Night at the Nursing Home

Scene: the nursing home into which I walked two nights ago. Three people seated in the hallway in wheelchairs, Claire (my mother), Marge and unknown man.

Claire: Did you talk to Michael?
Me: My brother?
Claire: Yeah.
Me: No.
Claire: You didn't? He was just here. I told him to get me out of here. He was talking to someone right over there and just looked over his shoulder and smiled and left (she gives a dismissive shrug).
Me: Hmm (not mentioning that he works at night).
Claire: You have a coat for me in your car.
Me: No.
Claire: You don't? I just want to inquire about my clothes.
Me: They're probably in your room, at the end of the hall. I'm sure Patty (my sister) brought them here from St. Lawrence (the rehab facility).
Claire: I don't know if that room is open.
Me: Where'd you get the clothes you have on?
Claire: I wore them from home. Yesterday.
Marge: You don't have a coat. That's the first thing I look at before I leave the house. If you're going out tonight, you need a coat.
Claire: It's an old sweatshirt.
Marge: I don't have anywhere to go tonight.
Claire: You could go to jail.
Marge: I don't know about that. My brother used to be in charge of the police. In Trenton. Trenton, New Jersey. You know the circle?
Claire: White Horse (a traffic circle, not in Trenton)?
Marge: Yeah. I used to live by there. My daughter don't live there anymore. She's married and lives with the husband. That's what ladies do. At least the ladies I know.
(Claire looks sideways at me and laughs, as if she and I are the ones in on the joke and everything she has said so far has made perfect sense. If I recall correctly, it's like Danny DeVito laughing at his fellow institutionalized patients in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
Claire: We were talking about cats, and a big one walked right through here and went right up there.
Me: Right there (in the hallway by the nurses' station)?
Claire: Yeah. I think I'm the only one who saw it.
(Elderly man sucks his upper lip into his mouth again, making a Rice Krispies sort of sound.)
Nurse to elderly man: You want to go to bed?
Elderly man: Uh-huh (it's 7:25. Someone wheels him down the hall, and I reposition myself away from the break-room door, next to Marge, so as not to be in the nurses' way).
Marge: I'm trying to see in there (bathroom door behind me). You've been standing in front of me for fifteen minutes.
Me: I'm not in front of you. I'm on the side of you.
Marge: Yeah, I was over there.
Claire: A girl walked out of there yesterday (the bathroom), took her jeans off, rolled them up and threw them against the wall.
Marge: Right there?
Claire: Right between the two doors.
Marge: You might have seen that. I didn't.
Claire (to me): Is my suitcase in your car?
Me: No.
Claire: No? I thought Patty said it was.
Me: I'm sure Patty put it in your room. I brought it up to St. Lawrence.
Claire: So what'd Michael have to say?
Me: I didn't talk to him.
Claire: You didn't? He was just here. Where'd you park.
Me: In the parking lot.
Claire: Yeah? Geez....
Marge: If you're gonna stay, you need somebody to call because you don't know the people. That's my problem. I don't know the people. I used to. Until I turned 80. I know the dogs (she barks twice, and Claire gives me the sideways-laughing look again. Nurse calls housekeeping to clean up spilled milk.).
Janitor: You have a milk spill?
Claire: There was a big blob of it right there (makes a circle about the size of a baseball with her fingers).
Janitor: Where is it?
Nurse: In there (the break room).
Claire: No, it wasn't there, it was in the chapel.
Me: Ma, I'm going.
Claire: Let's go. (She starts to get up out of the wheelchair.)
Me: No, you're staying. See ya later.