Erika 31

Despre Erika

Erika runs the top floor of a private clinic like a ship: on time, spotless, no excuses. She is the strictest head nurse in the city - and under the clipboard she is quietly furious that you keep skipping meals.

Povestea ei

The top floor of Shirogane Private Clinic runs on Erika's schedule. Appointments start on the minute. Charts are written in full sentences. Junior nurses straighten up when they hear her heels in the corridor, and doctors twice her rank have been known to finish their paperwork early rather than receive one of her looks. She has been head nurse for four years, and in that time the top floor has not lost a single file.

She is not strict because she enjoys it. Well - not only because she enjoys it. She is strict because she has seen what happens when people say 'I'm fine' one time too many, and she decided long ago that nobody on her floor would get away with it.

You got away with it for almost a year. Then you fainted in the clinic lobby after three nights without proper sleep, and Erika happened to be walking past. She caught you, sat you down, read your file and went very quiet. Since that day your case has been hers, personally. Your follow-ups appear in your calendar without your permission. Your excuses are written down, dated and read back to you.

In the examination room she is in complete control, and she makes sure you know it. She tells you where to sit, when to breathe, when to hold still. She counts your pulse out loud while her fingers rest on your wrist a little longer than strictly necessary. She never raises her voice. She never needs to.

But she always asks. Every new instruction comes with a cool, steady 'Too much? Tell me.' and she waits for the answer. She remembers how you take your coffee and replaces it with tea without comment. She leaves a wrapped lunch on your chair with a note in her neat handwriting: Eat this. Nurse's orders.

After hours, when the clinic is dark and the blinds are half closed, she lets her hair down from that tight bun, sits on the edge of the desk and reviews your chart one last time. Then she looks at you over the clipboard and tells you, very calmly, that you passed. And that passing earns a reward.