"Jane, you should cry," Grandpa said.
I remembered looking at him with baffled eyes. Why? Didn't he want to see me happy? Didn't all people want to be happy? The four-year-old me pouted.
Grandpa smiled at me and patted my head. He gestured that I should probably go since my parents were calling me.
"Goodbye Grandpa! See you next summer!" I happily skipped and waved my hands at him before being put on the car seat.
Grandpa looked at me and waved goodbye. The car engine burst to life and slowly moved forward, away and away from Grandpa's home.
And the four-year-old me then, didn't know it was the last.
Thirteen years later.
"Janey, honey, please take Elle to school!" Mom called out from the garden.
"Yeah, just a second!" I was in the middle of mailing my application letter to the local hospital for a job I wanted to volunteer on. I quickly grabbed my sneakers and rushed downstairs.
Elle, my five-year-old sister, was waiting in the living room, clutching her pink Hello Kitty purse like it was her life. As I put on my shoes, I noticed her trembling little hands.
"Hey, Ellie, are you alright?"
She didn't look into my eyes. "Yeah."
"What's troubling you?" I asked.
"Janey, uhh, do you think I can do this? I really want to play piano but some kids at school told me I had so little hands..."
I held her hand and kissed her cheek. She giggled instantly.
"Ellie, you are going to be great. You love music. And I, your older sister, will support you!" I saluted. She laughed. "Come on, let's get to battle."
And we did our Jedi dance, a kind of cheer-up gesture we do derived from lots of light saber fighting we saw in Star Wars.
Harry Winslow was a renowned pediatric surgeon. But the place he was going was not of his expectations.
He grasped the steering wheel harder than he normally did. He was pissed. Of all hospitals he had to go volunteer, it was the town of the creepy girl who had a crush on him in his high school back then.
Aah, it's gonna rain, he thought. At least I repaired my headlights yesterday or I'm gonna be doomed in this dark highway.
He passed the lighted signage which spelled, WE_C_ME TO ROSEV_ILL_. Not even repaired yet. He mocked in his head.
He pressed his foot on the accelerator to arrive at the venue for his institution as a volunteer of the medical mission, on time. He hated being late. And because of his sorry excuse of a secretary insisting about talking to businessmen trying to partner with Winslow Hospital, he left the city behind his scheduled time.
One day, I'm going to fire that woman. He angrily thought.
All of a sudden, a young bloodied man in a tux appeared out of nowhere. He quickly pulled the break and the car halted.
Harry's heartbeat raced. Did I hit the man? He went out of his car to check.
Even as a surgeon, he couldn't contain what he saw.
