Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Getting Gertie Out
    Getting Gertie Out
    Getting Gertie Out
    Ebook91 pages1 hour

    Getting Gertie Out

    By Paul Alan Fahey

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    It’s summer vacation. Lanta Cross is sixteen and at odds with Bernadette, her adoptive mother. She’ll do anything to get away from home and out from under Bernadette’s considerable thumb.

    Already working one part-time job at a local café, Lanta takes another at Saint Catherine’s Elder Care Facility. At first it appears her duties are something she can do blindfolded -- wheeling residents to and from activities, cleaning up their messes, and mainly staying out of the way of the LVNs and the administrator, Ms. Andrews. During her first week at the home, Lanta meets and befriends an elderly lesbian resident, Gertrude Weiss. They bond quickly.

    Yet not everything is what it seems at St. Catherine’s.

    When Gertrude’s journal full of her thoughts about her late partner goes missing, the abuse begins. Gertrude’s meals are late and cold. Her seemingly friendly roommate asks for a transfer to another room. As the harassment escalates, Gertrude’s physical and emotional health deteriorates.

    Lanta and her mother must pool their resources and work as a team to save Gertrude’s life before it’s too late. Will they be in time?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJMS Books LLC
    Release dateNov 23, 2014
    ISBN9781611527070
    Getting Gertie Out
    Author

    Paul Alan Fahey

    Paul Alan Fahey, author of the writer’s resource, The Short and Long of It, and the Lovers and Liars gay wartime romance series, is also edited the 2013 Rainbow Award-winning nonfiction anthology, The Other Man: 21 Writers Speak Candidly About Sex, Love, Infidelity, & Moving On. For more information, visit paulalanfahey.com.

    Read more from Paul Alan Fahey

    Related to Getting Gertie Out

    Related ebooks

    LGBTQIA+ Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Space Between Us

      Oct 9, 2019

      The Space Between Us
      8 min read

    • Article

      Comfort

      Jan 28, 2023

      Comfort
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Joy Of Quitting

      May 19, 2019

      The Joy Of Quitting
      7 min read

    • Article

      Reflections

      Feb 1, 2019

      Do you know what’s worse than a hypochondriac? A vindicated hypochondriac. You know it’s going to be bad when your GP gets choked up. No one likes telling a mother she’s got cancer. Doctor Tearful needn’t have worried. I’d been working towards this m

      9 min read

    • Article

      Search and Destroy

      Oct 24, 2017

      My daughter has bugs living in her hair. It is my job to kill them. The post Search and Destroy appeared first on Guernica.

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Few Words to the Graduates

      Jun 11, 2018

      A Few Words to the Graduates
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Temporary Arrangement

      Oct 2, 2023

      A Temporary Arrangement
      19 min read

    • Article

      Q-tip Options

      Oct 10, 2023

      I am not a good person. Abby was at my door. My reaction when I saw her should have been more charitable. She was young and cute and needy, but all I wanted was a nice relaxing day at home. When the police questioned her, I should have let them take

      16 min read

    • Article

      Letters From The Pandemic

      Apr 27, 2020

      Letters From The Pandemic
      8 min read

    • Article

      Not Just For CHRISTMAS

      Nov 24, 2021

      Not Just For CHRISTMAS
      9 min read

    • Article

      Where Have All The Young Girls Gone?

      Sep 10, 2022

      The little fat man squirmed in his chair, sweat running down his red cheeks. I thought he was going to cry. Instead, he stared at me as though I had arrived from another planet, an alien being sent solely to torment him. I didn’t know why Professor H

      7 min read

    • Article

      Mothering–The Long Haul by Mandy Nolan

      Mar 4, 2021

      I remember packing my five kids in my Mum van and wondering if I would ever get my life back. The endless shopping, wiping, driving, dropping off, picking up, encouraging, hassling and general micromanaging sometimes made me feel like my head was goi

      3 min read

    • Article

      David Sedaris

      Sep 15, 2017

      Our house on Emerald Isle, The Sea Section, is divided down the middle, and has an E beside one front door and a W beside the other. The east side is ruled by Hugh, and the bedroom we share is on the top floor. It opens onto a deck that overlooks the

      12 min read

    • Article

      Tell Children the Truth

      Sep 14, 2021

      Tell Children the Truth
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Freshening

      Sep 15, 2018

      My cashier’s black hair was beautiful. Though not unlike mine, it was shinier and thicker, and hung glamorously down to her waist. It looked strong, too, like Christopher Reeve’s in the Superman movies. A strand of Superman’s silvery hair could hold

      21 min read

    • Article

      Ann Beattie

      Sep 15, 2017

      I’d started to visit Olivia more often because it was obvious she was lonely. The ALS lady who’d been moved to Hopkins had been Aunt Olivia’s closest friend, leaving aside Merton Hillstead, who actually went home. Even the friendly paperboy who somet

      23 min read

    • Article

      An Unspeakable Life

      Jan 10, 2022

      It was a perfect fall afternoon when Muriel found out she was pregnant. Tourists snatched up apple cider by the gallon at farm stands. Leaf peepers stood on the side of the road with their cameras aimed in all directions; wherever you looked, a quint

      12 min read

    • Article

      Better

      Aug 12, 2019

      Better
      18 min read

    • Article

      Spilt Milk

      Nov 4, 2019

      Spilt Milk
      10 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Jun 1, 2019

      Table Talk
      9 min read

    • Article

      Tender Loving Care

      Sep 8, 2019

      Tender Loving Care
      10 min read

    • Article

      Come with Me

      Dec 1, 2022

      Come with Me
      12 min read

    • Article

      I Used to Give Men Mercy

      Feb 12, 2018

      I Used to Give Men Mercy
      12 min read

    • Article

      Jack Unfiltered Monroe

      Oct 29, 2021

      Jack Unfiltered Monroe
      9 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Getting Gertie Out

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Getting Gertie Out - Paul Alan Fahey

      *

      Special Acknowledgment

      A very grateful thank you to Marie Cartier, author of Baby, You Are my Religion: Women, Gay Bars, and Theology Before Stonewall, for her touching and beautiful article about her friend, Rae, that became the inspiration for writing Getting Gertie Out.

