TickTack

TickTack

The lobby of the hospital was rather empty, only one older man sat in the back, reading a magazin. It was pleasently quite, the two people at the reception desk, did some small paperwork, nothing out of the ordiary, just some documentation. A doctor came entered the lobby and started to chat quitely with one of the receptionists.

Outside it was rather hot, from the inside of the lobby one could see the heat causing small distortions in the air. Only a few people were on the streets, hurrying to find a cool place.

The doctor and the receptionists finished their chat and then grew quite, looking at each other for a moment. Then the front door opened and a group of people entered: A man in his 40s, blond hair, averaged height and dark brown, smiling eyes. In his track followed a women: Brown hair, average height and rather tired looking. Behind her a teenage girl, holding a young boy in her arms, who played with a small spaceship, followed the two.

The receptionists and the doctor looked to each other for a split second and nodded, The doctor straghtend his back and took a deep breath. Then he turned around smiling and greeted the group:"Welcome, hope you arrived her without much issues?"The man nodded: "Yep, the traffic was rather non existend today"."Hello Timmy" said the doctor and put his hands up for a high five, the small boy loughed excited and smashed his free hand onto the doctors."Ow" the doctor said, faking pain, "you got quite a punch there Timmy!" he said.Timmy giggled and hold out his spaceship to the doctor. "Oh a nice ship you got there",wanna go and show it to your sister ?" he asked. Timmy nodded."Ok ladies and gentlemen follow me" the doctor said and moved in the direction of the patients rooms.

As the family left the two receptionists let out a sigh and visually shrunk in their seats.

Good morning Mister Jones, I brought you a coffeEmily announced as she entered the dining hall. "Morning Emily, alread up?" "I could ask you the same" she replied happily. "We old people don't sleep so long anymore, at your age I was most often found in bed at this time of the day. God, I remember how often my parents tried and failed misserably to get me out of be before 10am". He smiled, taken aback by his memories. "Hah" a women said next to him, "by the amout you drank sometimes, I wonder how you even managed to get up sometimes"."And he would even look like nothing has happend last night, we all would look like we had been run over by two trains but he...". Emily grinned, "a party person, I see Mr. Jones"."Nah, only in my youth" the old man said, his friends seem to disagree but he cut in before they could argue about that. "It's something everyone should have at least done once right?". His firends nodded. The women turned to Emily: "I've heard that your schools graduation party is approaching, do you know with whom you will go?". "Maybe with that boy who comes at every weekend?". Emily laughed: "I don't know yet, he's just a friend", before she could finish her sentence the whole table bursted out in laughter. She grew a little red and changed the topic.

Later that day she visited some other patients, went to walks with them, talked with them or was sometimes just found in the lobby reading a book. In the evenings she was often found playing cards with some of the stuff and the patients. It had gotten more lively at the hospital but in a good way.

Doctor Martens thoughts swirrled around these events as he proceeded with the family upstairs. They arrived at the door of room 221 and stopped, "She's just behind that door, I will be back in half an hour" he said and turned in the direction of the staff room. The family went inside. It smelled like citrus inside the room. On the of the room was a shelf containg clothing. On the right was a window from which one could see in the back of the yard. The blinds where closed and a small yellow Daffodil stood before the sill. At the back of the room was the bed with a drawer and a chair next to it. On the chair said an older women reading from a book. She stopped as she heard the door open and started to get up. "Ah Mrs. Sandston" the man said: "It's nice to see you". "Thank your Mr. Wiljems, it's nice to see you too" the women replied as she stood up. She greeted the other ones as she went out. She closed the door slowly behind her.

"Mom, dad?" a small voice said."Hi, Emily" the man said, "you look great"."Hello Emi" said the women as she went to her daugthers bed together with her husband."Hey, don't forgett your lovely sister Emi" the other girl said grinning."Kath, you made it!""Of course sweetheard, my boss gave me extra time off so I could come. I wouldn't miss such an important day".Timmy was the first to reach the bed after some tries he managed to climb it up and sat down next to Emily."Hey Timmy" she said after a cough.Timmy moved the spaceship in front of her eyes through the air."A nice spaceship you got there, have you been to the space center without me?" she said in a mocking voice."Next time you can come with us, we alredy reserved a ticket" Mr. Wiljems said. His daughter had seen better days, she was pale, her eyes were sunken in. Her mother discretly removed some hair from her pillow, she started loosing it some weeks ago.

Chronicles Of The Emerged World were laying next to 2 images. One was a family image in front of the space center. The second one was his daughter similing at the camera while having her arm around a rather nervous looking boy. He'd taken that photo a in the first week at the hospital, he thought that the poor boy might die of a heart attack, but kept himself together from saying anything, as his doughter didn't seem to notice at all. He layed the ticket on top of the books.

This moment they heard a knock at the door and a second later 2 doctors came in followed by Doctor Martens.

He introduced them as his collegues who would do the oepration. After the paperwork was done the head doctor said: "So Emily, if you are ready we can start". She nodded."Timmy would you please go from your sisters bed?" Doctor Martens asked.

Timmy looked at him for a moment, then he looked at the spaceship and at this sister.After a moment of hesitation, he handed it to her and let his mother take him away.

