Hospital visit

By Mark_Daniels
- 791 reads
(Please comment on style and pace. Is the dialogue okay? Does it reveal too much/too little? Is this too cliche? many, many thanks.)
Jacob exited the lift on the fourth floor and walked along the corridor nodding to the nurses at their station, recognising them all. "Hey Janice," he said placing two plastic bags on the ground beside him as he signed the visitor's chart. He scribbled his name down, noticing he was using a different colour pen today than usual.
"Is she in?" he asked. Janice looked up from her notes and smiled, which faded for a moment but returned when she spoke.
"Mr Zimmerman. How are you doing today?"
"I'm okay. Here, I got you guys some chocolate," handing over a box of praline. He chuckled, "although it seems you've got that base covered" peering at the collection of snacks and crisps that littered the nurse station. The nurses assistant sat at her terminal without looking up munching on something fried and no doubt highly calorific.
"Yes, we had a patient leave today. Lily is fine. She had a scan this morning, but she's just resting up at the moment so go ahead. I'll be along to take some obs soon." She tapped her pen on a clipboard, "just after I've finished up with this bureaucratic waste of my time. All these new regulations are killing us..." She stopped herself, "but that is no concern of yours. My apologies."
Jacob said goodbye, picked his bags up and walked off down the blue corridor that he'd come to associate with a faint smell of bleach.
"Mr Zimmerman?" Janice called out as she remembered something. He turned to look, and she tilted her head, and her eyes narrowed:
"She didn't eat lunch again. Try and persuade her will you." Sadness seemed to flash across her eyes for a second; the stress, he thought. Jacob entered the small room and noticed some additions to the host of drawings on the walls.
"Hey, Lily. How are you today baby?"
"I'm okay I guess," she said shrugging her shoulders. She didn't look up from the drawing book.
"Great!" He said placing the two plastic bags down on to the lino hospital floor and sunk down in a cheap hospital chair that faced the bed.
"I like the new drawings. Really cool. What are they?"
This time she looked up.
"Daddy, you should never say cool. It doesn't suit you."
He smiled. "No? And why's that then?"
"Cause you know.... no offence... but you're old," and she went back to the drawing.
He stood up and got closer to her looking at the drawings placing his hand on her shoulder. After a moment, recognition crossed his face.
"Hey! I know those trees. That's the end of our road, aren't they? And that's Mr Wilson's house." He looked a little closer. "Hey, and that's Mr Wilson's old Tesla car. Good memory champ," he said rubbing her shoulder.
"Where's mummy?" She asked.
"Whys that? Is your old daddy boring you already?"
He grabbed the bags inspecting their contents, "I got you some food and things. I gave some to the nurses too... you know, got to bribe those guys into doing anything around here."
"Is that so Mr Zimmerman," Nurse Janice said as she entered the room pushing an observation trolley along. Jacob stayed silent and moved to let her pass.
"Hey, Lily. How are the headaches today?" she asked as she attached the blood pressure cuff to Lily's outstretched arm.
"They're okay," she lied.
"Do you still want the pain relief?"
Jacob sat looking at his daughter.
"Yes please."
Outside, Dr Hamel appeared at the window of the hospital room and looked through at them as he wrote something on an ePad. He was wearing a frown until Jacob looked up and the frown turned into an awkward smile. He gestured for Jacob to come out to the corridor where he grabbed and shook his hand firmly.
"Mr Zimmerman. How are you doing today?" His palms felt warm and sweaty.
"Come by my office after you see Lily okay, we got a few things to talk about."
"Anything bad Dr?"
"Look, just pop by. I'll be in my office all afternoon." He patted Jacob's shoulders, and his smile faded, and that familiar sadness was there. Boy, everyone's stressed today Jacob thought as he returned to Lily's room.
(insert meeting with the Doctor)
He noticed the curtains were open again: "did you open these? You know the light gives you a headache," and walked over to close them.
"I know. But look," she said showing off the latest drawing.
"I drew me riding my bike down by those trees. There's you and mum." pointing at the impressive picture of Jacob and Mara. Mara was smiling in this which he thought was unlike reality these days. He sat down again and left the curtains open.
"Alright, we can leave them open for a while, and you draw something else you can see. I'll read the paper for a bit, and we can wait for your mother."
There was silence for a moment apart from the sound scribbling and rustling paper. He looked up.
"Hey, did I ever tell you the story of where your name come from?"
She looked up halfway into drawing the skyscrapers that stood near the horizon in the distance.
"Yeah, but tell me again please." He put down his newspaper and sat forward in his seat closer to the bed as she carried on drawing.
"Well, just before you were born, it was possible to pay someone using money for things, and that included being able to use a small plot of land to grow vegetables, and flowers, and things. We used to go down on a nice day and plant things like tomatoes, potatoes, and herbs and spices. Remember I told you what tomatoes were?" She nodded in acknowledgement.
"Well, when you started growing inside your mum she thought it would be nice to open a shop selling flowers; something she'd wanted to do since childhood. Well, she went back down to the garden, and as soon as she saw her first flower popping up through the mud, you decided, at that very second, you wanted to come out and join us...."
"...Daddy," she said halting drawing and looking at him, "when am I going to be able to ride my bike again?"
- Log in to post comments
Comments
I really like this! There's
I really like this! There's obviously a lot of information you need to get across - both about the child's illness and whatever the changes are to the world, and you've made a good and original start with the sideways approach. I would definitely like to read more. As a stand alone piece this would definitely be enhanced if you did insert the meeting with the doctor, and perhaps give us a bit more of a clue as to the age of the child. Also this exchange could be done better:
"Hey, Lily. How are the headaches today?" she asked as she attached the blood pressure cuff to Lily's outstretched arm.
"They're okay," she lied.
"Do you still want the pain relief?"
Jacob sat looking at his daughter.
"Yes please."
You could show us she's lying and that would be so much more effective than just saying the word
Hope that all helps. Please repost once you've added the Dr part - I want to know what it is!
- Log in to post comments