Cheap Wine and the NanoNurse

I never thought I'd do a nurse. Not in a million years. She came out of nowhere and left into oblivion. The whole scene started out as a ridiculous 'joke' I believe.

It turned into more than that.

~~~~

The NanoNurse was a small, petite blond and carried around with her BearTheBiker. Or maybe it was the other way around. They were an odd couple from somewhere in Missouri. BearTheBiker was worse than shit and no one knew how to take him. His nurse girlfriend would do contract nursing jobs when they needed money other than that they rode around on Bear's bike all day. That is until they came to the club we were playing at late one summer night. It was amusing too because she came in dressed up in a sexy nurse's outfit that included a very short skirt with white stockings. Everyone in the club stopped whatever they were doing and stared. I remember it quite well.

She paraded around like that all night without fear because BearTheBiker was this thuggy looking guy dressed in biker leathers. At first I thought this was some kind of erotic, schizophrenic nightmare. The fucking place stopped to a crawl when she played pool to make a long shot. BearTheBiker just grinned like a 'possum eating shit. The cutest part about this act was her complete shyness about it all. She always acted as if it were not happening. That's what got to us.

"Hey baby", he would say, "Bend over and get that cue ball I knocked off the table."

It was as if she was oblivious to anything that was going on around her and dutifully she picked up the cue ball. She had this type of innocence that wasn't innocent...not in the least. Whatever their purpose was or their reasons, they latched on to our band.

"Say guys," he told us one night, "You really do need a bouncer and road manager to help out around here." Plus NanoNurse here likes you guys too and we both enjoy your music. You guys get high don't you?"

It was an odd question at the time because after playing for 45 minutes we'd go outside to the back of the club on those warm summer nights, light up a couple of joints or drop acid and otherwise make out with our girlfriends in the dark. Sometimes NanoNurse would join us and sit down on the bench we had put up. There she would sit spread-eagle causing a major distractions to any of us standing there. Sometimes it would draw a crowd. BearTheBiker was never far away but he always seemed disinterested in what she was doing. Yet one night I decided to start talking to her and see what nonsense they were up to. I was curious about her and Bear. Any other time we had talked it was always superficial crap about nothing important and it always skirted around the fact that she practically killed us with the outfits she wore to the club every night they were there.

"Why do you wear these...um...revealing clothes." I asked her that night.

"They are fun, plus in this heat and humidity, they're cool." was her response. But I was not convinced.

"You know...they're kinda airy."

I thought about that. "Come on," I said, "women don't generally wear that for those reasons." I pointed in the general direction of her crotch.

"What other reason is there?" she said and then she winked at me. All I could do to respond was to simply stare at her. I was going to find out more some day. She made it seem like it was some kind of secret. I dropped it for now, I had to get back and start playing the same tired cover tunes I had been playing all summer in the dreary heat and sweat of the club.

I never bought the reasons she told me. It just seemed stupid of me to pursue it with her anyway. She would be talking and flirting with other guys most of the time anyway. Sometimes in the early morning hours her and Bear would pick out a friend and when we finished playing we'd all go to our house for coffee and donuts and we would fulfill our munchies, talk and sit out on the front porch. You could smell the fresh coffee, hear crickets in the background and NanoNurse's giggles. Most nights I was exhausted and went to sleep while the rest stayed up, laughed and carried on until sunrise.

One of those summer mornings however, I woke up in the late morning with her laying beside me and an arm stretched across my back. I freaked because I didn't want Bear to find her like that near me. It was bad enough she was naked and sleeping on the covers next to me. Surely she could have found another place to sleep! I jerked up, came to my senses and headed for the empty couch in the front room. I didn't realize at the time that Bear had been sleeping on the other side of her. I quickly fell back to sleep on the couch and stayed there until I was woke up a second time.

"Why did you leave this morning?" It was a voice in my dreams. I quickly floated to consciousness when she repeated the question. "You didn't have to leave, Bear wouldn't do anything to any of you."

OK, well I wasn't going to take that chance. Not in a million years. He could have drawn and quartered me by himself if he'd had a mind to.

"You make my pussy wet." she whispered in my ear and got up and left the room.

I slapped myself, snapped out of it and told myself NO!. That was the end of it for a couple of weeks. They left town and no one saw them or knew what lonely road they went down. I wondered whether Bear or NanoNurse had gotten into a fight and split up and went to wherever it was they came from. Or if Bear finally got into a fight he couldn't get himself out of. There was no way to find out. None of us had any idea. But then one day NanoNurse showed up late one night at the door.

"Could Bear and I stay here a couple of days?" I hadn't heard the Harley so I knew immediately things weren't right.

"Sure," I said, "But where's the bike?"

"He was in an accident.", she said, "and he totaled it and had head injuries and injuries all over his body. She went to the pickup where Bear was laying, put down the tailgate, pulled out a ramp and wheeled him down it. I ran over to help.

"What the fuck? Why isn't he in the hospital?" I was looking at her in amazement.

"He's OK he just looks bad is all." She motioned towards his broken and bandaged body. "Besides," she continued, "they were trying to poison him. Besides, I am a registered nurse and I have a lot of morphine to keep the pain down for him."

What fucked up mess were they into?

I couldn't believe what she was saying. Bear looked like a total mess and the last place he should be was in our house. I started to wonder who was after them. NanoNurse didn't want to talk about it. I noticed bruises and scratches on her. Pain seemed to drift through the air like the scent of Magnolias.

"If he don't get any better though I might take him to a hospital here."

INDEED I thought.

She spent the next couple of days drugging Bear to make things easier for him. The house was grim and none of us liked it much. It's one thing to take care of a sick friend but quite another to take care of someone that clearly should have better medical care. My roomates and I got together and decided that we would either talk her into taking him to the hospital where he belonged or call an ambulance. The problem was that no matter how much she changed bandages and sponged him down he started to smell and was 'leaking' on the bed. Stuff was oozing and we were afraid he was going to die.

"You need to take him to the hospital." I told her.

She thought about that for a moment. "OK, help me get him into the truck. No...better yet...let's call an ambulance."

I heard her explain to Emergency Services what was going on. They arrived and carried Bear out like a chunk of wrapped up meat, then off to a hospital somewhere. She followed and stayed most of the night there. We were all relieved when we went to the club for our nightly gig later that evening. I thought about her and Bear most of that night while playing and I was ready to go home and get smashed on cheap wine the rest of the night. But I had to wait a few more hours until the gig was mercifully over. None of us played well that ngiht. Besides, it was a light crowd anyway.

We got home and I grabbed a couple of joints and stumbled into my bedroom and turned on the TV to watch an old movie in the early morning hours. I then began the process of numbing myself for no particular reason. It was simply something to do. I fell asleep after watching "Freaks" and the start of "Midnight Cowboy". I had no dreams and I felt no pain. Sleep was a silky travel into the subconscious where I must have floated around and saw nothing there. Surely, that put a grin on my face.

Later in the morning, I woke up with her asleep next to me. She must have been sleeping lightly.

"He went into a coma right after we got him there." I could tell she had been crying; her eyes were red. "Remember what I told you a month ago?" I nodded like I knew what she meant. "I need that now from you." she said. "That much I can take care of." she giggled.

BearTheBiker never regained consciousness as far as I knew and NanoNurse quickly drifted out of our lives for good.