Pity

Saturday, 2 to 3 PM

Waiting Area

      It was as it always was, whenever Gerald brought his son, Jack,  to his weekly physical therapy session.  As soon as the physical therapist has fetched his son from the waiting room, Gerald took out his iPad from his knapsack and went online.  Thank God for the free Wi-fi at the center. There were already a couple of pending messages in his inbox.  He smiled, the familiar feeling in the pit of his stomach blooming.  For the next hour, he conversed online with Susan, a young woman he had met in a chat room a few months ago.

      Mylene, or Teacher Mylene, as her students/patients call her, looked back towards Jack’s Dad to ask him something, but she saw that he was already deep in concentration while tapping on his iPad.  There was a half smile on his lips, and not for the first time since Jack became one of her kids,  Mylene sighed at how handsome his Dad looked.  If only he took a more involved stance in his son’s therapy sessions, but never once did he accompany his son with Mylene during the sessions.

      Beth checked her cell phone for a message from her sister from the province, to confirm the receipt of the money she sent her.  Beth sighed. Another monthly paycheck just slipped through her fingers.  But she comforted herself with the thought that the money will be used for her sister’s kids’ education and needs.   At 41, Beth was still single, working as a nanny for a family in Manila.   The irony was that she had taken care of so many children, yet she had none of her own. Not that she was complaining.  She told herself and whoever would ask that she never wanted to have kids of her own.  She would never get married (no man will tell her to NOT help out her family financially) and would never give birth ( she imagined the pain to be the most excruciating torture imaginable).  Her current ward, Lucy, was a special child with Downs Syndrome.  Beth loved Lucy to death and she felt very protective of her.   She felt . . . well,  she felt that Lucy and she were even closer than Lucy and her parents,  since Lucy’s Mom was working most of the time and when at home, she was always still working,  while Lucy’s Dad was busy with business as well.  So, Lucy spends most of her time with Beth. 

      The hour she waited while Beth had her session with her physical therapist was going to be long.  Beth already missed Lucy.  She looked at the people in the waiting room and spied the handsome Daddy she usually sees every Saturday.  He was smiling while tapping on his iPad.  Beth sighed.  Sometimes, she wondered what it would feel like to have someone like him smile at someone like her lovingly.  She had someone before, maybe not as handsome, not as rich, but he told her he loved her.  Then she shook her head. I am happy,  she told herself.  I may not have money, I may not have a man, or a family of my own,  but I have Lucy and I know she loves me.  Unconditionally.  Who needs anything else?

Coffee Place

      It was less than an hour, every week when they met, but it was an hour they both cherished. 

      Robin knew that she should not be enjoying this too much, because after each hour, she had to go back to her normal life, pick up Sarah from her session and go back to the place she called home. Robin was a single mother, whose brief affair with a married man left her with a daughter that would be the love of her life.   She devoted her every waking hour to Sarah, and her special needs.  What is an hour of enjoyment?

      Fred looked across the table at Robin and wondered whether he should be doing this.  He was treading on dangerous ground.  Oh, they were in the coffee place as friends, acquaintances more like it, trying to kill time while their kids had their therapy sessions.   Robin may be single, bur Fred was very much married, with two more kids in school, apart from Kristoff.  But they were only having coffee and some conversation, once a week.  What’s the harm in that, right?