Merlin in a Nursing Home

A Story by Karl Herzog

Young man gets a job as a wardsmen at a nursing home to meet a strange resident who turns out to be Merlin the Druid.

Nathan Moffatt was jobless; he did a few cleaning jobs at his church but nothing serious. His girlfriend, Kylie was a getting tired of it. She was a Goth chick with a broad mind but Nathan was a conservative, Sunday church boy. They were the perfect odd couple.

Nathans mum was also sick of him bumming at home. So she got him a job as a wards-man at a nursing home. Nathan protested, he wanted a desk job.

"Beggars can't be choosers!"

She said as she slammed the job ad on the cluttered dining room table, Nathans dad looked on passively as he stood by the glass sliding door with a giant mug of coffee.

"I've called the manager, Frank about you. All's you got to do is send your resume...."

Nathan groaned as his mother tapped the add with her finger.

"Can't I just e-mail it?"

She brushed the add closer to him.

"Whatever...just.....YOU NEED A JOB, NATHAN!"

The mum squawked as she walked into the kitchen. His dad rummaged through the plastic crate they used as a recycling bin and pulled out discarded junk mail. Nathan's dad tried to distract the awkwardness by reading out the TV guide.

"Oh look, the movie tonight is 'Working 9-5' with Dolly Parton....oh!"

Nathan stormed off at the reference, went into his room and slammed the door. Nathan dialled the number for the job ad in his mobile. It rang three times until someone answered.

"Hello, I'm Nathan Moffitt. I'm enquiring about the job ad in....oh."

That's when he realised he got the answering machine. Nathan looked at his watch.

"Ok, 7pm so the office should be closed"

Straight away he hanged up, sat down by his cluttered table he used for an office desk, turned on his PC, logged onto the internet and started typing a job e-mail.

Two days later after phone call ping pong and an interview, Nathan got the job. He started Thursday that week. The senior wards-man was showing him around the nursing home. As they walked past the glass sliding doors that opened to the courtyard Nathan saw an oak tree with a gaping hole in its trunk, big enough to walk into. Waldo stopped as Nathan stared at the gaping hole.

"That's the court yard. You're not supposed to smoke there but people do anyway."

Waldo said in his deep African-American voice. He looked at his watch and pointed down the hallway.

"C'mon! It's time to show you our new arrival."

They started walking down the hallway and turned left into a communal lounge room where one old man with long grey hair and a beard was watching the TV with amazement.

"We found this guy in our court yard early in the morning a few days ago."

Both stood in the doorway and looked on as the old man showed amused and shocked reactions to what was on TV.

"What's his name?"

Asked Nathan which Waldo replied with a chuckle

"Don't know, we just call him Miley."

Nathan just looked puzzled.

"As in Miley Cyrus?"

Waldo laughed even harder.

"No! Because when we ask his name he just points to himself and says 'Miley' or some s**t like that. No one understands him, he just mumbled so foreign s**t."

Nathan didn’t like to stereotype but Waldo was starting to resemble the Gangsta Rap artists he used to listen to when he was ten years old. That was a brief stage before his mum caught an ear of Nathan singing the lyrics, yelled at him, washed his mouth with soap and water then trashed what rap CD’s he had. He didn’t dare listen to them again.

Didn’t help that Waldo looked like a gangsta rapper but he seemed ok, except Nathan was detecting a lack of respect towards Miley. There was something different about the old man, his demented ramblings sound more like a foreign language than gibberish. Throughout the next week Nathan made mental note of what words Miley was using and what he was referring to. Nathan was right! Miley was speaking another language! Two weeks into the job and Nathan was fascinated with Miley. He would work on him much as possible and talk about him a lot.

Sunday at home, Nathan’s family had Grandma Moffitt for traditional roast. Nathan was talking about the words Miley was using until his grandmother's face light up.

"Wait....that sounds like a Welsh word!"

Nathan got all excited.

"Grandma, is that Gaelic you're talking about?"

Grandma Moffitt got really animated.

"Why yes! The language has changed since ancient times but they still speak it in Wales, Ireland and Scotland."

Nathan spoke some familiar words that Miley used and although they were different his Grandma could recognise them. After an animated discussion long after the table was cleared and everyone was away, Grandma Moffitt agreed to visiting Miley next Saturday. Nathan couldn't wait.

The day came and Grandma Moffitt was introduced to Miley. The Nursing home approved of the visit as management was a lot more relaxed. Miley had no known relatives so staff figured any visit would be good for him. They sat in the Nursing Home’s dining area with tea and talked for ages. Nathan thought all was well until the trip home. Grandma Moffitt wouldn't discuss anything until they were inside Nathan’s home, sitting down and having tea. Nathan was losing patience.

