Elderly people start disappearing from rest homes and retirement villages. No one knows where they are until one brave woman sets off on a journey to find her mother. On the way, she finds others like her, searching for their loved ones. Instead, they find something unexpected.
NURSING HOME-IN THE ROTUNDA
There is a spot where all of the residents gather (or are put) during the day-the nursing home rotunda. Beach chairs and umbrellas create the ambiance. There are no windows- just fluorescent lights. The high-pitched stream of hospital machines fills the background. Mildred, almost 90 years old, stares across the room at a man having a loud conversation with himself. Gertrude is next to her, working painstakingly on her crocheted doily.
Mildred whispers loudly, staring over at the old man yelling in the reclining chair, “I think I went to high school with him.”
Gertrude sarcastically yells back, ‘Ask him where he went to high school!’
‘Shhhhh! He thinks he is talking to his wife”, Mildred explains, ‘She died 10 years ago’.
The old man’s yelling grows louder. ‘What are you saying?!?,’ he screams. A woman’s voice seems to come from nowhere, “I have to go, honey. Will you join me?”
The older man cries, “No, no, no…that is not right…I was here the whole time! I was here with you! You cannot go.” He covers his eyes and cries. “Please come back! She’s gone. The enemy! Nurse!”
Later, in the hallway, the silence is deafening, as if the residents are waiting for a sound that not dares to happen. Out of the corner of her eye, Mildred spots a tall, slender man rounding the corner; he seems to be bouncing, as if he’s walking on air. He drops a pamphlet on a desk in the hallway.
Mildred walks over to the desk and picks up the pamphlet. On the front, she sees a circle of seniors smiling together, holding a drink to the air. It says “Drop Off”.
She reads aloud,
“Your last adventure in your golden years, Why SHOULDN’T you do it? You do not need permission. We will pick you up. Very discreet. Private. No…
