A Cup of patience

I waltzed or somewhat floated in feeling like Cinderella dressed in clothes that weren’t mine; the pink cap with a glow in the dark ‘Shades’ written on it and the white top I wore belonged to a friend in the hostel who had begged me to do her laundry at home, the crocs were my brothers’ and the wrist watch, the one my friend left behind in my house the day before. I walked to the reception and met a lady who looked like the mutant breed of my favourite aunt Sylvia and a man of a small stature, I stated my business and she directed me to a small part of the waiting room which housed a brown exquisite desk and a pretty light skinned lady who sat behind the desk on a black leather chair which was wearing out by the edges. I told her that I had a breast scan appointment today and she got to work immediately, sending a message to my HMO, since I was under the national health insurance scheme, asking them for an approval code before I could do my scan, a process I did not understand. It was 9:09am then. Few minutes later while still standing, the lady who turned out to be Igbo also, a tribe in Nigeria West Africa told me in our local dialect that my HMO hasn’t replied her message yet and directed me to sit in the larger portion of the waiting room which housed chairs arranged like they did in church and people of different ages some wearing impatient looks and others bored, sleepy looks. I glanced at the watch and sighed, it was 2:08pm. I was bombarded with an array of old faces so my relief knew no bounds when a teenage boy who looked to be in his 20’s walked in, flashing a beautiful smile to an elderly woman he resembled who sat opposite me, she tapped an empty chair close to her and he sat down there. After what seemed like minutes of I staring at him intently with the intent of making our eyes meet, it finally did; his were brown, the shade of brown I saw each time I stared at an almond, the soothing kind of brown. He smiled, not like the one he gave the woman beside him but rather a shy smile, the kind that forces you to look away after few seconds of meeting the person’s gaze. Our game of hide and seek continued till it was time for him to leave, I bid him a mental adieu knowing well enough that I may not see him again and I think he felt the same for he halted at the door leading out of the waiting room, and turned to give me a smile of which I returned. A lady holding a rather hyper toddler sat beside me; she looked like she hasn’t slept in days and the toddler in her arms kept struggling to come down, making different sounds and even crying at some point. She stared at me and I stared back, flashing her a smile and making funny faces, she smiled and hid in her mother’s bosom and when she thought I had looked away she crept out to stare at me. I took her from her mother and we played together, she was a cute toddler dressed in pink overalls and her soft black hair covered with a blue beanie. While we played a pregnant lady that sat adjacent to us regarded us with wistful eyes and unconsciously reached for her bump and stroked it with a smile, I bet she wondered which of us would tire first. I turned to ask the child’s mother of her baby’s name but she had already dozed off, using the arm of the chair as a headrest. My charade with the hyper baby ended with I, rocking her to sleep and her, softly snoring against my neck. I dozed off also but awoke to the sound of people arguing; the lady creating the scene was yelling at the pretty lady behind the large desk in the waiting room, she was condemning the hospital and accused them of poor customer service, something everyone in the waiting room mentally complained of. One of the hospitals’ security men tried to calm her down but she slapped him, claiming that she wasn’t a baby to be subdued. I ignored the scene unfolding before me and concentrated on the programme airing on the TV, it was an episode of ‘Prison Break’, the part where Michael burnt a part of his tattoo of the building plan and needed to get to the tattoo artist to complete the missing part. Towards the end of the episode the baby stirred and I had to concentrate on rocking her back to sleep. By then it was 4:30pm, I had waited long enough to be mistaken for a staff in the Hospital. Few minutes later the boy I was ogling hours ago walked in, he had switched his black hoodie and black joggers for a plain white shirt and grey joggers. He walked straight to the pretty lady behind the desk and asked if his mom’s test result was ready and while she checked, he left his eyes scan the room till it met mine, his brows shot up in surprise and he smiled. The lady handed him the test result and I busied myself with handing the lady besides me back her baby for she was about to leave. He waited for her to leave and then sat down on the seat she vacated, he smiled and said something about not believing in coincidences, my ears swarm as though they were filled with fluid not quite believing that I was having an actual conversation with him, I cleared my throat and silently thanked myself for popping a mint gum inside my mouth few minutes ago. I picked up the conversation from there and commented on his eyes, he smiled and said he could bury his cross pendant in my dimples for they were as deep as a gully, I felt the Lord had finally paid me for my not so abundant patience which would have been lesser if he hadn’t walked in. The pretty lady whom I later found out that her name was Pearl told me that my HMO hadn’t replied yet and asked me to come back the next day, by then most of the day-shift workers were already leaving. I swallowed the anger bubbling inside me and picked my bag, muttering a thank-you to her as I stormed off. The boy whose name was Josh, ran after me and suggested that I had an ice-cream to cool off from the supermarket opposite the hospital. I smiled at him, appreciating his thoughtfulness and together we went on our first date.