and totally ended up in the morgue. Not cool for 2 kids under 12!
Great story! Loved it!
Funny story! haha jk. I get kinda creeped out by dead bodies but I just started watching walking dead so maybe my tolerance will be going up 🙂
Best story ever! And funny story. I took human anatomy courses in uni and got to work with dead bodies. On the first day in one of the labs, I may or may not have locked myself into the wrong room with a few bodies ready to be prepped.
I can’t imagine. That’s part of the reason I went into finance. Biology ain’t my thang.
Was that really a haunting or the woman isn’t dead at all? But hey, you got me at the edge of my seat there. I don’t know what i would do if that was me in the same situation. This is the first shot of scare i had for this year’s Halloween, excited for more. I had a great time reading especially the parts. . . “all the way down. . . .to the basement. . . . to the morgue”. . . . CREEPY!
I had it described to me as rigor mortis….but Greg’s probably right. I talked to Marcus this morning…his mom DID quit after that incident…and she DID let go of the bed.
There’s some part of the world where people take this phenomenon very differently. From the most superstitious ones i would say like South America, the Asia.
Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
“This is always the part of the movie where the orderly dies, she thought.” heh heh, this is the Hollywood formula down pat.
Just trying to keep up with big Wall Street firms….
Love this story! Perfect timing with Halloween. 😉
Wow! It should be expected, but it has to be a shock. I couldn’t match that story.
Oh my jesus. I am scared out of my wits to look behind me now. And Holly’s contribution gave me the royal heebie-jeebies. Well played, Joe. Well played. Happy Halloween!
Great story, absolutely perfect for the Halloween! If I were on her place, I would also freak out and do exactly what she did. I still have not experienced anything scary in my workplace, and I do hope that I won’t come into contact with anything spooky in the near future. Lol.