Reunion in the Operation Theater

Worth the Wait

Ellen pursed her lips tightly and wrapped her coat firmly around herself. Her hair was falling loosely around her apparently in a mess as if she had come right off her bed. The hastily tied shoelaces were already coming undone. Her clothes were mismatched; she had put on an orange sweatshirt over her pajamas and wrapped her coat over it in a hurry which looked pretty odd. She brushed a strand of hair aside from on top of her droopy eyelids. She would occasionally reach her hand up to her mouth to muffle a yawn. She rubbed her eyes yet again. With a sigh, she leaned back on the bench and closed her eyes. This was the longest night of her life! She folded her hands inside her pockets; bored to death.

Her mother was pacing in the corridor of the waiting area, her face deathly white. Ellen knew that she should probably be consoling her since her mother’s mother was fighting life and death in the operation room.

Technically, Ellen had been woken up in the night by her mother who was in a panic, Ellen’s grandmother Nelly’s kidneys had failed and she was admitted into the hospital immediately. After that, it was all a blur. Changing into her clothes, jumping into the car and rushing off to the hospital and now they had been waiting not so patiently in the waiting area for almost two hours. The only thing Ellen was glad about was that she could miss school. Lost in thought, Ellen twirled a strand of hair around her fingers, that’s when she saw her mother headed towards her direction. Mrs. McGills was glancing at her watch worriedly as she sat down by her daughter’s side. Even though they were dry, Ellen saw a grave look in her eyes. She had never seen her mother like this, so grim and teary-eyed. All the fourteen years of her life Ellen had observed her mother to be a tough person. Her mother had been four when her father had left them and then, even before Ellen was born, her husband died.

“Ellen dear, it’s almost three in the morning and there’s no news from the surgeons, will you please go and see if the doctors can tell you anything.

Ellen nodded and stood up, giving her mother’s hand a light squeeze. When she arrived outside the operation theater, she saw a few nurses but no doctors. Some people were sitting on benches, apparently waiting. Several seemed to be pacing the floor. Ellen was about to turn around when her shoelace got entangled with her other foot and the next moment, she came crashing to the floor. ‘Ow’ was all she could say.

People with alarmed expressions had turned to look at the girl on the floor. In a trice, a hand was helping her up. She might have twisted her ankle a bit, but it didn’t really hurt. The girl who had helped her up now led her to an empty bench and sat down beside her. She had jet black curly hair, freckles and deep brown eyes.

“Are you alright?” she asked, concern written all over her face.

Ellen nodded with flushed cheeks and managed to murmur a barely audible thank you. The girl smiled and thrust out a hand,

“My name is Erica O’Neil, what’s yours?”

“I am Ellen McGill”.

There was an awkward pause while both the girls gazed into space. A moment later, they both spoke up, almost in unison,

“So…”

Then they both burst out laughing. Erica said with a smile, her short curly hair bobbing up and down as she did so,

“You go first”.

Ellen shrugged, biting her thumbnail, began to speak hesitatingly,

“Well…I haven’t much to tell, my grandmother is in the operation theatre right now and…”Erica cut in,

“Mine too, except it’s my grandfather and he’s the only relative I have”.

“I am so sorry Erica”

“No don’t be, there’s this friend of my grandfathers who is looking for my grandmother and her daughter, hopefully, they’ll take me in if he is able to find them. If not, I’ll be sent abroad to live in a boarding school”.

“Oh, quite complicated”.

“Yeah I know, it is, right?”

“Hmm…I hope you don’t mind me asking, were they divorced or something. You don’t have to tell me about it if you don’t want to…”

“No, it’s fine; I see no reason why you shouldn’t know. His daughter…”

“Ellen, thank God I found you. Where were you for the past half hour?”, said Ellen’s mom as she came running down the aisle towards them, then noticing Erica, her expression softened and she came up to shake hands and to be introduced to the freckle-faced girl.

