The Waiting room

The dreadfully cheap looking wall clock ticked past another minute. Sarah glanced at her wrist. It didn’t make any difference. The same time as the clock stared back at her. Tick, there went another minute. Why was the time going so fast? She wondered. In places like this, time usually dragged and while it was true that her turn never seemed to come, the actual time available to her, her lunch break, was dwindling fast. At once stage she had even contemplated walking up the hill to do this chore but the worsening weather had convinced her to drive instead , luckily she hadn’t driven she thought as she would have been on the point of giving up by now, had she taken the time to walk up. A middle aged woman sitting next to her put down the magazine she had been flicking through, it was months old, the front cover already irrelevant but Sarah reached over for it and starting doing the same while trying not to breathe in the sterile smell in the room. At the sound of his name, an elderly gentleman slowly pushed himself out of the chair and with the aid of a walking stick, shuffled off towards the corridor. His turn had come. This is crazy Sarah decided and marched up to the reception desk. A bright young thing was seated behind the white melamine desk looking intently at the computer screen, “yes” she enquired as Sarah stood in front of her. “how much longer do you think it will be?’ The words barely out of her mouth when the door crashed open and two men rushed into the room. There was an immediate noticeable change in the room as everyone’s heads snapped up. Almost everyone. In the far corner, a man of similar age to the intruders remained focused on his newspaper then as the two men reached the desk,  he stood up and slipped behind them, closed the door and stood in front of it to block anyone from trying to enter, or exit it appeared.

“We need the results” this was barked out from the older of the two. The other man simultaneously shoved a gun at the receptionist, his mouth turning down in a nasty snarl.  Sarah quickly stepped back and sideways into the corridor out of immediate sight, trying not to inhale the foul smell emanating from both men and crossing her fingers that they hadn’t noticed her in their hurry. A hand came out of a doorway, grabbing at her arm, dragging her into the room. “shush” the owner of the hand held her finger up to her mouth and stepped back, releasing Sarah as she did so. The older man Sarah had noticed earlier was also in the small room, seated in a comfy chair with his arm resting along the chairs arm, his face creased in confusion.

 “What’s happening out there” the phlebotomist asked, her eyes widening as she spoke. “I don’t know exactly” Sarah replied “but it’s not good. I think they want drugs”

“We don’t have Drugs here” her new companion answered. “Well, I’ m not really sure” Sarah replied, “I just moved out of the way fast!”. The old man looked at Sarah then back to the other woman, his face growing paler by the second, but no words were forthcoming. Suddenly there was an intense  flash following immediately by an ear splitting bang and the whole building shook violently, in the waiting room empty chairs skidded across the floor and they could hear yelps of pain from the remaining people out there as they hit the floor or were hit themselves by objects which had become airborne as the wind came swirling through. The rain had pounding down against the windows which after vibrating with the pressure being put upon them, had then broken and   sections were now splintering into the room. In the shock of the storm breaking, the younger man had discharged the gun which had blown a hole in the wall directly to the left of the receptionist. As a result, she had fallen down to the ground in a dead faint.

 “ Come on Joe, let’s get out of here” the gunman was panicking , the gun he had borrowed was just supposed to have been for show , he was looking around wildly and then began to back out towards the exit, banging into the man guarding the door. “Pull yourself together mate, this was always gonna be a nonstarter” snapped the lookout. He had been pressured to come along to keep an eye on the other two and was not impressed with his time being wasted. All three of the men bundled themselves through the door and made a run for it down the corridor, not caring who saw them now.

The emergency lines all over the city were ringing off the hook but still Sarah’s call made it through to the local station. Regardless of the terrifying storm hitting and even before the trio had left the building’s carpark, two police cruisers and a van had cordoned off the area. A gun shot was serious business. Senior Constable Roberts held his hand over the lead offender’s head as he was placed into the back seat, leaning in, he remarked to his captive “still causing trouble Dogo, I see”.

“Give me a break man, the gang were hassling me, saying I couldn’t father a boy, I needed to know”.

Roberts shrugged as he pushed the door closed, another day, another idiot he thought to himself, he hadn’t even gone to the right place for goodness sake. 

Much later Marni threw away the last of the fried chicken celebration dinner she had bought, now cold and congealed, flinging the wine bottle at the bin with such force, it smashed as it hit the floor instead. Muttering to herself, she dragged the footstool out again to remove all the blue streamers and then one by one, she popped all the blue balloons. If the bastard couldn’t even be bothered to come home, then why should she make an effort she thought as she staggered off to bed. She was done waiting in that room.