The Appointments

It was a late Saturday afternoon in September and Samuel had a doctor appointment. He arrived at the hospital fifteen minutes earlier than expected. But what he did not expect was the hospital having a busy day. There were a couple of doctors out for a day and several patients arrived within minutes of each other. He was to see Doctor Smith about his injured right wrist. He had injured it a week ago while playing basketball and the ball slammed into it as he was trying to catch it. As Samuel walked into the entrance of the hospital, he managed to avoid being in the way while doctors and paramedics rushed to bring stretchers with patients to different rooms. He sees the sign for the break room and when walking towards it, he turns around and sees four paramedics with a stretcher rushing towards him. He quickly moves out of the way and they head for the front door. He enters the break room and walks to the vending machine. He pulls a one dollar bill out of his blue wallet and inserts it inside. He pushes the buttons 4-A for a Twix bar which he receives. He sits down in one of the three chairs in the room to eat his chocolate bar. Then he sees an equally tall man named David enter the break room. To Samuel, he seemed really nervous as he was about to go to the vending machine. His wife Francine had just got into labor with their first born child nearly two days before. Francine gave birth to a baby girl named Ella in the middle of the afternoon. After getting a fifty cent bag of nacho chips from the vending machine, David paced around the room while eating the chips. Samuel notices him doing so and wonders what was puzzling him. David then sat in the chair on the right by Samuel who then looked concerned for the father.

Samuel wanted to break the ice between them and he does by showing David his injured right wrist.

"Basketball game." Samuel said to David, referring to the game where he had gotten injured. David nodded in agreement.

"We almost did not make it here." David responded to Samuel as he referred to him and Francine arriving to the hospital.

"My wife had a fight with her mother this morning. It was ridiculous actually. First it was about naming the baby. Then they went on about her mother interfering in everything and how Francine was not doing anything right." David told Samuel who displayed a very concerned look on his face. The constant back and forth between Francine and her mother caused her to have a contraction. David quickly drove Francine to the hospital but found themselves in the middle of heavy traffic. Luckily they found a detour which led them to another part of the road, passing through the traffic.

"Now I'm worried that all this is going to affect Ella. When I saw her for the first time, it made me think if this is how it is going to be for all of us." David was still upset.

"Maybe it doesn't have to be like this," Samuel reassured him.

"I guess so. Thanks, I feel better." David said after showing a brief smile. "I hope you feel better." He said to Samuel before leaving the room to attend to Francine and Ella. After David leaves the room, Samuel quickly catches up to him.

"I just hope that you guys all work this out." Samuel said to David and they gave each other an elbow bump. Samuel then went to see Doctor Smith who notices that his wrist is improving after looking at the x-ray. When leaving the room, Samuel went to look for David. He then searches through a few rooms before approaching a doctor. He had described David to the doctor, hopefully she would recognize him.

"Sorry, he and his family left ten minutes ago." She told him. Samuel was left wondering about the possibility of getting to know David more and seeing the family too. But he felt glad knowing that he had helped David find a solution as David helped him feel the same way.