After the Cure by Deirdre Gould (year 7 reading list .txt) 📕

Ned shrugged and loped down the blue hall. He wasn’t a curious man and he didn’t stop to gawk at the empty cells. It only took him a few minutes to find the infirmary where a lone nurse sat at a badly lit desk.

“Do you know where Dr. Carton is?” he asked.

“Sure, he’s in the far bed. Are you family?”

“No, just delivering something that was commissioned for him.”

“I see. I’m sorry, but I don’t think he’s going to be able to accept it. He hasn’t been able to speak at all since his stroke and he seems not to be very aware of what’s going on around him.”

Ned puffed out his cheeks in a sigh. “Look, it’s nothing big and I promised I’d deliver it. Do you think you could take it and keep it for him, just in case?”

“I don’t see the harm,” said the nurse, “what is it?”

“Just a fancy gold fountain pen. It was commissioned weeks ago by someone here actually.” Ned pulled the shining pen out of his shirt pocket.

“That’s a strange coincidence,” said the nurse.

Ned shrugged and handed her the pen. “Say, do you mind signing for it? I just want to have proof that I delivered it in case someone asks.”

The nurse smiled and took the delivery scrip. “Sure.” She pawed around her desk for an ink pen but only found pencils. Shrugging, she used the gold fountain pen and signed her name. “That’s funny,” she said, shaking it, “no ink.”

Ned squinted at the pen. “But I put the cartridge in myself, it was a special glass one instead of plastic.”

“Eh,” said the nurse, picking up a pencil and signing the scrip, “You know how these special pens are, sometimes takes a while for the nib to start working.” She glanced over at Dr. Carton. “Between you and me, I doubt he’ll ever get to use it anyway.”