FEAR, HOPE and LOVE

Chapter 6: Regret won't save you.

The bright morning sunshine penetrated the thin eyelids that gave no protection what-so-ever. The scintillating Sun

energized him as he gave a long yawn that spanned almost half a minute. The warmth from sun was polar to what he last felt, icy and electrified. He laid on his ward and stretched his arms wide, then proceeding to push his body up and sitting upright.

His bedside view overlooked blocks A and E with a giant fountain in the middle. The parade square was connected to all the blocks, the hassle from transferring of patients was non existent.

He gazed at the flow of patients discharging with their families alongside, and ambulances with their trademark sirens rushing to the ER. The cycle of despair then jubilation or consolation was omnipresent, perhaps it was God's method of humbling and bringing earth's most domineering being to it's knees.

Esovax turned to his right where he would find a bouquet of flowers and a few letters. One was from his family, another from the hospital management and the last one from Valeria. He chose to read the latter the last.

His family had shifted to the sinful, glamorous and lucrative lands of Las Vegas and Hollywood. Esovax's family bonds were shallow as his parents rarely communicated with Esovax and his older siblings. His elder brother had majored in computer science in MIT and was now cracking his brains at Silicon Valley, earning millions. While his sister chose a different route, she wasn't very intelligent nor was she well versed in aesthetics. She was only brilliant at publicity and she set up a chain of high-profile gentlemen's clubs around the west of the US.

The same could not be said of Esovax. He was defiant and truant in school but was gifted enough to score for tests even though he was still shooting hoops at the gym. His high school years was just weekend partying and dabbling and experimenting with recreational drugs at such events. Weed and ecstasy was the most popular.

The letter was a piece of bullshit. Insincere hurried writing of his brother who couldn't spend a single frame of time away from his computer, writing code. It was just well wishes and reminding him of Christmas were the family would gather and mingle. He was nonchalant during such meetings as the atmosphere warranted such insolence.

The letter from the hospital was also trivial, just wishing him well and a list of helpful information if he had difficulty.

His watch was still on his wrist and he checked the date, only 2 days had passed. He wasn't in a coma.

He picked up the last letter with a faint grin , Valeria must have visited him while he was sleeping. He opened the saliva-sealed envelope with great care and read its contents.

"Dear Esso!

I'm so sorry to hear that you have been hospitalized while trying to prevent a burglary, I'm really worried about you and I hope you'll msg me when you see this? Haha, I hope this finds you in good health! I met this man named Patrick from my town and he is really down to earth, he even asked me out and I accepted his date! :P hopefully all goes well and I don't screw up! See yah!"

Yours Worriedly,

Valeria Turnah

The last sentence gave Esovax a sucker-punch to the gut and he went nuts. He had always ignored the perfect girl that took a liking for him. But now, she had found her partner.

He pulled out the IV from his arm and ran out. The hospital smelt of sterilized equipment, wardrobes stacked with layers and layers of medication. It was obscenely white and clean, to the point of nauseating those who were skanks.

He ran with a pair of cotton slippers that a hotel would provide. Nurses and doctors stared at the scampering man. A thunderous yell echoed through the corridor, a nurse stormed out of Esovax's room with her hands balled into fist at her waist.

"Esovax Lichstein!!!" screamed the exasperated nurse.

Esovax halted abruptly and turned his head over his shoulder to face the music.

The nurse gave him a earful for trying to escape and tearing off his IV drip, but the nurse had peculiar features that Esovax had remembered vividly.

"Is your name Sonia by any chance?" asked Esovax.

"Took you long enough!" disclosed Sonia.

Sonia was a nurse at the hospital and was a New York native who had travelled to the lonely city of Boston to study nursing and become the next Florence Nightingale.

"Was my condition critical?" inquired the stunned man.

"Nah, just a case of over exertion and severe dehydration. Nothing that would kill you unless you were left alone for days." Sonia explained.

She genuinely cared for her patients from her actions, the bedside table was neat and clean and the pillow had a scant smell of flowers. The room was spic and span.

Esovax requested to go to the garden and Sonia pushed him by a wheelchair to the lift.

"How long have you been caring for patients already?"

"About a year and a half?"

They entered the garden behind block C.

They stayed for 20minutes and Esovax returned to his room.

He was to be discharged in the evening and he whipped up his mobile phone to text his new crush, Valeria.

"Hey, gratz on your date! you free later? Want to have a drink or something?" Esovax typed on the glass panel of his smartphone.

Within 5 minutes, his phone vibrated violently.

Valeria had responded with a depressing text of which she would be having a dinner with her date was not free to attend Esovax's drinking session.

Esovax had never been jealous, it was an emotion that was void from his rather exhilarating life. He couldn't explain or comprehend the peculiar heartache and desire that he never experienced before.

He laid on his bed defeated and dejected. His mind was replaying scrolls of film portraying Valeria and Patrick entering an upstate restaurant with a waitress at the reception desk, they would be led to their seats, and Patrick would lift the chair for her. The night would be romantic as hell from the jazz music played by the resident band and the wine that accompanied the entree. They would get tipsy and flag a cab home and both will be on the bed, Esovax couldn't stop over thinking.

Esovax laid on his bed staring at blank space in disgust.

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6.30PM

Valeria took leave off work to join her date for a dinner that potentially might change her life. She was walking about the mall that the restaurant was located and stared at all the designer goods she always wanted but never had.

It was agonising to find that all her friends had found a partner that was willing to supplement their extravagant wants. Perhaps Patrick could change all of that.

Meanwhile, Esovax was busy registering his departure forms from the hospital and said his goodbyes to Sonia and the doctor that tended to him. He walked out of the pale white compound with an empty mind, he walked back home clutching a silver chain with an embeddded gem and tears streaming down his supple skin.