Follow Your Heart

It was another one of those nights. Thoughts raced through my head and I just couldn’t fall asleep. I tried counting sheep but the thoughts kept interfering. It seemed the night would never end. Only when my clock sounded the alarm and woke me, I realized - it had ended … As I had done every day for the last year, I got up, took a shower, got dressed and went downstairs to start my day as Ms Baum's private nurse. I prepared her breakfast, gave her her medication and changed her bed sheets – these tasks made up my daily routine. I’m not a qualified nurse but managed to get the job – which also included the household maintenance – thanks to years of experience as a hospital volunteer. I despised it. Every morning I woke up promising myself that today I would quit. For some reason, I never did. I actually had no reason to hate my job. In fact, everything appeared to be perfect: I was very well paid, the house was magnificent, and from the window of my room I could see the vast blue sea. I wouldn’t have had that had I stayed in my home town. But, Ms Baum was… how can I put it? She was an ongoing nightmare to herself and the entire universe. She was so bitter, sarcastic and scornful that despite her illness, I couldn’t find it in my heart to pity her. And whilst I knew that witches only existed in fairytales, a few months with Ms Baum made me think otherwise.