Ophelia's Tales

Chapter 2: Hospital

Waiting rooms. I've seen a few but the one I've seen the most is this one. White walls and wooden decorations to make it look expensive. "Quality service, quality care, quality environment." Their slogan is plastered on every wall, a man wearing a doctor blouse next to it with his thumb in the air. Like that's going to convince people to come here instead of the General Hospital. If it were up to me, I'd ad "but expensive!" at the end to make it more realistic. It wouldn't scare future patients, the ones who come here have all the money in the world. It's like if Meredith Grey works here and the other hospitals only hire stupid doctors. Yeah, I know Grey's Anatomy, who doesn't? Personally, I'd chose Jackson to be my doctor, but my mom always had a thing for Alex Karev. She stopped watching it after he left. Not me.

Since I was born, I've been in seven hospitals. The one I was born in, the one they took me to when I had my first allergic reaction, one in Montreal when the babysitter forgot I was allergic to eggs, the one my brother was born in, one in Florida when my dad had a concussion, the General Hospital of Seattle when my brother broke his arm, and this one where many things happened: a few of my father's injuries, many allergist appointments, the birth of Olive and Alex's son, Hudson, and a few other meaningless things. My point is, hospitals don't scare me. They freak my mom out, but they don't scare me. The hydraulic gel smell, the white walls, the machines beeping, I am not a fan of it, but I don't mind it. Every time we've been here, everything ended up ok. My dad always comes out, I've learned to accept the negative response from my allergist when he tells me my allergy didn't go away, Theo's arm healed, etc. But my mom always wonders if this is the hit that'll mess everything up. Will dad wake up? Will he recognize her? Will he still be able to play? So far, everything has been fine. But has long as he hasn't heard him say "hi" she won't stop pacing around the waiting room.

It's been four hours now. He's been unconscious for two hours after his surgery to fix his bone. It's never been that long. "A severe concussion and an open fracture on his wrist." The right one. Of course, it had to be his right wrist. The one he slaps with. The headline of tomorrow's newspaper will be "Benji Johnson hurt, what will the future hold for the Sockeyes without their captain?" The only detail about his injury will be an "arm" between parentheses to stop the players from knowing his weakness when he comes back on the ice.

"The Johnsons?" calls a voice from the front of the room. My mother gets up, quickly followed by Felix and me. Theo fell asleep on Alex's shoulder, so we leave him there. As we walk, the doctor talks to my mom, but I can barely hear what he says.

"Is dad ok, mom?" Her hand in my face tells me to shut up as she listens to the doctor.

"He just woke up, so expect him to be a little dizzy, but everything looks alright. What we thought was a severe concussion is probably a mild one, so that's good. We plastered his wrist and he'll have to keep it for a few weeks, but that's nothing to be nervous about. You can go in now. And I was told to tell you not to worry, our team is doing everything to keep the press away." Nice doctor let's give him a nice review on Yelp when we're out of here.

I've seen my dad in hospital bed a few times, but it fucks me up every time. My dad isn't weak and when he's lying down like that in a pale green blouse, he looks fragile and I hate that. But he smiles at my mom and extends his valid hand when she walks to him.

"Hey you, miss me?"

"You scared me, Ben. And you scared your daughter." My father's eyes go from my mom to me, and his looks softens even more.

"I'm ok. When play again?"

"Ben, c'mon."

"When?"

"Season's over, Ben. Your wrist will stay like that for three or four months then you'll need physiotherapy. You won't train, so season's over."

"Fuck." One look at me makes him regret saying that, but I just smile. No swearing in front of mom, that's our number one rule.

We stay for a few more minutes until dad falls asleep in the middle of my mom's sentence. She stays, as usual, Theo will spend the night at Alex and Olive's place, and I am going to Felix's. Great... we'll have time to talk about college.

Ssssooorrrryyyy!!!! I know it's been a while, but here's an update! How's everyone doing?