Looking For Leo: Gloria Nagy
Looking For Leo
What’s a Nice Girl Like You…
A Cockroach woke her up up. This was a change. Usually it was the janitor, banging his filthy mop against the metal pail, the breakfast carts rattling down the hall, the morning shift taking over from the night shift. Annoying, but still somehow appropriate. A cockroach, however, crawling up her leg as she tried to sleep in a “parent’s sleeper chair” on the floor of the pediatric intensive-care unit of Beth Sinai Hospital, in New York City, was not at all reassuring. However, it did provide the perfect outlet for all her frustration, rage, and terror.
Never one to look any kind of gift, equine or otherwise, in the mouth, Lindy Lampi swallowed her revulsion, scooped the foul, noxious beastie up in a disposable rubber glove, and marched down the hall in her shocking-pink satin Victoria’s Secret pajama suit, into the elevator, up to the top floor, and right through the Private, No Admittance door to the office of the chief administrator.
“This! This vile, disease-ridden symbol of filth and sloppiness crawled up my leg, right next to my child’s bed! This is not, I repeat, not acceptable! Do you hear me? I want an army of cleaning people in Pediatrics this morning! I want Lysol. Pine Sol. Ajax. Windex. Fantastik. 409. Clorox. I want clean! Do you understand? Sparkling, sterilized, clean! Or I am taking this little sucker to The New York Times, whose managing editor is one of my closest friends! Children are clinging to life up there!
