Yellow (editing)

Grey is Almost Enough

Everything happened very quickly.

Egan drove the car in an anxiety-filled frenzy, and I was almost beginning to become terrified because I had never seen him in such a way. I assumed that it was because when he was a kid, back in Japan, his uncle had overdosed on a type of drug I can't pronounce nor spell and the paramedics burst into his house to try to save him before it was too late. Unfortunately, it was too late. Perhaps that was why he was panicking so terribly.

Time passed slowly, even though the car was going very fast.

There're many different types of 'fast' in the world. There's the kind of fast that happens in races to the front of the cafeteria lineup, when you're trying to finish a test with only a minute left. Then there's the kind of fast that happens when you're a kid and you're lying on your bed and staring at the ceiling; and next thing you know your pounding heartbeat corresponded with the time passing – you're older now.

I don't think this situation fit into either category, but rather fell right in the middle. One second there wasn't a thing to worry about and the next your life is drastically different and your friend is being loaded into an ambulance.

Yes, in the middle.

The Emergency Room was hectic, as ERs tend to be. Once Egan parked in the parking lot of the hospital, we jumped out like ninjas; he grabbed my arm, and dragged me through the puddle-covered parking lot. It had started to rain really heavily and my shoes splashed in multiple puddles whilst going on our short journey to the main doors. Once we got into the ER he proceeded to pull me through mobs of people, our sneakers squeaking on the wet floor, and I was a soaked, panting mess by the time we reached the counter.

"Hi, we're here to see Orenda Castellano," I panted. Egan dragged me more forward and I pushed my wet hair away from my face.

"She was probably brought in a few minutes ago, she's looks about fifteen, um, she fainted I think," Egan hit my arm gently, "she fainted, right, Finn?"

"I don't know!" I sputtered.

"Boys, boys. Take a breather," a deep burly-sounding voice said to us. "You two can take a seat over there, in the waiting area. We'll give you updates, but you can't see her unless you're immediate family."

I listened to the deep voiced man and breathed, for the first time in a while. Egan and I made our way to the hard chairs – the same ones I sat in when I was waiting to see Barry after his heart attack. I hoped that Orenda's situation was just as easily curable as Barry's heart attack. I told Egan that. He assured me that fainting wasn't quite as bad as your heart having a spasm. Then I started rambling about how fainting can be caused by several factors, and he told me to shut up. Then he told me that he would be right back, because he had something that would make our long wait more enjoyable.

While waiting for Egan (and also waiting for Orenda) I listened a lot. I tried to listen more than I did the last time my dad and I were waiting for Barry, because I thought there might be a bit of a difference between a waiting room in the middle of the night and one in the middle of the day. Indeed there was; doctors' voices seemed more drowsy and raspy, less people said sorry and more grunted. I listened to the conversations, in hopes that there could be something a little bit comforting in hearing other people being as confused as I was.

I heard surgeons breaking the news to a family about their mother, who had died in a surgery that was supposedly very simple. I heard a doctor inform a family that their daughter was all better – still in critical condition – but better. I heard a kid ask his father if his older brother was in heaven, to which his father replied, "perhaps." I stopped listening.