The money arrived on time. When he woke up, Roberto found a new letter in the mailbox marked “Villa degli Amorini.” Inside were eighty euros. Roberto added them to those he had received the day before.

He spent most of the afternoon smoking and messing around on his phone.

At nine in the evening he left the house and went to work.

As usual, after the metamorphosis he headed to the locker room to undress, but for the first time he wasn’t alone. There was a burgundy goblin who was taking off his women’s clothes. A pink Nike sweatshirt, black leggings, white Air Max shoes with a frayed pink logo.

“Hello,” Roberto greeted.

“Hello,” the burgundy goblin echoed. His voice was indistinguishable from that of any other goblin, nasal and shrill. The fact that it was a woman could only be guessed from her clothing.

“What’s your name?” Roberto asked.

“G381, you?” the wine-colored goblin replied.

“I’m G379. If your ID is a three hundred, that means you’ve been assigned to the women’s section, right?” Roberto inquired.

“That’s what the superintendent said,” G381 confirmed.

“Good, me too. If you want, I’ll lead the way,” Roberto offered as he took off his black sweatshirt, assuming that G381 had just been hired.

G381 nodded absentmindedly. He needed to undress, but he seemed uncomfortable with the idea of doing so. Roberto, remembering his hesitation on the first day, pulled down his pants and showed him that there was no need to be afraid. Their genitals had disappeared. Perhaps, seeing his spontaneity, G381 found the courage to imitate him.

As soon as they were naked, the two goblins left the locker room. Roberto walked ahead and G381 followed. They walked to the elevator, called it, and Roberto invited G381 to get in first. Then he went in himself, pressed the button marked “3,” which turned red, and the elevator began its ascent, until the doors opened with a chime in front of the women’s ward. Along the way G381 stared straight ahead, and they didn’t exchange a single word.

Together they went to the infirmary, where G307, G323, and G345 were waiting for them.

Seeing them arrive, G307, turning to G381, observed: “You’re new.”

“I’m G381,” the burgundy goblin said.

G307 nodded and introduced himself and the remaining goblins. Then he announced: “It’s ten o’clock now, time to start the shift. Let’s go put the old ladies to bed.”

The goblin gang headed to the recreation room to begin their usual, frantic chase after the old ladies.

While Roberto was carrying out his task, now with a certain amount of expertise, he glanced at G381 to see how he was doing and if he needed help. Unexpectedly, he didn't seem uncomfortable at all and showed a certain amount of confidence. Still, he was a mess.

G381 screamed louder than all the other goblins put together, knocked over glasses and flower pots, then pushed them into a corner with the broom he had adopted as a truncheon, tripped the old ladies by slipping between their feet, and when it came to moving those in wheelchairs, he ran and stopped suddenly, making them slide forward.

Soon the room emptied, and only one old lady remained tenaciously glued to her chair.

As usual, Genoveffa didn't want to leave the recreation room. As usual, the other goblins entrusted Roberto with the task of convincing her. This time, however, they asked G381 to help him.

When the two goblins found themselves facing Genoveffa, she began, turning to Roberto: “You again. It really seems that fate wants us to settle the score we have pending.”

Roberto, showing off a further evolution of his eloquence with the residents, replied: “I thought about what you told me yesterday. It makes no sense. I mean the matter of legal incapacitation.”

G381 was quivering, impatient.

Genoveffa continued her conversation with Roberto, raising her voice: “It doesn’t? So tell me, what could a stupid goblin possibly know about how legal incapacitation works?”

“I did some research today,” Roberto replied: “I tell you there is some hope of making it, of getting out of it.”

G381 shifted his gaze from Roberto to Genoveffa, without understanding what they were confabulating. The only thing that mattered to him was that the old lady had to go back to her room, because after that there was more work that had to be done. So he blurted out, waving his broom: “What the fuck are you talking about, G379? She just has to go to bed! to bed! Is it that complicated?!”