"Well!?"

Grandma started to talk.

"Turns out there's a good reason why he's in a nursing home. The old man's daft, love! I'm sorry."

Nathan was stunned and finally asked.

"What.....what do you mean?"

"For starters his name's Myrlin not Miley. He thinks he's Merlin the Magician!"

She laughed.

"What else did he say?"

"He says he stepped into a tree where his wife Nimue lives only he thinks he picked the wrong tree. He walked through and exit into a rock garden surrounded by four brick walls."

Nathan leaned back and it dawn on him.

'The courtyard.'

She continued.

"He keeps saying he wants to return to Nimue."

While Grandma Moffitt was talking, Nathan was having a flashback to a poem that Kylie wrote for him.

‘Nothing else would make me happy to spend eternity with you in an enchanted tree...'

Nathan cringed at the pagan undertones but couldn’t help but learn about Celtic mythology from Kylie as it was one of her passions. Nathan realised his memory was taking him off track.

"Wait a minute....Myrlin, Merlin the Magician, Nimue, enchanted tree.....he speaks Gaelic...."

It was coming together; Miley was Myrlin the Wizard. If he was a crazy person or con artist the old man had done way too much research and gone to great lengths to impersonate someone and with nothing to gain.

Nathan needed to see Kylie.

"Thanks heaps, Grandma! I gotta' go!"

He ran out of the house. Kylie lived on the other side of town and he didn't have a license, buses weren't too good so a cab will have to do.

Thirty minutes and twenty-five dollars later Nathan got to Kylie’s place. A basic but decent two level flat. She was surprised Nathan showed up. They went upstairs, made out for a bit until Nathan said what he was there for. Kylie was excited that Nathan wanted to learn about Celtic mythology. She explained the entire Arthur and Merlin legend. After hearing the Arthur story and there was a brief moment when Kylie wasn’t talking Celtic history, Nathan explain his theory about the old man at the nursing home.

"Kylie…. I’m convinced Miley isn't a senile old man. I think he's actually Myrlin the Druid. I want to send him back where he belongs."

She just grinned and said.

"Maybe you should say his name backwards five times, real fast."

She smiled and laughed but Nathan felt a wave of frustration, he made the long, expensive journey, sat through a history lesson, reveal his ‘crazy’ theory but she just laughed at him. He stormed off

Nathan was angry but he was more determined to start planning on how to get Myrlin home, so he caught the bus back. During the one-and-a-half-hour journey he figured out that the tree must be a doorway from modern day Australia to Early Medieval Britain. Problem is the doorway only opens once a year and that was on Samhain which Nathan had enough knowledge to know that was a few nights ago. Nathan had nearly a year to wait.

'Better start learning Gaelic.'

He thought to himself.

'Got a year to learn it.'

Time went by and Nathan developed a good friendship with Myrlin. Their conversations were mostly about philosophy, so Nathan started to read more about philosophy and world religions. He stopped going to church every Sunday but read the bible every day. Nathan eventually left the church when his reverend preached.

"Christians are the chosen race of God!"

That's the turning point Nathan noticed he'd changed. He realised the universe is vast and there's a lot more to the world. He walked out of that church, walked through a pine Forrest nearby and dropped by a suburban cafe for tea. He felt liberated, serene as if his mind had broadened.

His relationship with Kylie deepened with him starting to show more interest in Celtic Mythology.

Samhain night came and Nathan managed to get Myrlin to the courtyard by the oak tree. They saw the hole in the tree, an owl hooted, they turned to look and when their heads turned back to the tree there was an old style wooden door.

"That is my exit from this world. Thank you, Nathan!"

Nathan embraced Merlin and said.

"Your people believe in more than one God and that’s ok. My people just have one and I'll pray to it that you get to wear you need to go safely!"

Merlin appeared touched by the sentiment. A Christian wishing a Pagan farewell, that was a new experience. He opened the door, walked through the brightness, the door slammed shut behind him.

Nathan stood alone for a long time until he realised.

'Well I'm at work.... guess I should probably do something.'

© 2017 Karl Herzog

Author's Note

Although the idea is amusing I've labeled this as Fantasy as there's little humour in it and the story is based around Celtic Mythology.

My Review

Would you like to review this Story?
Login | Register

Reviews

Karen Redburn

I enjoyed this tale immensely! Such a wonderful story of a boy coming of age through a job in which a magical legendary figure is the teacher. It is fantastical and yet the realism that comes along with learning about other beliefs and religions gave it an authentic feel. Nice work, my friend, cheers!