Touch Of Fate

Chapter 2 - The Diagnosis

Simon ran.

Through the lanes of speeding traffic, through honking horns and screeching brakes Simon ran. And it mattered not to him that what he was doing was dangerous to the point of foolhardiness; it mattered not to him that one wrong step might bring him full into the path of an oncoming car; it mattered not to him at all, because he carried Kelly in his arms, and the only thought in his mind was to get the woman he loved to the hospital.

Ever since the moment Simon saw Kelly on the ground, looking all but dead, an unconscious instinct had taken over his mind. Without thinking he had picked her up from the ground and then he had started running. Running to the nearest hospital, carrying the dead weight of his girlfriend in his arms.

Where Simon got the strength from he did not know.

The closest hospital was St. Raphael’s Hospital. Simon’s now panicked brain did not register the passing of time; he had no idea how much time passed before he was running up the long stretch of street that led up to the facility’s front doors.

“Help!” Simon screamed as he approached the glass doors. “HELP ME!”

His screams caught the attention of two nurses standing at the entrance. One of them dashed inside the facility, and the other ran straight for Simon and Kelly.

“Please, do something,” Simon pleaded.

The nurse nodded once and took Kelly from his arms. The other nurse returned from inside the hospital, two male nurses in tow and carrying a stretcher. As Simon watched, Kelly was placed on the stretcher and rushed into the building. Running to keep up with the two male nurses – for it was the males who were carrying her – Simon entered St Raphael’s too.

Kelly was rushed down the hall and into a ward. When Simon tried to enter after her, one of the nurses stepped in his path, blocking his way. “Let me in!” he screamed. “I have to stay with her!”

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to wait out here,” the nurse replied. Then seeing the absolute look of despair in Simon’s eyes, she gently added, “Don’t worry. We’ll save her.”

Just like that, she was gone, and the door slammed shut in Simon’s face.

The waiting room was full of people, but Simon felt utterly alone. And then he realized that he was the only one who knew about Kelly’s situation. He had to inform her mother. He looked around the room; there was a payphone right beside the entrance. He turned and began to walk toward it.

The waiting room was a hub of activity. People kept moving around; some were sick, others were well and leaving, and yet others were like him – subjected to the abject torture of waiting. It was these people Simon felt the most for. He felt their pain and they felt his.

As he neared the payphone, he saw an old couple walking toward the exit. They both looked to be in their sixties. The woman leaned on a walking stick, and she walked with a laboured gait. It was obvious that she had been admitted, and was now going home. Her husband also looked quite frail of old age, but he held his wife and supported her all the way to the door.

Simon watched them go. At the door, the woman turned to the man and gave him a smile. And for that moment Simon could tell that those two felt that they were the only ones in the world. Simon felt his hands clench into tight fists.

The world was terribly unfair. This couple had, to all appearances, lived out their lives. And yet they got to walk out of the hospital, hand in hand, while his future, his life, lay on a bed somewhere in this same hospital, fighting for life. And he didn’t even know what was wrong with her, let alone if she would be alright.