The Lady in the Waiting Room

I keep checking my watch every few seconds it seems, getting more impatient by the second that time doesn’t seem to be going any faster. I keep tapping my foot on the floor and shifting in my chair. This is the worst. I look around the waiting room and I see other people sitting around, each with their own panorama of emotions. I touched the tender spot on my temple again, the fresh stitches tingling, and the pain meds seemed to have worked their magic. I can’t help but swing my body forward and back and when I stop for a second, my body still feels like it’s moving. I look to my right and see someone’s child staring at me. You know how some kids are. I look away quickly, my impatience becoming anger. The anger keeps twisting with fear and to my left there is a young woman who keeps looking in my direction slightly, like she’s seeing me in her peripherals. I look ahead at first and just lay my head in my hands, elbows resting on my knees. I feel a small tap on my arm and look to see the woman leaning closer. 

“Do you need anything? I know how hard it can be to wait like this. Not knowing what’s happening is the worst feeling.” At first I shook my head a few times. I know how crazy I must look. I look back at her and just take in her features. Surprisingly, she looked kind of like my younger sister. Slightly lighter hair and eye color than mine, both still brown. Soft facial features, probably older than she looks and she had a kindness and concern in her eyes that could melt anybody. I bet she’s a really nice person. “I.. Uh.. I would say coffee but I have to watch my caffeine in-take. Maybe some tea or something?” The woman nodded gently and stood up, walking away for a few minutes and she came back with a soda and a cup of liquid. The smell when she handed it to me confirmed that it was the tea. She opened her soda and took long gulps that made me want to laugh, but my ability to do so was currently miles away. I sipped the tea and felt better with someone else’s presence. After downing her soda, she just held the empty can in between her hands, gently tapping her painted blue nails on the can. Noises like that would normally bug me, but in this moment it was gracefully distracting.

The woman looked over and smiled, noticing the wedding ring on my finger. She just simply pointed to it and to her own hand and I just nodded. Some part of me wanted to word vomit, but I didn’t like telling my personal life to strangers. You just never know with some people and I have spent a huge chunk of my life trusting the wrong people. The woman then reached into the front of her shirt, to reveal a chain with 2 rings on it. She leaned towards me to let me see and I could barely see engravings. She read them aloud, without even looking at them.

“With love from Sylvia to Mark on his and Love you to the moon and back on mine.” I nodded and smiled slightly, my wife loved the same saying. “To the moon and back” seemed to be picking up traction again. The woman, who I assume is this Sylvia person, keeps talking and I just listen. “It has been 4 years now, since the accident.” She stops for a second and I can tell that she was in the same boat as me. Wanting to pour out your heart, but hesitant. She only sits quietly for about 15 seconds, and then seems to make up her mind. “Mark always loved going out for drives. He had a lot of anxiety problems and when it stirred at night, he loved to go driving and blast music for a bit. I usually went with him, and we would sit somewhere out of town and watch the stars. Or go sit at the Waffle House.” She stops and gives a gentle laugh. Everything about this lady seems so gentle. She rolls the rings in between her fingers, staring off as she continues. “I decided not to go with him that last time because I wasn’t feeling too well. I go over it in my head hundreds of times. I checked myself for a fever, but I was fine. I felt weird in my stomach and it just made me so upset. Mark was already dealing with his own demons and I didn’t want mine to overshadow his. I told him I was tired and would just take a bath or something and he gave me a kiss and walked out the door. The next time I saw him, I was confirming his remains. It just had to rain didn’t it?” Sylvia was looking out somewhere, eyes glazed over in memory. She looked distant and sad, but it wasn’t an active sadness. I could tell that she probably had already grieved as much as she could and that there wasn’t any grieving left. I prayed that I wouldn’t have to face that same pain one day.

Sylvia smiled and perked up, the sparkle coming back to her eyes and she put the rings back in her shirt. She looked at me and smiled. “I don’t mind telling people about how fun Mark was when he was in a good mood. He loved making people laugh, playing on his guitar and singing for people. He had an awesome voice and I still have voicemails saved where he had sung to me while I was at work, leaving them for me to find. I listen to them every once in a while. I have him on video singing too and it’s nice to be able to look back. I just wish that he had been here to really find out why I didn’t feel well that night.” I raised an eyebrow, curious about what she meant. She pulled out her phone and her background was a very young child. My mouth gaped open and she laughed at my reaction. “Yeah, that’s our little girl. Mark would have loved her.” Sylvia stares at the picture for a bit and puts her phone away. She looks around the waiting room and back to the watch on her wrist. I glance at mine just the same. She sighs and looks down one of the hallways in front of us and then back at me. 

“My father is here. He had a little accident at home with a power tool and I’m stuck waiting to see him. I know he didn’t take too much damage, but he was flipping out on the phone. My mother told me it wasn’t that bad, and we both know how much of a baby my dad is when he gets sick or hurt.” Sylvia giggles a bit but sighs again. “It does suck that it’s taking so long to update.” I just nod. I know how she feels. I have been here for a few hours. Just waiting and waiting, with my panic rising each moment that passes. Sylvia looks back to me and I look at her. I figure maybe I can talk now.

“Did you hear about the car accident on New Bound St?” Sylvia’s eyes widened a bit. She nodded hastily, concern growing on her face. I just nod and look down the same hallway she was staring at. I hold for dramatic effect and then keep going. “Well, my wife and I went out for a nice lunch, she’s currently eating for 2, and on the way back home, someone t-boned us in an intersection. Thank god they only hit the back seat on my side, but damn them anyways because my wife still got hurt. I’ve been here for hours now, because the doctors said something about the baby’s heartbeat and my wife did get a little banged up. I only hit my head on the window and got stitched up, but I have no idea what state my wife and our baby is in. We didn’t even know the gender yet because we wanted it to be a surprise. She is close to the due date, but any level of premature scares the hell out of me.” I start shaking while talking and Sylvia puts a hand on my shoulder. It calms me very little and she takes my hand, squeezing it. It was giving me a little comfort but the weight of my situation was pulling me down. The only thing that shifted it, was the doctor that walked through the door a few moments later. 

“Mr. Trenton?” I stand up immediately, Sylvia still holding my hand. The doctor smiles, which makes me breathe better. “Your wife is doing just fine, we were concerned about the baby’s heart rate upon first arrival, but the baby and her are doing great. She had to get a few stitches, but you both will be able to go home today.” I breathed so hard for a few minutes and couldn’t help but hug Sylvia and the doctor. The doctor then looked at Sylvia. “Are you Mrs. Jones?” Sylvia nodded and the doctor smiled at her as well. “Your father is doing just fine. He thought he had cut into an artery but he missed thankfully.” The doctor looked us both over. “We had them for a while to monitor them both and make sure they were doing alright. I can take you both to see them.” Sylvia and I looked at each other and smiled and we followed the doctor down the hallway and separated at each of our people’s rooms. I told Sylvia thank you for the support and got to see my wife, thankful that she was still here with our baby. After being checked out, we got a ride home and our insurance managed to cover the repairs. 

It turned out that the driver who ran into us was actually very sick and had wrecked because he was passing out behind the wheel. He had caught some kind of flu that gave him a high fever, he was delirious and had to be isolated in the hospital. After he recovered, he contacted us and he apologized tremendously to my wife and I and we ended up making friends with him. Sylvia and her parents are doing well too and I told my wife about the lady in the waiting room. My wife wanted us to invite them to dinner and we found them on Facebook. At our next Thanksgiving, we had Sylvia, her parents, her daughter, the man from the accident, my wife, our baby son and myself. Our new friends added to our little family and we had many great holidays to come.