Coffee for Charlie

Battered Breathing

I think what people misunderstand about time is that it is meant to be cherished. Like how an artist basks in the glory of a sunset while he paints; creating a masterpiece that will last through the ages. We take time for granted. We forget those important memories. We become lost in the uproar of pointless things and we never look back at the memories we created.

I never knew time was my enemy.

I waited. Waited for what felt like a thousand years. Even though I watched two whole days go by. I slept in those waiting room chairs for two days; laying my limbs over the arm rests or sitting slumped over.

I don't know how many times my phone had rung. But I could not move anywhere but the waiting room. My eyes glued to the pasty white tiles. In my peripheral vision I saw blue dressed people running back and forth in a tizzy. I could not hear them; I was masked in my own shield from the world.

I slowly blinked twice before lifting my heavy head to look around me in a foggy haze. His face haunted my dreams; those rolled back eyes and twitching features bore into my memory. Every blink, I saw that haunting face.

"Ma'am?" The voice sounded muffled and when my vision finally focused on the woman before me, I saw her in those blue scrubs holding a plastic clipboard. "Ma'am..." She trailed off.

"What?" I mumbled quietly.

"The boy that came in, he with you right?" I realized she was trying to give me the clipboard. I had been staring at her with a blank expression of disinterest.

"Yes..." I looked over her shoulder at the swinging doors. "Can I see him?" Her smiled faltered and then she pressed the clipboard into my limp hands.

"I'm sorry but, you need to fill out paperwork first." She nodded to the clipboard before backing up slowly to return to the desk. I blinked down at the cold plastic in my lap. I almost laughed at the thought of having to fill out the paperwork. What kind of system is this?

I snorted and pushed the clipboard from my lap so that it clattered to the floor and called over to her,

"Fuck your paperwork! Fuck your system! This is bullshit! Let me see Charlie and then I will write on your damn paper." I slumped back down against the seat and leaned my head against the wall.

The woman that was with the man that had helped us, lent me her sweatshirt before they left me on my own. They wished me luck and all that jolly-ho crap. For two whole days I waited and not one doctor confronted me. I was waiting for day three to roll around since it was already dark outside and all the outside lights were flickering on.

"Excuse me, miss?"

I looked up to see a middle aged man dressed in a white lab coat with a blue clipboard.

"Look, if you are here to make me fill out paper-"

"The boy you came in with, he's asking for you." The creases around the doctor's mouth deepened in a smile. I could feel the relief spread throughout me before bolting up to follow the doctor.