This was last year sometime in the winter, I was working for a company that delivers IV medication to outpatients at their homes after being discharged from their hospital. Typically I try to catch them at the hospital before discharge, as our pharmacy is very close and many people live very far from the city. However, the window is small between when we get a discharge time and the discharge itself so 9 times out of 10 it's a road trip.
One day we recieved a refferal for a patient living in a very secluded area. Meeting him at the hospital was not an option in this situation. I got his personal info together, but it was so secluded, the address did not show on Google Maps when I looked it up. The patients one phone number was disconnected, and by the time I called the hospital to try and reach him there, he had already been discharged so I had no way of knowing where this guy was. After some searching I was able to contact a nurse in another department of ours that used to service the patient a few months prior. She was an absolute gem, she gave me perfect directions to the house she practically drew me a map. All was good, but she warned me before I hung up: "Fair warning, this guy is a bit..... Out of it". Hah! I thought. I meet at least 20 different people a week from all walks of life from the downtown crime ridden ghettos to the richest parts of the city, I had met just about every type of person. "Ah I've seen it all, I can handle a little weirdness!". She went on and insisted this person was to be taken seriously at all times. "Pfft... Come on now." Boy I sure was cocky.
Anyway, on to the creepy part. I headed out quick. About an hour of driving later, I finally see his mailbox. The road from there went on for a while. The sun was setting so I was relieved to find his house before it got too dark. His number was on a sign in front of a path off the road, this is where it starts to get innawoods as hell. After minutes, I finally reach this guy's place, and it was a typical innawoods house. Wooden, rusty pick up truck outside, random shit throughout the yard, tattered confederate flag hanging proudly. Besides the old truck that was clearly inoperable, there were no other cars around the area, and no garage. I got out to see if anyone was there anyway. On the way up the driveway I stopped dead in my tracks. I saw a shadow silloutte on the downstairs window of what looked like someone pressing their hands against the window and peaking out between them (remember this, its important). It was odd, because the blinds were shut, could she actually see through them?
I knock on the door and a man answers. He wasn't all there in the head, but Ive always found ways to communicate in my line of work. After an awkward conversation trying to explain who i was, he let me in. The stinch in that house was god aweful. He looked like he was a hoarder, so I didn't think much of it. I just thought it was a mixture of old food and other questionable things. While I got him to sign paper work, I noticed to the right was an old woman in pigtails sat in a chair sleeping by the window. Most likely the wife. She probably thought I saw her looking at me, and embarrassed, she pretended to be asleep. Totally rationalized that, got the paper work done, told them the nurse would be around tomorrow at noon. All is well, and I slept great that night...
But the ending isn't so sweet.
On the following Monday I came to work, I was told that the nurse who went in on Saturday to service the patient found the patients wife dead. I knew the gal who did the nursing so I have her a call to see if she was okay. What she told me made every hair on my body stand straight. Aparently, the wife had died while the man was at the hospital. I asked where the body was found, she said she was sitting on a chair. Yup. Me and this senial old man both were signing papers about 10 feet from a corpse, none the wiser.
It's sad really. Poor old guy didn't even know it he was so out of it. Apparently his son had just dropped him off from the ride back, didn't even walk him in. The man died two weeks later in the convelescent center.
At the end of it all, I'm still to this day trying to rationalize exactly what happened. I know I saw that silloutte peering through the window. The only rationalization that helps me sleep at night is I could have mistaken her pigtails for cupped hands, and it was all an illusion... But I just keep looking back at the memory of that fucking shadow and it just doesn't quite look right. Ugh.