The Waiting Room

A young man attempts a dramatic rescue and pays a heavy price for his heroics.

     Carlos woke from a fitful dream and wiped flush skin with a tissue.  He was a patient in the county hospital recovering from an abdominal stab wound.  Soon, his girlfriend Mimi would arrive and comfort him.  She’d run her smooth palm along his pale cheek and breathe life into sore limbs.  The pain had been intense at first, and then the sedatives took hold and made him drowsy and able to cope. The nurses were responsive, though harried, and watched over him when feasible.  He liked to joke with one particular nurse about silly things and though groggy, he tried hard not to laugh or his insides would rattle around and jab him.  

     Carlos was attacked by a couple of thugs at the city bus depot just ten days ago, on his birthday.  It happened so fast he didn’t see it coming.  Before that, he’d been conversing with two senior ladies seated nearby on a wooden bench in the depot waiting area. That’s the last thing he remembered.