𝐴𝑛 𝑅𝑢𝑑 𝑖𝑠 𝐴𝑛𝑛𝑎𝑚ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝐼́𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑐ℎ (Wʜᴀᴛ's Rᴀʀᴇ ɪs Wᴏɴᴅᴇʀғᴜʟ)

Not Sure Why

The lights above flickered continually, certainly liable to giving one a seizure had it not been for the fact he had his eyes closed the entire time.

He'd sat there for what seemed an eternity, appearing as though he were statue sitting there. What he was really doing was awaiting the dreaded news that he fears, involving his sons and daughter-in-law.

Sitting next to him on the bench was a boy who looked no more than 10 years old. He looks like his own son but younger and no less mature; though that was about to change. Eventually.

The young lad had fair skin like him and black hair that was raven-like; and vaguely recalled, the first time he saw him upon his arrival there in the hospital, that the boy shared his eyes and not his father's. They were blue. And glossed over with tears coming down his cheeks.

The old man sighed, feeling the same emotion taking over quickly as his fear returned when he looked at that boy. Bringing back the matter at hand or rather at the hands of the doctors that are trying desperately to... to... to...

He shook his head bitterly, not wanting those images in his mind's eye as it would only make himself feel worse than before. He came on 'official' business to see whether or not his grandson would have to go with him if worse comes to worse. God forbid, he can't have that on his conscious again.

What he was doing there again, was a matter of debate for his grandson. The poor boy felt obligated to stay with him as he felt unsure of around strangers while waiting for his father to come out of surgery and recover at home. The boy's father, James, was brought alongside his brother and sister-in-law from a serious head-on collision while driving to the hospital for whatever serious reason that in lieu led to them being here altogether.

The old man arrived to work that same morning on the docks to catch more fish to satisfy his pockets with the cash that came with it daily at the markets nearby. That was when he got the call from the hospital unexpectedly; and what he was told on the other line almost gave him a heart attack. Ignoring the managing marketers and confused or worried looks from his shipmates, he jumped in his small semi truck and sped off towards the hospital.

The moment he arrived however hasn't been as catastrophic as the news they told him once he got into the nurses' office. Upon hearing the devastating truth that his sons may not survive the accident, he suffered a small cardiac arrest that had doctors trying to provide him with an oxygen tank. Instead he yelled at them to eff off and begone while he wept solely on his own in solemn solitude within the lone ER hallway.

It hasn't been more than a few hours when he saw two police officers standing in front of him with a young boy behind them. They tell him that he's his grandson from his eldest son, James. The old man, still distraught with emotion, didn't acknowledge this at first until the boy sat next to him with tears in his eyes as well.

Upon looking closely at him, the old man could see the resemblance: blue eyes, black hair, and fair colored skin while wearing his father's signature black fedora that he wore often to concerts at the bars he frequented.

That was the very same hat he himself wore when he first arrived in America during the late 1950s...

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195- "Grampa?"

His graying beard bristled a bit as he answered. "Ey?" His voice drawled more than expected, must've got mucus stick in his throat again.

Hacking out a hunk of it out and into a tissue he brought with him out of his coat, the old man turned his eyes back towards him and asked again. Clearly this time. "Aye?"