True Friends

A Bloody Meeting

"Hi there, what's you name?" she smiled.

"Justin."

"Okay, Justin. It will be not long, I promise."

"I am just scared of the needle, the blood is not the part worrying about in any manner."

"Oh, I know that, Justin. I can see you are a brave boy," she smiled. "Now, let's do this."

"Ouch...OOOO," he wailed.

The nurse eyed him in amusement. "Here's the needle, Justin. In my hands, not used yet," she let out a laugh.

He felt embarrassed, his red nose getting redder.

"Oh - my bad."

"Now, think of those lights as stars and I will see if we can turn them off one by one."

Justin started to look at them one by one. He would point one and the nurse would just turn it off.

"There is only one left now, Miss Nurse."

"Yes, but i have also taken the blood sample, so we can end the game here, can't we?"

"What - how did you- when -?" Justin was baffled and his expressions showed details when he saw a band-aid on his arm.

"It was a star that had done this job," she winked at him.

Justin swapped some smiles and candies as the nurse waved him a goodbye. As he came outside, he was greeted with a stranger in distress. The boy was young, around his age and Justin could just tell by his sweaty forehead that the needle was traumatizing his brain like himself, when he was in the same state a few minutes ago.

"Are you from the 254-C ward?

"Nope, 285-B," he replied.

Justin looked at him in sympathy. "Chemo?"

"Precisely," he affirmed with a faint smile.

"Scared of needles?" Justin asked, trying to cheer up the poor soul.

"More than death."

"I got mine," Justin showed his band-aid.

"That looks rough, doesn't it?"

"Not really, the new nurse is great."

"You are just saying that, it must be a torture inside."

Justin kept silent.

"Follow me," he asked the boy with a smile.

Justin re-entered the room. The nurse was a bit perturbed by this. "Are you back for one more, Justin?" she asked with a friendly chuckle.

"No, nurse. But this friend of mine is," Justin cheered at her with a wide smile, exchanging with the boy at the end.

Friend? No one called me that one before, not so easily, he thought.

"Okay then, let's get your friend to spot some stars as well," she replied with a calm face, playing along by a wink at Justin.

Justin smiled at him as his new friend took the seat.

They had started the game again and the lights started to go out. At the last one, the boy too had the same question as himself moments ago. Instead, he found a band-aid resembling Justin'. He was both overjoyed and mystified.

The nurse gave them both some more candies and lots of gracious smiles. Both boys headed out like some Vikings out of a war.

"That was not hard, was it?" Justin asked.