Genoveffa slammed her hands on the table in front of her, shaking the burraco cards on top of it, and stood up. Then she snatched the broom from G381’s clutches, and gripping it with both hands like a baseball bat, she swung a blow at his side, knocking him off his feet. After a flight of about four meters, G381 got up and ran away, screaming: “She’s dangerous! She’s dangerous! I’ll go get the others!”

Genoveffa’s eyes clearly showed her intentions. Roberto knew very well that he would be next. Despite his fear, he spoke to her with open heart: “We don’t have much time, the others will arrive soon. I’m serious. You can continue to vent your violence with miserable goblins to drown your suffering or choose to leave this place. The choice is yours.”

Genoveffa denied, furious: “No! It’s not like that! If my daughter, who is my guardian and my only relative, does not choose to revoke the incapacitation, it will not be revoked!”

“You can find a lawyer who will send a letter to a public prosecutor to explain your situation and ask him to revoke it. You can go see a neurologist who will prove that you are not demented and that your mind is sound,” Roberto explained.

“And where will I find the money to do all this?!” Genoveffa shouted.

Roberto tried to find a solution, grasping at straws: “We’ll see about the money! I could find a new job that pays better! I could ask my parents for a loan! If you need a hand, I’ll give it to you! Hit me if it makes you feel better! But that’s not the help you need!”

Unexpectedly, Genoveffa appreciated Roberto’s attempt, even if he had only told her a load of bullshit. An incoherent attempt to tame her with vain hopes. Still, she wanted to reward the goblin’s empathetic impulse. Genoveffa’s face softened and she threw the broom to the ground. Then, without replying, she headed for the door of the recreation room. When she was about to reach it, the four goblins on duty burst in, making a racket. She simply pushed them away and went to sleep.

Roberto stood for a few moments looking at his colleagues, who reproached him: “Well? Are you going to move your ass?”

The five buckets of water and piss had already been prepared at the end of the corridor, and the washing of the floors could begin immediately. G381 was energetic but very ineffective. He would run around, leaving large areas unwashed surrounded by thin puddles, and then yell, “I’m done here!”

Even when it was time to take the residents’ vital signs, Roberto noticed that G381 was acting weird. He asked to write down the values on the grid, but he didn’t know the patients’ names. Instead of asking who they were visiting, he wrote down the results at random. The other goblins had no complaints about this, so Roberto also fell silent.

At five past ten it was time to change the diapers and empty the catheter bags. Since they were behind schedule, G307 suggested that they split into three groups to get the job done more quickly.

Once again, G381 was paired with Roberto.

The two of them were to take care of rooms 310 through 314. From the beginning things didn’t go smoothly. Roberto quickly realized that doing the job alone, moving the women’s heavy bodies and holding them still while they were scrubbed with sponges soaked in freezing water, was really tiring. Doing it with G381 made it even harder. The wine-colored goblin had brusque manners and was hasty, he often forgot to put the disposable pad under the patients’ pelvises and the sheets got stained with feces, so they had to be changed. Nevertheless, they muddled through the first four rooms.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

When it was Ginevra's turn at room 314, things spun out of control.

G381 shook the old paraplegic woman, yelling, "Wake up! Wake up! We have to change your diaper!"

Ginevra opened her eyes wide and protested, "My God, what manners! Go ahead, but there's no need to yell."

Without wasting a second, G381 grabbed the edges of the diaper and pulled, sliding it down the old woman's fat, flabby legs. The laxatives Ginevra had been fed in abundance over the past few days to treat her obstinate constipation had had their effect, and a tide of steaming diarrhea overflowed from the diaper, staining her buttocks and loins.

"Fuck, G381! It's the third time!" Roberto exclaimed, putting his hands to his head in a gesture of desperation.

G381 shrugged, while Ginevra, feeling wet, kept repeating: “Oh my! Oh my! Oh my!”

“Fine, we have to change the sheets on this bed too. Let’s clean her up and put her in her wheelchair. But be careful: she’s heavy,” Roberto concluded resolutely.

They quickly wiped Ginevra’s back with a sponge and, after placing a disposable pad on the seat of the wheelchair, Roberto and G381 helped the old lady sit down and positioned themselves at her sides.

