Just in time

"You are welcome, Alice, your organization has told us how good you are, and that's why we decided to hire you. I hope you don't disappoint us. Living in an estate deprived us of some things, i had to search for organizations that are willing to help in getting us a caregiver", Mrs. Paige said to Alice, the new caregiver for her mother-in-law, who had been living with her and her husband for the past two years because she had dementia.

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"I won't disappoint you, ma, and I will take good care of grandma also. You have no reason to fear", Alice said confidently.

"My husband is always busy, sometimes he is not home for weeks, and I am also quite busy, that is why we urgently needed an assistant. The caregiver we hired for her before quit due to some health challenges", Mrs Paige explained to Alice.

"It's fine, ma. I will do my best to take good care of her," Alice confidently replied.

After Alice was introduced to the old woman she would be taking care of, Alice was shown to her room and asked to relax for a while before she got accustomed to the house and her patient. Alice faced some challenges in taking care of her patient because of her dementia. She tends to forget things easily, and Alice has to repeat herself several times. Alice became friends with her patient, and they shared stories and had a good time together. Alice does play games with her just to keep her active, and she also engages her in talks that could make her remember some of her past activities.

There are times Alice does take her patient out for a walk in their street so that she can recognize her environment and view nature's freshness. They do this quite often because her patient does request it most times which she would have to do for her as it is part of the healing process.

One afternoon, Alice ordered food from one of the food companies that was to be delivered to her doorstep as she was hungry and needed to eat, but unfortunately, the security of the estate didn't allow the delivery man access to the estate. The delivery man was asked to wait till a call was put through to Alice to come get it at the security stand of the estate. This was the first time Alice would be ordering food; she had no idea that motorcycles were not allowed into the estate, especially from strangers.

The security guard collected the house number from the delivery man, checked their system, got the home phone number of Alice's apartment, and then put a call through to her.

"Hello, madam, this is the estate's security guard on duty; a man is here to deliver a package to you. Please note that motorcycles are not allowed into the estate. Thereby, he was not allowed access; kindly come to the security post to claim your package", the security guard said and hung up the call.

"Ohhh, wahala for all this estate o(the estate is full of troubles), do I need to go there? Which one is motorcycles are not allowed?" Alice said to herself as she was hissing, thinking of what to do next as she didn't want to leave her dementia patient all by herself.

Mrs Paige was not around, likewise, her husband, whom she had not seen ever since she was employed.

"Mama (mother), I want to get something at the gate; please don't leave the room; I will be back in a jiffy," Alice explained to her patient.

"Okay, I won't", the patient replied.

"Thank you", Alice said and rushed out, walking as fast as her legs could carry her. To walk to the security post from her apartment is approximately 20 minutes.

"I have to be fast; she might need something and forgotten I told her I was going out," Alice said to herself as she walked to the security post.

On getting there, she saw the delivery man seated on the plastic chair given to him.

"Good afternoon, sir; I'm the one you called. Can I have the package, please? I have to rush back", Alice said, breathing heavily.

The delivery man handed over her package to her and left. As Alice was about to leave, the security guard stopped her.

"Madam, sorry to bother you, just following the estate's rules. Next time, always notify the post; we can easily get it delivered to your door by sending one of our errand men or women. Strangers without proper documentation aren't allowed into the estate. Here is the post-call number; you can give us a call anytime a package would be delivered to you", the security guard explained to Alice.

As he was explaining, Alice was restless as she didn't know the condition our patient was in. She was checking the time and couldn't wait any longer.

"Noted sir, thanks for explaining. I'm new here so I'm just getting to know some of these rules. I will take note of them and follow duly", Alice replied and turned to leave.

"Wait, I thought as much but then why are you in a hurry? Is something wrong? And why are you restless?", the security guard asked.

"Is all this questioning necessary? I'm working with time. I was in the middle of something before you called so I have to hurry back. If that would be all, thank you." Alice quickly responded and headed home. Walking fast as well as running slightly, paying close attention to her wristwatch.

As she was going, another security guard stopped her as she was being suspected of the way she had acted earlier at the security post.

"Please, time is of great essence to me; I don't have a minute to waste here anymore; I need to get home," Alice said to the second security guard who stopped her.

"What's the reason behind you walking as fast as this? You are being watched closely as your actions are suspicious", the security guard said.

"Suspicious? How? Just because I want to get home quickly. Do I look like a criminal, or you can't read through my uniform to detect who I am?" Alice replied, pointing to the uniform she had on.

Without waiting for the security guard's response, she ran as fast as her legs could carry her and on getting to the gate of her apartment, she met her patient about to step out of the gate.

"Mama, where are you going? I told you to stay in the room", Alice said as she led her back in.

"I didn't hear you when you said that", her patient replied.

"You didn't hear? It's fine I get it. Let's go inside, it's not time for a walk session yet", Alice replied.

"What would have happened if I hadn't arrived just in time? Where would I have gone to look for her? What would I tell madam Paige I went out to do?" All these questions were running through Alice's mind.

"I'm glad I got here on time; if not for those quack security guards who were suspecting nonsense, I would have been here much earlier. They wanted to put me in trouble but I was lucky. What a day it would have been if anything went wrong. I'm grateful nothing happened", Alice said to herself as she gulped two cups of chilled water.

Thanks for your time and your comments will be appreciated.

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