CHAPTER ONE: THE FATEFUL MEETING
THE hospital smelled the same; like medicines and death. I cringed and wondered how the doctors and nurses can get by every day in here where everything was depressing. The walls were painted white and it reminded me more of madhouse. There were chairs outside each room for patients to wait on.
“Hello Charlie!” A familiar voice greeted me in the hallway. A few heads turned to look at me but after realising it was just plain me, they returned back to what they’re doing – staring at the walls while waiting for their names to be called.
Helen grinned at me as she made her way towards me. In her arms were a pile of hand towels. I’ve counted at least twenty of them. She placed the towels in my outstretched hands and sighed dramatically. “Thank heavens you’re here, I almost passed out carrying those!” Helen, as always, was being overly dramatic. The hand towels weren’t even heavy. “How’s your mom, Charlie?”
Helen was my mom’s best friend. Although they were fifteen years apart in age, somehow they became close after attending a church seminar five years ago. While my mom was religious and serious, Helen was the opposite; loud and dramatic. But overall, she’s a good person when she wasn’t bossing me around the hospital. But I supposed that was in her job description.
“Good. She’s wondering when John will come by to fix the bird house though.”
“Ah, that husband of mine! Always forgettin’ ta fix that old bird house.”
“Pretty sure birds don’t visit us.” I muttered which earned me a slap on the back as Helen started laughing and once again attracting the unwanted attention of other patients.
“Now don’t say that, Charlie Kennedy! ‘Am sure those birds love your piano playing!” She grinned at me. “Anyway, today I want you at the west wing. Help me pass these towels out to the patients in the fifth floor.” She said with purpose. Then she took out a notepad and checked my name off the list, confirming my attendance. “Now I better get back to work.” She announced before leaving me in the hallway.
I’ve never been to the west wing before. Usually Helen would give me chores at the east wing where the mildly sick patients were. The west wing was where all the cancer patients reside, everyone knew that. This was the first time I’ve been assigned there so I was a bit anxious. I’ve never met a cancer patient before. One time, a classmate of mine named Jema didn’t come to school for a month because her mother had brain cancer. I’ve heard from other classmates that at a certain stage her mom’s hair just completely fell off, leaving her bald. I didn’t know if I was prepared to see patients like that.
Gathering up courage, I made my way over to the west wing. In the lift, a lady with her son smiled at me as I stood a few feet away. I smiled back at her, shutting my mouth from asking personal questions when I noticed the puffy redness around her eyes. She had been crying and I was sure it wasn’t for any happy reason.
Once the lift reached the fifth floor, I quickly muttered “Take care” to the lady and watched her smile weakly back as the door closed behind me. The smell of medicines on the fifth floor was more intense and I almost cringed.
“Charlie?” The girl at the administrating table waved at me. “Are you Charlie Kennedy?”
I nodded, carrying the towels with me. “That’s me.”
“Great to have you today, Charlie. Oh good, you have the towels.” The girl said as she noticed the towels in my arms. Her nametag says ABBY although she looked more like a Valerie to me. Her hair was bright pink and she wore purple contact lenses.
“Helen told me I’m assigned to the west wing today.”
The girl gave me a sheepish look. “It’s not as bad as you think. The patients here appreciate what you do for them.” She told me as she typed in something into her computer. “Room 501 to Room 520. Just pass the towels out to these rooms, feel free to chat up the patients. They always love company.” She said while passing me a ‘volunteer’ tag.
I put the tag on and smiled at her before heading to the first room. There was a wooden plate attached to the front door that reads 501. The door itself was made of wood, only the door knob remained metal. I knocked twice on the door before letting myself in with the towels.
I didn’t know what I was expecting. Maybe an extremely depressing looking room with a pale bald patient? Now that I’ve seen how it actually was, I felt guilty for even imagining the worst. The room was a mellow yellow with flowers decorating the window sills. There were paintings and photos all around the room, and in the centre was a bed with the patient on it. A lady who looked about fifty sat on it while reading a copy of The Catcher in the Rye. Her hair was still perfectly intact although they’re greying from old age.
She looked up from her glasses and smiled warmly at me. “Hello love, Abby out there told us we’ll be having a new person this week.”
