Marina walked down the dingy white hall to the double exit doors and out into the fresh air. The dull grey and green tiles were dusty and scuffed. Thankfully the hospital had banned smoking anywhere on hospital property and she could walk outside without having to hold her breath until she cleared the smoking area. Twelve hour shifts were annoying as hell. Nursing was more complicated than it used to be. Patients weren’t the same. Families weren’t the same. Nothing was the same.
The sun had already set. Even though Fall was her favorite time of year, Marina hated that when she left for work in the mornings, it was still dark and when she left work to come home, it was dark. She hated the dark. It made going to the movies and out at night difficult, but she managed when she had to.

This was her last shift at a hospital for a while. She had accepted a position working as a private duty travel nurse. She wanted to travel. The company that hired her made an amazing offer. They would do all the legwork for her licensure in other states and countries if she would provide them with information and a limited power of attorney to manage her records. It would require her getting fingerprinted a few times, but that would be much easier than her previous jobs working as a travel nurse. Private duty was going to be new. In all honesty, the pay wouldn’t measure up to what she had made previously, but since they were handling all the travel and feeding her, it would work out fairly well. She would rent her house out to some friends while she was gone.