Mary Kinzie Prize for Fiction
An excerpt from Lydia’s story:
J preferred addressing the patients as residents just as he preferred residents think of
him as a server or part of the housekeeping staff rather than an orderly. The diners could never leave tips because they “forgot their purse in the car”, but they’d say “thank you” whenever they asked for the check. Residents that knew they were patients put together that their servers were orderlies and, after that, made no attempt to remember their Texan manners. Special swears were reserved for the needle-bearing nurses. Carole was the exception. For two reasons, Carole stood out to J: she stayed when other residents “left,” and she clamped her mouth shut when she felt her brain was slipping away. The result was, whenever they spoke, that Carole maintained her personality about as much as Jose did when on the job.