“Now we put our hands under her armpits and on the count of three we lift her up. Be careful!” Roberto commanded.

“One… two… three!”

Ginevra was lifted about ten centimeters, but when it was time to rotate her toward the chair, her limb slipped from G381’s grip. The woman landed on her ass with a loud thud and began to wail like a crazy siren.

“Oops, I just let her go,” G381 justified himself, looking innocent.

Ginevra was screaming at the top of her lungs, unable to utter a single word that made sense, and her plump face was red from the effort.

“Okay, okay, I know what we have to do,” Roberto said as a rush of adrenaline ran through his wasted little body: “Dr. Plakk, I have to call him. You, go find the others and help her get back to bed!”

Mindful of the experience of the previous day, Roberto did everything that needed to be done to the letter. He rushed to the ground floor and looked for Ginevra’s medical file. Ginevra Crescentini, 91 years old. Then he ran to the infirmary booth on the first floor. On the olive-green telephone he dialed “384-3257993”. After five beeps, Roberto heard the rough voice of Dr. Plakk.

“Holy shit. Two nights in a row. Damn, I hate you.”

“Dr. Plakk, we need you.”

“Don’t tell me. You again.”

“Yes. An old lady, Ginevra Crescentini, 91, fell while we were changing her diaper. Her vitals were 135 and 93 for blood pressure, 78 for heart rate, when we measured them last. I have the medical file with me.”

“Oh my, what a good boy. If she fell, she needs to get X-rays. It pisses me off that I have to come over there just to call an ambulance, but unfortunately it’s unavoidable. Put her on a stretcher in the meantime, without moving the parts of her body that are hurt.”

With that, he hung up. There was no one watching him, but Roberto nodded anyway, as if to show he had understood. Then he ran to room 314. The four goblins were looking at the collapsed and agonizing old woman with their arms folded, like forensic police officers observing a crime scene in a TV series. They hadn’t moved a muscle yet.

“Dr. Plakk told me to put her on a stretcher!” Roberto explained, agitated.

“Okay, but you wait for him and talk to him. That way you’ll learn to do things your own way,” G307 replied, turning to Roberto.

By the time the goblin team managed to lift Ginevra and put her on the stretcher, moving her painful thigh far too much, amidst piercing screams of pain, it was already five minutes past six. The shift was over, and Roberto was left alone to wait for Doctor Plakk to arrive.

At seven past six the elevator trilled, the doors opened, and the immense black figure of Doctor Plakk emerged, dressed exactly as he had the day before.

While he was showing the doctor the way, Roberto couldn’t resist the urge to ask him: “Why are you dressed like that?”

Plakk replied: “Don’t you know? There’s scabies in this place.”

Roberto looked at him in confusion. Partly because he couldn’t assess the reliability of the answer, partly because even though he had heard that medical term he had no idea what scabies was in detail. It definitely had to be something disgusting. But should he have been worried? Was it transmittable? Yes, in all likelihood, or what was the point of walking around dressed like that?

When they reached room 304, where they had left Ginevra strapped to the stretcher and still screaming in pain, Dr. Plakk quickly glanced at her and said, “Right limb externally rotated and shortened. She broke her femur. Great.”

“That whore! She threw me to the floor! That whore!” Ginevra had returned to composing meaningful sentences, but she had lost her usual grace.

Dr. Plakk took his phone out of his trench coat, dialed emergency, and requested an ambulance. Then he stood at the head of the gurney and began to carry her toward the elevator. Roberto followed him, explaining, “My shift is over, I have to get off too.”

The elevator car was quite wide, being used to transport patients. However, given Dr. Plakk’s bulk, it was cramped.

During the short descent, the doctor, perhaps talking to himself, muttered: “How the fuck are you able to work here and have a clear conscience? Villa degli Amorini is the equivalent of a Nazi concentration camp.”

Roberto swallowed that judgment and, pretending not to have heard, asked: “Will she get better?”

The elevator chimed, and the doors opened on the ground floor. It was Dr. Plakk’s stop, but Roberto had to go down one more floor since the changing room was located at the basement.

