The Waiting

Anna sat down in the seat, suddenly remembering just how hard and uncomfortable they were. Glancing around the room she noticed a woman in the corner, busy reading a magazine. Across from her sat a couple, the woman leaning back, looking out the window to her right, arms folded across her chest. The man at her left sat forward with his elbows on his needs, staring absentmindedly at the floor. The two were obviously struggling with each other in some way. 

She set her purse in the chair next to her, hearing the soft swoosh of the door as someone else entered. The person sat down in the chair on the other side of Anna and her person. A slight sigh escaped their lips. Anna turned toward them slightly, offering a polite smile and then looked away. The clock slowly ticked away as, one by one each of the other people went back, leaving just her and the lady next to her. 

“I take it you’ve been here before?” She asked, breaking the silence. 

“Yes, I have, unfortunately.”  Anna replied. 

“Yep, me too. Not here for myself but for friends  to help them deal with whatever news they got.”

“This is my first time for myself. It’s never easy either way, is it?”

“Nope, sure isn’t. My name’s Grace by the way.” She extended her hand and Anna shook it. 

“I’m Anna, nice to meet you.” 

“Be nice if it were a different place, different time though huh?” She asked almost rhetorically. Anna nodded in agreement. 

“Came here with my best friend once, for her husband,” Grace said quietly. “He never returned. She’s tried to make due with that fact but it’s still hard, even after all this time. I’ve been here with a few other friends who made it back just fine but it’s always a nail biter for sure.” 

Anna nodded again thinking of all the people who hadn’t made it back. She couldn’t think like that though. She had to stay positive. He was going to be one of them that came back. He had to. She needed him to. 

Grace sat back in the chair looking very tired for a moment. The emotional strain was definitely evident in her but so was the hope. She had to have it, right? She had to in order to keep coming back for her friends. Anna took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She would know any moment now if her own hope was pointless.  

Anna and Grace chatted off and on for the next hour. Anna learned that Grace had been a part of the movement in 2080 that changed the landscaping of the Urban Tower City. She had paved the way for safer towers after the collapse of unit 49 on the south side. It had been 15 units high and had taken out the tower next to it when it collapsed. The unit had been built precariously and in a rush due to the building of the walls around the city. Anyone still inside when the final stone was laid were no longer allowed to leave. There had been a mad scramble to collect family members before the Robotic Builders had the wall complete. It took all of four days to surround the city with them. That meant that the towers had to be built quickly to accommodate all the citizens. 

Grace learned that Anna actually lived directly outside of the city. She had been one of the few who had been lucky enough to already have a home in a quiet neighborhood that was looped into the walled off city. She had grown up in the house and currently lived back there with her parents. Before the Wall she had been an elementary school teacher but since the school was now located outside the wall she could no longer do her job. 

She sat awake at night, listening to the sounds of the distant cramped city, wondering what she could do with her life now and missing him like crazy. The thoughts wafting back to her made her want to lay down in the chairs and sleep. Everything seemed to exhaust her now. 

The swish of the door swinging open caused them both to look up with a start. A woman stood looking at a clipboard. 

“Anna Palmer?”

“Yes?” Anna stood up, reaching for her purse as she did. 

“Follow me please.”

Anna glanced back at Grace who looked at her with sympathy. She grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze of hope. Anna smiled, turned, and followed the woman through the door. 

The hallway beyond the door was long and very bright. The woman finally led her to a door and told her to have a seat inside. Anna sat down, looking around, her eyes flitting from this thing to that thing. Her leg jiggled and she began to bite her nail. The room was sparsely furnished, a table and two chairs, a digital frame on the wall advertised the work of the Robotic Builders. An electronic image of a person came on next telling of the great works the government was going to do for the city and facing the challenges of today. Anna rolled her eyes. They all knew none of this was true. 

She heard the swish of the door as a man entered. 

“Mrs. Palmer I presume?”

“Yes.” She sat forward in her chair as he sat in the one across the table from her. 

“I’m not going to stretch this out. We were not able to bring Samuel back. He has been out of this realm for too long of a stretch of time. You knew at the beginning that this would be iffy. Usually when someone enters the wormhole we have a slim window of time to pull them back before they are permanently injected into the realm that they land in. We tried with him anyway but we were not successful. I do apologize. Thank you for your time.”

He rose to leave the room. 

Wait, that was it? That was all he had to tell her? 

“Sir, there had to be more than that! I can’t just leave him out there.”

“Miss, he had no idea that he even had a life here by now. Once someone is fully immersed all memories of a previous life no longer exist. We did what we could. I’m sorry.”

And with that he was gone, and so was Samuel. Why had he even attempted to go to the other realm? He knew he may not come back to her! How could he do that? Anna grabbed her purse and stalked down the hallway and back into the waiting room. By the time she got there her emotions had rolled again from anger to sadness. She knew Samuel had gone to try to help them, help their world to be better. It was a completely selfless act. She just missed her husband so much. It made it hard to breath sometimes. 

This was not the end of this. She would find a way to get Samuel back or else she would have to find a way to join him.