Little Moments (Second Chances 2)

She stops dead in her tracks, flinching at the loud volume of my voice. A frown curves on her lips. “No, I…I guess not. I’m sorry.”

She turns around, walks to the chair, and grabs the bag and her coat. She stalks to the door and pulls it open, about to leave. As she steps forward a sudden hint of guilt fills my chest. My mind tells me to let her go, but my heart says something else. Fighting the responsible thing to do, I ball my left hand into a fist.

Letting out a deep sigh, I give in. “Wait.”

She stops, frozen in place.

I speak up. “Stay.”

She steps backward and slowly turns her head toward me, taking a quick peek. She hesitates for a couple seconds, but then shuts the door and returns her coat and bag to the e

mpty chair.

My lips curve into a small smile. “No one should be alone on Thanksgiving.”

She returns the smile as my eyes follow her taking a seat in the empty chair. She glances at the TV screen and nods toward it. “So, Charlie Brown huh?”

“Yeah, it’s a classic. You can’t resist Charlie Brown.”

She agrees. “I just love how they block out the adult voices and give them that weird speech.” She imitates the tone. “Wahhh wahh wahh wah wah.”

I bust out laughing at her impression and she joins in. Seeing her laugh sends chills down my spine and my heart starts to pound again. Getting control of myself, I raise the volume and keep quiet as we watch in silence.

Suddenly, she bounces off her seat. “Oh, I have something for you.”

She grabs the bag off the other chair and walks toward me. “Now, I know you probably haven’t eaten much since you’ve been here.”

I nod. “Yeah, the food tastes like shit.”

She giggles. “Yes, I figured. So, I brought a little treat. It’s nothing big, but I thought you might enjoy a little something from home.”

Clueless as to what she’s talking about, I watch as she opens the bag and takes out a three-layer cookie. Holy shit.

She puts the cookie on a napkin and offers it to me. “I hope you like them.”

Taking the cookie from her, I thank her with a smile. “They’re my favorite.”

Roman

AS THE BLINDING SUN hits my eyelids, I squint as I take in my surroundings. Glancing around the hospital room, I notice the TV is turned off and my food tray is gone. Reaching to look closer at the chair she sat in, I note that it’s empty. Her coat is gone as well. Looking at my cellphone, I see it’s early morning; she must have left after I fell asleep last night. She couldn’t have stayed too long because I don’t recall us talking much. Unless it was a dream.

I trace my eyes around my area searching for anything that might indicate that she really was here last night. I start to doubt myself until my eyes fix on the empty white paper bag in the trash. A huge smiles spreads across my face as the realization hits: yes, she was here with me.

As I recall the previous night, one of the nurses stops in to check my vitals and takes the bedpan. Not very appealing, but hey, I can’t get out of bed. I never thought I’d wish for the day that I could use the toilet again. I guess you just have to appreciate the little things in life.

After she replaces the clean bedpan, I ask her if Melanie will be in today. She gives me the bad news, saying Melanie has the day off and won’t be in until tomorrow. Great. This day is going to be shit.

A few minutes later, the nurse returns with my breakfast and informs me that Dr. Ferguson will be in shortly to assess my burns and refit the brace if necessary.

Once she leaves, I decide it’s the perfect time to call Aunt Maggie. I pull up her contact info on my cellphone and hit the button to connect the call.

As the phone dials, I look at my tray of food, only to find a scoop of bland scrambled eggs and a cup of watery oatmeal. Ugh. I would kill to have some of Captain’s eggs right now.

The phone rings a few times before Aunt Maggie answers, “Hello.”

“Hey, how’s it going up there?”

“Oh, it was an eventful evening. Franco and Amelia announced they’re having a baby. You’re going to be an uncle!”