“Yeah, that’ll be me. I’m Charlie.” I introduced myself as I made my way over, my footsteps loud in this quiet room.
“Oh! My late husband was named Charlie, although he didn’t look quite good as you.” She patted my cheeks and placed her book beside her. “My towel is over there,” she said, pointing towards the end of her bed.
I took the dirty towel with me and replaced it with one of the clean ones. “There ya go, ma’am.”
“Oh stop, you can call me Eloise. Makes me feel young and fresh.” I grinned, liking this old lady already.
“Do you want me to water the plants?” I asked, seeing as one of the flowers was wilting.
Eloise shook her head. “No love, I’m supposed to do it. It’s a daily goal for me. ‘Make it a goal for you, Eloise! Take it positively!’” It was hard to not smile as I watched Eloise imitating the doctor’s voice. “Anyway, that woman is right. It helps me get out of bed, didn’t it? Now go help the other patients, love.”
I nodded, deciding that this was my cue to leave. “Take care, Eloise.”
She smiled and nodded. “You too, dear. And thank you for the towel.”
Patient two and three were sleeping so I crept in as quiet as possible to switch their towels with a clean one and bolted out. Most of the others had visitors so all I did was offer a smile, change their towels and excuse myself before things got awkward. The whole time I could feel the visitors’ stares on me. When I reached room 519, I was about to knock on the door when I heard a grumpy voice shouted from the inside, “Don’t come in!”
Needless to say, I panicked and left the towel outside, hanging on the door knob.
--
“Hey Andrea.” I looked up from my storybook and found Sarah standing at the door way. Her black raven hair was down today and she wore the yellow sun dress that I gave her for her fourteenth birthday.
“Hi Sarah.”
It was my fifth day in the hospital and Sarah was my first visitor excluding my parents. No one else visited me. Not even my ballerina friends or my classmates. I thought being popular in dance classes and in school would meant tons of visitors when I’m in the hospital, but I guess it wasn’t like that in reality.
“How’ve you been holding up?” Sarah asked me as she took a seat on the bed.
“Well, I’ve finally managed to catch up on the latest episode on Gossip Girl.” I said. There was nothing to do in the hospital except reading and watching series after series on my laptop. And if I weren’t doing either of these, I would be sleeping because of how tired I constantly feel.
“Gossip Girl finished years ago, Andrea.” She stuck out her tongue. “You just never got around watching it because-“
I already knew what she was going to say. She didn’t need to say it, it’s been all I was thinking about for days. “Because I was dancing.” I finished her sentence. “And now I can’t anymore.” There was a moment of silence as reality sunk in. I was never going to dance again, Sarah was never going to attend another one of my shows, I was dying. This wasn’t just some sickness I can recover from and hop back into dancing the next week. No, this was an illness that took away everything I love.
“I can no longer dance!” I started wailing, tasting salty tears on my tongue. Sarah broke into tears too and she scooted closer. She wrapped her arms around me and cradled me like a child. “I want to dance, Sarah!” I screamed into her chest, my voice muffled by her dress.
“I know, I know.” She kept repeating the same phrase over and over. We both knew there were no words that could make me feel better. There was nothing. Eventually I fell asleep with Sarah’s arms around me and her soft chanting of ‘I know’.
--
I was about to knock but I stopped when I heard someone singing. It belonged to a girl, and I recognised the song she sang. I’ve played it so many times for my sister, it was hard to not recognise.
‘Someday my prince will come…’
I tapped on the door twice softly before entering the room. Just like every other room, the walls were painted a mellow yellow. But unlike the other patients’, her room was bare; no painting on the walls, no indoor plants as decoration, and no visitors. Just like Eloise, her hair was fully intact and not pale. Her jet black hair was left down, long enough to reach her waist. Her bed was placed right beside the window, making the room looked spacious.
“Hi, I’m Charlie.”
--Author's Note--
I was listening to Disney songs while writing this, I'm sorry. I haven't found the time to edit out the mistakes yet so bear with me. If you liked this chapter and want more, be sure to vote for the chapter! Also, follow me to know when I upload a new chapter :) Take care.