Relocation (445 words)

He was nervous. He knew that today was important, everyone had been telling him so. There came a knock on the door, but before he got across the room to open it, two middle aged ladies walked in, one he recognised as his friend Mary. "This is the lady I told you about Malcolm. Remember, we talk about it yesterday?" queried Mary. He had forgotten, and new people make him anxious. Her name was Mrs.Redcliff , a care worker from another home more suitable for people with higher support needs. She had come to assess whether Malcolm's state was deteriorating, whether he needed extra care due to his increasing bad nerves. But Mary had told Malcolm all of this, so for him not to worry. All he needed to know was that a friend, Mrs.Redcliff , was coming over for a chat. "Oh, the Lady? Yes yes, I remember.", replied Malcolm. He offered the two ladies the same seat in thecorner; Mary took a seat on the bed.

Mary had grown found of Malcolm, he was not as inappropriate as the other patiences at the home. He had settled in quite nicely, made himself a handful of good friends, and was seen as the local comedian. All in all, he had made a good routine for himself. Theseassessments where just procedural. That didn't stop Mary from worrying though, she knew Malcolm would close up, portray himself in a worse light than was necessarily true.

"Mary tells me you know some good jokes?". Malcolm pause a bit, and turned sheepishly to look at Mary, waving he hands and mouthing, "Go On."

"What did zero say to eight? Nice Belt!" Malcolm come burst into laughter at his own joke. Mrs. Redcliff smiled, "Do you tell that joke often Malcolm?" And so it started, difficult question upon difficult question, Malcolm all the time freezing up, feelingthe tears swelling up within his eyes. Not one right answer came out of his mouth. And though Mary tried to rephrase what Malcolm said, she feared that all was going wrong for the poor man.

After twenty minutes Mrs. Redcliff asked Malcolm again, "Say, do you know any good Jokes?".

"What did zero say to eight?", replied Malcolm.

"Do you know who I am Malcolm?" Mrs. Redcliff started to explain to him, as simply as she could. In her opinion, Malcolm difficulties where too severe, and warranted his movement to a different home. had Malcolm full understood, maybe he would have noticed Mary's long face as she escorted Mrs.Redcliff out of the room. He knew something important had changed, but now it was lunchtime and his audience awaits.