The room was quiet. The smell of bleach, disinfectants, and the plain stale stench of hospital had settled in the small waiting room. I stared at my feet, clicking my heels together then clicking my toes together. Back and forth and forth and back. Again and again.

Then I started counting tiles.

1

"Why are you here?" says a woman in the corner to another woman sitting close to her.

2

"My son is sick," she responds.

3

"Mine too," she whispers.

4

"Mr. Powell?" says a nurse. A man stands and walks towards her.

5

"Maybe we should talk in a more private setting?" the nurse whispered.

6

"Whispering isn't sympathy," says Fredrick.

7

"Are you paying attention to me?"

8

He grabs my arm and I snap back, my eyes meeting his. "What?" I say. Tile number 5 is in the left corner. If I remember that, I can continue from 5.

"Are you paying attention to me?" Fredrick says.

"I was thinking..." I mutter.

"What about?" he says confused. His eyebrows furrow a little in the middle.

"Nothing important," I say twisting around in my seat. I try to see all the silent faces in the room. They might as well been born without mouthes.

Fredrick scrapes his teeth against the nail on his thumb, he's never been a patient one. His right leg bounces nervously as we wait, "I wonder what's taking so long."

I turn back around, fixing my eyes on tile number 5, "They're probably really busy tonight. Look at all the people here."

6

"Yeah..." he sighs. "Probably. Hopefully."

7

"You ever look at the sky and wonder?"

8 "Wonder what?" I say, my eyes slowly moving to tile number 9.

"If clouds move because of the wind or because of the earths rotation," Fredrick looked up at the ceiling.

10 "I don't think about that shit," I say quickly.

He looked at me, "Why not? That's good shit. Nice fodder for the brain."

11 "I just don't see the point in thinking about stuff like that."

"You should do it more often. It's interesting."

12 "Why don't you just google it?" 13 "Seriously."

He took a butterscotch candy out of his pocket and began to slowly unwrap it, "That would ruin the fun. You ever notice how the internet ruins the fascination of life? The "what if's" and the "how come's"? What fun is life without those questions? If you can get the answers with the click of a button?"

14

15

16 "What?"

"Are you paying attention to me?" he said sharply. The candy clicking against his teeth.

17

18

19 "Yeah...yeah...I'm paying attention."

"You never ask yourself that?" Fredrick said.

20

21

22 "No. Not really. I don't think about bullshit."

"You just count tiles?"

My head snapped up.

"Mr. Freddy Contas?"

I looked at Fredrick who wasn't moving.

"Mr. Freddy Contas?!" the nurse screamed again.

"Fredrick!" I shouted.

He jerked and looked at me, "What the fuck?"

"They're calling you," I say quietly.

He smiled at me and nodded, "No, they're calling you."

My eyes opened as the nurse shook me, "Mr. Contas?"

"Yes...that's me," I say sleepily.

"Sir, we need to speak to you," she stood upright and waited for me to wake up fully.

"What about?" I said. "Is Fredrick alright?"

"Mr. Contas, maybe we should talk in another room?"

"Tell me," I said quietly. Now I was whispering. "Is he alright?"

"I'm sorry to tell you that he didn't make it, Mr. Contas," she took a deep breath. "He started bleeding and we couldn't stop it. I'm terribly sorry."

I sat there. Frozen. All the blood drained from my face as I tried to think.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered.

"You can..." I choked on the air trying to enter my mouth. I coughed. Short. Fast.

"Yes?" she said quietly.

"You can go," I said as the tears began to sting my eyes.

Tears were in her eyes as well, but she blinked a few times and stood up straight. An immediate fix all and she was again composed. "Your brother," she said firmly. "He was a nice man."

"Thank you," I said as she turned and walked away. "He hated being called Freddy."

Cut.

Print.

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