Close Proximity

Stuart

"Hello, my name is Stuart and I am waiting for Ms. Leslie. She is my grandma, having a surgery in the nearby hospital."

Sydney

"Hello, my name is Sydney and I am waiting for my wife. She just finishing her shift as a nurse. Apparently it was very busy day and I am here to take her home.

Stuart was nervously clutching his fists. He knew this would happen. Three months of preparation, numerous uncertain phone calls, and the look in the doctor's eyes. His grandmother was seriously injured and this was apperantly her only chance. And of course it was. But that didn't make his waiting all the more frightening. Tick - tock, goes the clock. And she is still there. The question he didn't want to consider but that was on his lips for way too long was now creeping around his brain, making its way to the innermost edges of his conciousness.

"Why is it taking so long?!" came out of him before he realised his thoughts made themselves present outside of his body. They were now out there in the open, those dreader words that could mean only one thing.

Sydney noticed worrysome Stuart sitting on the bench in front of the main hospital building. There were always people like him around. Whenever she came to pick up her wife, she would see all those faces that struggled with their own fight against the fragility of the human frame. Usually, at least, they were surrounded by their loved ones, in those difficult moment of waiting. But the young boy Sydney saw shouting franticly was too young to be dealing with such big questions alone. She sat down.

At first, the boy next to her ignored her, and with his head burried in his knees cried his heart out. So much emotion run through the air, you could cut it with a knife. Sydney never knew what to say in these moments. She just sat there, hoping the troubled sole would come to her for help, at least the little bit she could offer.

The boy's head slowly looked to her side.

Stuart saw the elderly lady calmly sitting next to him, she could be her grandma's friend. He was only sixteen and the only reason he could be here to support his grandma was because it was Saturday. He had nowhere else to be, and with his packed lunch in his little backpack, he had nowhere else to go. His time was best spend sitting here.

"Hello. ... sorry if I was crying too loud. I am very worried." said Stuart looking at the lady next to him, hoping she would be just like his grandma, distracting him long enough for him to worry so much.

"Hello. Not to worry. It didn't take anything from my waiting moments. I am used to waiting by now, just focusing on something stupid to pass the time." said the lady with the most lovely voice Stuart has ever heard.

He calmed down a bit, but his eyes continued watering, and he started becoming tired. "I'm waiting for my grandma, she is in the hospital and I am thinking of all the possible things that could go wrong.!"

After a short pause, Sydney breathed in a long calm breath and said: "Well, I know someone who works in there, and I can vouch for her and her colleagues. It would have to be something very horrible indeed that would have go wrong, in order for them to not know how to save the day. They are like my superheroes, the whole lot."

The boy didn't seem convinced, but how could he? Sydney emphasised with him and couldn't fail to notice a paper in his hands. It was shrivelled and almost looked like he forgot about it and started using it as a hankerchief instead. It was all moldy and you could hardly see the text on it. But it reminded her of medical reports she saw sometimes when she visited her wife in her office.

Eventually, Sydney realised that if she wants to help this boy get through the next long period of waiting, she must start saying positive things: "I mean, from the looks of you, you look like one of those superheroes yourself. I mean you are here, ready for action. I have seen many such worriers like you, but you come from the younger side of the hero batch."

She wasn't sure if it would work, but she wanted to make sure this boy was managing and there was something that made her worried about him more than his grandma who was safely in the hands of the medical staff.

Stuart sniffed. He felt like a small boy, no superhero. Ever since grandma's accident, he felt like he was letting her down. She used to tell him that he is her angel, but that all changed when she couldn't walk around the house anymore and he had to cook for both of them. He felt like the house got dirtier and lost its grandma spark when he took charge. It was just too much for him, and it didn't convince him when grandma had said that it was all okay.

The lady's phone suddenly rang. As she picked it up, Stuart suddenlty felt out of place, he wanted to see his grandma, not wait here for who knows how long, feeling useless. The ladies' voice was in the background of his mind but eventually he started giving it attention, after all it was a distraction like any other.

"Ok sweetie, I understand, no worries, I'll wait for a little bit more, I might even pop up to the cafe and get something spicy, how I like it. ... Yeah, you just do what you have to... Bye bye, love you!!"

Stuart saw the lady send couple of kisses towards her phone and started crying again.

Sydney put her phone back into her wallet. She was used to her wife being late after busy shifts and the idea of a cafe didn't sound much bad at all. But she was still feeling sorry for the young boy sitting next to her.

"Are your parents with you here? Or some adult? I want to go the cafe around the corner to make my wait a little bit more pleasant and I think you need it too."

The boy just growled and his tears made his expression look more and more traumatic. Sydney teared a little bit as well and she got her arms ready for a hug: "Are you okay? Can I hug you? Is that okay?"

The crying teenager nodded and together they stayed on the bench for couple of more minutes, until he calmed down a bit.

"I am Sydney. Are your parents around?"

He twisted his head. "No just my grandma and she cannot join you for a coffee, I am afraid, even though she would love to."

Sydney hugged him even more and smile crossed her face.

"See, there is still some humour in you. What do you say to us making your grandma's favourite grandchild happy through some puding? I am a frequent in this cafe and I am sure they have something for your taste."

Stuart wanted to wait for his grandma to be okay so much. He wanted to see her happy face as she woke up from the surgery. He wanted to be the first to be there for her. But he felt helpless.

"Sorry, I better wait here in case someone comes with some news."

He saw the lady get up and walk to the cafe. Those moments of watching her chat up with the person behind the counter and get her own drink felt like the most calming moment of the last three months.

She seemed to have bought some sort of a bar as well and came back with it in her hand.

"Here you go, I presume you like chocolate?"

He did, he really like chocolate. This sounded better than his packed lunch, or if the sandwich he made himself this morning in a hurry could be called that.

Stuart took the bar and opened the pack with joy.

Sydney observed the boy. He seemed so changed.

She knew it had little to do with her. In his situation, he must have been going up and down the emotional scale, like on a roaler coaster. She looked towards the mirrors of the hospital. There on the fourth floor of the old industrial building in front of them was her wife. Handsome as ever and full of energy, even after twelve hours at work. She was putting on her brown coat and Sydney suddenly felt shivers in her forty year old body.

She looked once again at the boy next to her, he was enjoying the last bits of his chocolate and seemed to have dried all his tears from his eyes. It was once again one good and productive waiting time.