Pushing the stretcher out, Dr. Plakk replied: “She’s old, and old people’s bones are fragile and tend to heal slowly and badly. The orthopedists probably won’t feel like operating on her. If there are no complications, it’s almost certain that she’ll remain bedridden. It may seem like a small thing, given that there was a wheelchair in her room and I assume she was already no longer walking. But this means that it will be more difficult to move her and that she will develop bedsores. I don’t know for sure how it will go, but I fear it can only get worse.”

The elevator closed in front of Dr. Plakk, and his last sentence was swallowed by the metal doors. But the first part of his answer was enough to grasp the concept.

Although his goblin form dulled all emotions other than anger and resentment, Roberto felt dejected. He advanced toward the locker room while his mind wandered adrift, reflecting on the fact that by making Ginevra fall they had consequently shortened her life. He could not help but see his responsibility in all this.

When he entered the room, the wine-colored goblin had just finished his shower and was starting to dry himself. Roberto wanted to go out with him, to see the face of the girl who was hiding behind the little monster. Maybe he could find something in common with her.

He washed himself as quickly as he could, and when he was finished dressing, G381 was still wearing socks.

“I’ll wait for you,” Roberto told him.

“Do as you please,” G381 replied.

When G381 was ready, they headed together towards the entrance of Villa degli Amorini. Doctor Plakk and Ginevra had already disappeared from the hall.

G381 went through the glass door first. Observing the transformation from goblin to human from the outside was not a pretty sight. G381’s skin paled, while the body deformed, stretching and widening. Brown hair sprouted from her skull like mushrooms and fell just below her neck. Her fingers split in half.

When the girl was completely human again, the first thing she did was to take a cigarette out of her sweatshirt and light it. She wasn’t pretty. Her face was pockmarked and her hair looked greasy. She was plump, and her ass was a shapeless pile of bumps.

After all, not even Roberto could call himself a fashion model. He went out, intending to smoke a cigarette with her. But when he crossed the threshold, when his mind returned to that of a human, his breath caught in his throat. As always, the memories of the night felt like a hazy and distant dream, but a dream in which a person had almost been killed. A dream that was unmistakably reality. He had to talk about it, vent.

“When do they pay? Are they usually on time?” the girl asked point-blank, shaking Roberto from his thoughts, then took a drag on the cigarette.

“Well, yes… eighty euros a day, they send a letter home with the banknotes inside, the morning after the shift,” Roberto replied. Then he added, “The doctor, before he left, said that Ginevra will probably end up bedridden.”

Roberto took a cigarette out of the pack in his tracksuit pocket and put it in his mouth.

“So?” the girl asked.

“Nothing, I thought you wanted to know how it ended. We made her fall,” Roberto muttered.

“You wanted to go out with me to give me a lecture?” The girl was heating up.

Roberto lit the cigarette.

“No, absolutely not,” he denied, puffing smoke. He didn’t want to scold her. He wanted to share the guilt he felt with someone. The girl didn’t understand his intentions.

“I think so, instead. But I’m not the one who’s wrong. When he gave me this job, the director was very clear, and I think he was with you too. No pity, no feelings. Old people have to suffer, but they don’t have to die. If an old woman slips and breaks her leg, it’s collateral damage,” the girl explained, heatedly.

Roberto knew that, it was a rule he had spontaneously accepted, but… he was starting to realize that it wasn’t as simple as he thought. That gratuitous cruelty was starting to weigh on him, and his goblin form was almost no longer enough to dull his sensitivity.

“You don’t really need this job,” the girl continued.

“Excuse me, what?” Roberto asked, perplexed.

“Take me as an example. I have a three-year-old daughter. Her father ran away to God knows where. The social workers are breathing down my neck, they want to take her away from me. I swallowed so much shit, before I received this opportunity. I don’t care if I’m the one who has to feed shit to someone else now.”

Roberto nodded. The girl had been very clear. She had hit the nail on the head.

There was still half a cigarette to smoke, but Roberto threw it on the ground and stepped on it to put it out. “See you tomorrow,” he said.