Blood

It was already dark when I was watching T.V., which was on a wall about a foot above my head, in room 604 of Perpetual Succour Hospital. Opposite to the T.V. was a girl of about 17 years of age, named Niña, reclined on her hospital bed. She was a patient in the hospital. At her left was the dextrose. She had a wide face, Chinese eyes, dimpled cheeks, and her teeth had braces on. Her hair was dark and smooth down to her shoulders.  Her complexion was white probably because of the soap she was using. She wore a hospital gown and had her waist down to her feet was covered with a blanket.

The room was cold because of the air conditioning unit which was at the left side of the window at the right side of the patient.

A couch was located by the window where two women sat, the mother and the aunt of the patient. Both were opposite in their figure. Though both were about five feet in height, the mother was chubby while the aunt was skinny.

The T.V. was playing the evening news program entitled “T.V. Patrol,” which had a lousy news anchor who had been the vice president of the Philippines. Perhaps he had no more source of income after being the vice president of a former corrupt president.

The room was small. The room was within a room. It was in a room which had two rooms, rooms 603 and 604. Outside those rooms was a lobby. Both the left and the right side were doors to a bathroom.

Back in room 604, I was sitting in silence at the left side of the girl next to the dextrose and remembering how I got there.  Not too long ago, when the sun was still up, I was sitting at the study hall of San Carlos Seminary College. It had at least 90 tables arranged in five or six columns. I was preparing for my next class which was Logic 2. I was skimming over my notebook which was filled with clutter when Gio, a tall, thin, bass-voiced seminarian who was the infirmarian, approached Christian, who was at my left side.

“Chris, can you donate blood now?” he said.

“I don’t know,” replied Christian while looking at me. He knew that I was very fond of giving my blood to strangers.

“I need an answer now,” said Gio in an impatient manner. “Somebody needs an O+ blood now. He’s already waiting at the lobby.”

“I bet George wants to,” said John who was referring to me.

He just read my mind, I thought to myself. “I really want to but I still have a class in Logic,”I addressed Gio.

“Of course you can. We’re not having a class in Logic now,” replied Gio

“Wait… S***! Now I remember. We’re classmates!”

My thoughts were interrupted when Niña rose up from her reclined position. “Mom, I wanna go to the bathroom,” she addressed her mom. She looked at the door which was next to me. She glanced at me for about a second then again at the door. It would be awkward if we had stared at each other for five seconds. She was waiting for her mom and aunt to help her get on her feet. She removed the blanket which covered her waist down to her feet. This revealed the short shorts she was wearing. Her mother held her right hand while the aunt the dextrose stand. She set her left foot on the floor while the other was still on the bed.