As she stood on the hard gravel and heard the loud bellow of the train’s departure she was preparing herself for what laid ahead.
“We should hurry,” the man said.
“Oh.” She looked at his hand resting on her shoulder and realized it had been there for quite some time. She didn’t feel it. “Give me a moment,” and she walked away toward the sign marked “WOMEN”, she would be one soon enough, so she walked in.
Now the man sat and took in the surrounding scene. There were no faces as he looked around at the crowd, only people in a hurry to get on with their lives. That was why he was here; to get on with his life. His and hers; together. It was the only way.
“I’m ready.”
The man could see she had been crying, but there was no going back to that now.
“There will be a car waiting for us after we are through, but we’ll have to take a taxi there. Let us hurry before the heat gets too unbearable.”
It wasn’t long before the man and girl were walking the couple steps up to the office building. There were people in the waiting room, which meant they would have to have a seat and wait themselves. More time before the thing was through.
Together they sat, his hand holding hers gently, but he knew she did not notice. Once the procedure was through, things would be different, better again. So he still held her hand, and hoped to help ease her mind about his care for her.
She hardly noticed when the man in a lab coat came and took her name, and she only followed when she felt the man urging her to go with the doctor. The man had to wait alone while they did the operation. And the girl walked through the corridor to the room in the back, she disrobed quietly and put on the gown they indicated to her, and then waited for the air to be let in.
In the waiting room the man couldn’t be sure how things were going, and now that he was the only one left he couldn’t even watch the others and base time on their comings and goings.
“It will all be better now,” he said again and again.
How long had she been in there? Minutes, an hour? More? He hung his head in his hands and finally lost his composure, that’s when the doctor returned.
“I’m sorry…”
The cities and houses passed by in a blur as the train raced through the lonely night. The man was finally alone. After the day he had, the cool drink in his hand seemed impossibly sweet.
He took another sip.
“It’s just to let the air in”
The drink hit the ground, and the man finally cried.
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