      * * * *

      Visit paulalanfahey.com for more resources on LGBT elder abuse.

      Getting Gertie Out

      By Paul Alan Fahey

      * * * *

      Gay and lesbian elders have lived long enough to see amazing changes: marriage rights, the rise of AIDS activism, celebrities coming out. But there is something that may drive some of them back into the closet: long-term care.

      —Nursing homes can push gay seniors back into the closet, Gay Seniors.com, October 23, 2012.

      * * * *

      Chapter 1: Killing Bernadette

      Chapter 2: Folk

      Chapter 3: For Another Day

      Chapter 4: Community Service

      Chapter 5: Girl Talk

      Chapter 6: Shoot Me First

      Chapter 7: What We Do For Friends

      Chapter 8: Short People with Long Memories

      Chapter 9: We All Love Hugs

      Chapter 10: Holy Maria

      Chapter 11: The Not So Legal Way

      Chapter 12: Getting Gertie Out

      Chapter 13: Loving Bernadette

      Chapter 1: Killing Bernadette

      Sometimes I dream of killing my mother. I’ve read it’s a common thing for teens, but that doesn’t help me much. I know it’s my sub-something or other taking over while I sleep. I read that, too, in a school text. If you knew Bernadette, you’d understand. She’s not my real mother. Biological I mean. She and her late husband, Jim, adopted me as an infant. Sometimes I wonder why my mother gave me away, if Bernadette knows the reason. Was I unwanted, unloved?

      I’m afraid to find out the answer.

      It’s the summer before my senior year. I’m almost seventeen, practically an adult, but Bernadette still treats me like a child. Wants to know where I’m going, what I’m doing, who I’m doing it with—as if I had that many friends to choose from.

      A few weeks back, I got a summer scholarship to a college program in Oregon. Something special for high school kids with decent SAT scores.

      Nope, you’re not going, honey. Too far away. Bernadette came up with tons of excuses. What would she do if the bus had an accident? Then she recited a horror story she’d read online about a school bus full of kids coming home from a college visit; ten kids killed and twelve injured. Definitely something that wouldn’t happen again in a million years.

      La-di-da—tra-la—la.

      Bernadette went on and on, making up silly reasons why my trip couldn’t happen—more dumb stuff. Finally, I wrote the school a letter saying I couldn’t accept the summer scholarship and to give it to someone else. Then I went and found two part time jobs and had the stylist at Quick Clips cut my hair real short. Bernadette hated that.

      You have such beautiful hair, a shade of ebony most girls your age would die for. Why go and chop it all off?

      Why indeed.

      I’m happier when I’m working at the café, bussing tables, setting out places, doing dishes in the kitchen, but at home, well, anyone can see my problem. Everywhere I look, she’s there.

      I start my other part-time job this morning at St. Catherine’s Elder Care. God, I hope it’s not too religious. I’m already having a problem with the old people part. Bernadette says I should call them elderly since it’s more P.C.

      Whatever.

      I just need to make enough money to get out of here. Someday.

      * * * *

      This morning at breakfast was a good example of what I’m talking about. Bernadette shuffled over to me in her padded slippers. The pink ones with the white bows she had me buy her last Christmas. In addition to horrible taste in slippers, she was obviously having a bad hair day; gray and white spiky wisps shot out all over her face like that Greek woman with the snakes on her head.

      Bernadette works five days a week at our library, cataloging and stamping books, and I’ll bet driving people crazy like she does at home. I keep telling her to take better care of her appearance. Run a comb through her hair before she comes down to breakfast, wear a bit more make-up to work, or buy a new dress. Those kinds of things. But will she listen?

      You need to eat something, she said, as I pushed my cereal off to the side. Who knows what they’ll have you doing today.

      Nothing more than wheeling people up and down corridors. I’m supposed to help with the morning activities. Bingo anyone?

      She shook her head disapprovingly and sighed. You should be more respectful of your elders.

      Meaning her.

      I’ll do my best. I started to get up but she pulled out a chair and sat down across from me. She took my hand in hers and held it.

      Not my favorite thing.

      You’re getting along well at the café. You’re used to that job now, right?

      Mm. Hmm.

      This will be different. You won’t be stuck in the kitchen and working behind the scenes. You’ll be interacting with patients, their families, nurses…

      LVNs. I’m not sure they’re really nurses.

      They are, I think, but you have to be professional. Courteous. Smile a lot and treat—

      Treat them and the job with respect. Yes, I get it. You’ve said it a gazillion times. I glanced at my watch, pulled my hand away from hers, and forced a smile. I’ve gotta get going. Don’t want to be late my first day.

      Sound professional enough?

      Did you pack a lunch like I suggested?

      What’s her face said it was only a four hour shift. I’ll grab a bite at the café later.

      Who exactly is ‘what’s her face’?

      "Ms. Andrews, the administrator. She said I’d be dealing mostly with people in

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1