The family watched as Emily was taken away. Doctor Martens brought them to the caffe in front of the OP area."Don't worry your daugther has two professionals from the capital hospital at her side, I'm sure it will go well. I will now go assisting them, see you after the operation." he said and left.

There was Mrs. Handly, a middle aged women who sat in a wheel chair, she never got any visitors and was often alone in the hallway looking outside or reading a magazine. At one of his visits he found his dougther outside with her walking and talking. She seemd to have really apprecate this, over time more people joined their walking group and so she was often seen with quite a few people. There was a group of children which where here for regular treatments, she eased the work of the doctors involved as she told them stories about space and spaceships, the seemed to have liked it and always asked for her. He didn't know if they were here wating for her to come out fine as well, or maybe it was just coincidence, but he appretiated it. Soon after they found themselfs in some chats with the patients about this and that, and the hours passed.

Tick Tack
Tick Tack

Hour after hour went by, all the talking had died and everybody just sat there and waited. The silence was broken as foot steps outside came near.

Then Doctor Marten looked at the family an motioned them to follow him.He brought them back to the room where Emily had been as they arrived. Inside they found Emily lying in her bed."Hey Emi, how do you feel", her father asked."Dad, is Timmy here?", she said with a faint voice. "Sure he is ", her father answered, slightly irritated."Would you mind calling my friend?" she said.

He nodded, "sure".He looked at his wife, "you got your phone with you?"."Yeah in the car, we will be back shortly sweety" she said.They both went out. "Kath" she said, it seemed like quite an act for her to say it, "could you bring me some ice tea? Pretty please?".

Her sisters nodded, "sure thing" and left. "Timmy" she said, slowly. "it might be best if you take it again", her hand appeard from under a blanket with the spaceship inside.

He looked at her for a moment, then he came near, layed his hands on hers and closed them. Tears, appeared in Emilies' eyes "maybe you need to go to the space center without me the next time. B-but please have fun an- and take a photo with the new rocket they bring next month for me. Would you do that me please?". He looked at her and nodded.

Kathy and her parents bumped into each other in front of her door."Hey dad, who did you call?". Her mother smirked, she took the smartphone and showed her the image of Emily and the boy outside. "He was here for a short time it seemed that the two have become quite good friends, at least that's what she thinks or at least what she tries to convince herself of.""Why didn't she say anything about him, now I need to get every little detail"."Hey Emi, what's the deal with that boy, you didn't tell your favorite sister anything about him." She stopped as she saw Doctor Marten in the room.

"Dad" a weak voice said from the bed: "I- I think I can't visit the s- space center with you all.""Why wouldn't you?" her father said, "The operation went fin..." then it hit them.His heart skipped a beat. Tick TackTick Tack A boy entered the lobby, he nodded to the receptionists who looked at him with sad eyes and nodded back. He came often, he was a patient until the beginning of the last month. The boy stopped near the man with the magazin to have a look at his watch.The man just noticed the boy and looked up to greet him, as he froze. The boy looked at him smiled and said: "Not today". Then he went past the man, who after a second of wondering where he was in the magazin, continued reading. Doctor Marten was quite relifed that his collegues where experienced in dealing with this kind of situations, it was his first.After some inital outbrake Mr. Wiljems calmed down rather quickly. Now they all sat around quitely, nobody knowing what to say.The boy reached the door and knocked.

Kath said: "Come in". He saw the family and the doctor and greeted them. Mr. Wiljems looked at him and said: "We'll leave you know, I guess you have some stuff to talk about".

"Hey Em", he said softly sitting down next to her a package in his hands.

"Hey Kharon, I'm not looking so good right now, sorry for that" she said weakly."No problem" he said. "I brought you something...". She cut him off midsentence."How are the preperations for the graduation party go-going" she asked after a cough. "Nearly done", he said looking at her."I- I think, I should tell you that... I might" she stopped, clearly exhausted."Yes?", he asked slowly."Sorry" she said, "it- its a little difficult right now".He saw the ice tea and filled it into a glas and put in a drinking staw ,which he pulled out of his pocket, and handed it her.After some sips, she said: "I think I might not be able to go to the party..." she paused. He noticed some tears in her eyes, he took one of her hands and pressed it gentely."It's fine, there are a lot of pa..." he said before she cut him off: "But, would really have loved to go wi-with you" she whispered and blushed.

"Kharon?" she asked. "Mhmm?", "Than-ks fo- for comming".He glanced at his watch."Of course I would come, it's your last day here, isn't it?".A weak smile appeard on her face, "it's getting col-d in he-here isn't it?".She closed her eyes.

Tick Tack

Tick ...Her grip became weak."Thank yo-u..." she said.

He looked at his watch.

"Pieeeeeeeeeeeeeeep" <br/>the sound of the EKG, filled the room, outside one could her people crying. Doctors stormed in the room, the door smashed against the wall.

"Puls at zero"
"Bring the defi !"
"3..2...1.. Reanimation...."

The boy took up the package."Hey Em, I want to show you something" he wishpered softly and went outside, behind him a figure made of light.