Ellen quickly spoke up, “Mom, this is Erica, Erica meet my mother. I tripped and Erica here helped me up. We have been talking since and it totally slipped my mind why I had come here”.

Ellen’s mother looked at Erica appreciatively and thanked her, then she asked if Ellen was ok, “The doctor just informed me that they had successfully transferred a pair of kidneys from an old, dying man willing to donate his kidneys. Your grandmother is thankfully out of danger now. You can come see her if you want to…”

Ellen turned to Erica as her mother turned and went away, “Thanks Erica for everything. I shan’t forget you, here is my number”, she said, pulling out a piece of paper and quickly scribbling on it with a pen, “We can probably be pen pals and I hope you don’t get sent to boarding school like you said”.

“I hope so too and I promise to keep in touch. I…I hope we meet again, Ellen”.

With that, Ellen turned and followed her mother, she had made such a nice friend and to think that she would never even see her again. The story doesn’t end here.

If Ellen would have looked behind her back, she would have seen a nurse coming up to Erica to inform her about the death of her grandfather.

 A teary-eyed Erica was lead towards the operation theater to see him for the last time before his funeral. Whether it was by pure coincidence or sheer luck, Erica found herself once again in the presence of the McGills. Apparently her grandfather’s and Ellen’s grandmother’s beds were separated by a thin sheet of curtains.

“Ellen?”

Ellen turned from her grandmother’s side and stared, “It’s you”. Then she quickly excused herself and came running over

 “Are you here to meet your grandfather too?”

“Yes…and no”.

“What do you mean?”

“Well… he died…”

“Oh…I am so sorry”.

“No, it’s ok”

“Where’s he by the way?”

Erica stared at her with a blank expression.

“No, No. I don’t mean that, what I mean is…where is his…um…body”.

“Oh, he’s beside your grandmother’s bed, right there”.

“Oh, really! You must come and meet my grandmother; she says he’s the one who donated those kidneys”.

Erica was speechless. She followed Ellen dumbfounded towards her grandmother’s bed.

“Gran, this is Erica I told you about and Erica, this is my grandmother. She says that’s her grandfather”, said Ellen excitedly pointing towards the bed nearby,”What did you say was his name?”

Erica smiled, “I don’t think I mentioned it, but his name was Alexander O’Neil. Erica and Ellen looked at each other, both the older women seemed frozen. After a moment’s awkward silence, Mrs. McGill cleared her throat and said in a squeaky sort of voice,

“I think we should leave them alone to talk for a while, Ellen”.

Ellen gazed at her mother and her grandmother, she had never been so confused in her life.

“Mom…” she began when they were standing outside the operation theater, “What is it?”

Her mother sighed and nodded, “Alexander Gladstone married Nelly when he was 26. A year later, they had a baby girl whom they named Molly. Then four years after that, Alexander mysteriously ran away leaving his family stranded…he…must have married someone else by then, so it appears that very much like you, Erica is also his granddaughter”.

“You should be shaking me awake at this point, right. I mean, it’s not as if it’s all real or anything”.

Molly shook her head, “It’s not a dream, dear, and it’s all real! If you want, I could pinch you too. Here…”

Ellen jumped back laughing, “I don’t need to get pinched. I am pretty much convinced that everything that’s happening is sort of real”.

Her mother narrowed her eyes, “Sort of…real?”

“Okay, okay. It’s the reality, fine?”

“Better, want to go in and check on them?”

“Sure. I am so excited, Erica is going to be…like a sister right”

“Hmm…”

The Sun was pouring in through the window above Nelly Gladstone’s bed; she sat there with her two granddaughters, daughter and the birds peeking in at the window. Erica looked up, she was glad she didn’t have to go to boarding school, on the other hand, she looked around herself, she had met her grandmother at last and what about Ellen, she had always wanted a cousin like her, she was contented and had to admit that it was all worth the wait!