Thursday, October 19, 2006
THE BURN

I knew when I fell out of bed this morning nothing was good. My throat was burning up and on closer inspection I noticed white globs on the right side of my tonsils. I crawled to my phone and first called my doctors office- machine answers. I hang up. Its Wednesday, I remind myself- the office is always closed on Wednesdays. My next plan of action is to call Big L and get my arse off to the emergency room since a swollen throat is never good. I guessed Big L had a day off and in no time she was there to once again drag me to the frustrations known as our local hospital.



NOON

I register myself and we sit down with the CTV news feed in our face. Thought: “Ugh- day news” and closed my eyes for a while. Big L and I just kept ourselves busy with conversation since there seemed to be a lack of magazines and newspapers in the waiting room. On one side of me, a bullshit young man’s cell phone rings and despite the posted rules. He yells at a young woman on the other line, “SHUT UP- I TOLD YOU WHERE I AM- WHY DON’T YOU BELIEVE ME?”

He hangs up, takes out a copy of THE WALRUS and sticks a finger up his nose. I watch him dig, probing his brain as he tries to comprehend the paper in his hands. I have to turn my head away as he keeps digging away after 3 minutes.

Behind me, a young factory worker sits and keeps to himself. His eye is red and flaming up. I look up from him and scan the room. A few easy paintings, cracks in the drywall, a repair man fills up the candy snack machine as another day rolls by. There is no one else in the waiting room. I see a pile of dirt and dead leaves in the corners. There are oil smears on the windows.



ONE O CLOCK

Big L and I are talking about old work times as I catch Garth Turner’s face on the CTV news feed. I pull my hand up and watch with intent. As the story rolls in about his caucus suspension I draw to my feet. I run. Amazingly I am running- something I haven’t been able to do in a while. “Where are you going?” Big L yells at me.

I don’t stop, just turn my head and yell, “Come and get me if the nurse comes- I have to call Don!”

Thru the doors, cell phone on, number dialing, out the doors, cold seeping in, lungs dyding, I get Karen and promptly ask to speak to Don. “You have any idea whats going on? Im in the hospital and-“

”What? What happened?” Don asks, killing my time.

(point of thumb, Korny- stick to the facts!)

I inform him. He is shocked. As he asks me for more information, Big L comes running out, “Ann- they called for you!”

Bugger. I tell Don quickly whats what and I hang up. A nurse looks at me as if I am crazy.



TWO O CLOCK

They make us sit in this exam room. There are two exam-chairs- one newer the other has a huge tear in the faux leather. Big L sits on a nearby stool and starts to spin herself around in circles- a way to pass the time. The factory boy sits silent outside our room- the next in line….

We keep talking, waiting for the doctor. After a while we get bored and we start searching the exam room for ways to amuse ourselves. I decide to play my usual “great faux moustache” trick with the tongue depressors as the doctor enters the room with an unimpressed face.

He looks me over- asks the same questions in case they changed, informs me of blood work and smartly assumes that I have mono. I laugh, “No way” and even Big L is shocked. He gets me to switch with the Factory boy sitting outside waiting for the room.

“Mono?” The boy says to me as we cross paths. “No wonder they put you in before me” and he chuckles. Big L and I sit on chairs outside of the room and I bend my neck around the door and smile at him. “What you in for, cowboy?”

(one comrade to another quip quip)

“I think I got something in my eye,” He says- his eye all red and tearing up.



THREE O CLOCK

The Factory boy leaves the room and a nurse turns the room’s lights out. Big L and I sit in the hallway- we wait. After a while I get up, walk down the hall and grab another chair. I place it next to my chair. I lie down, foetus style, legs dangling off the edge.

”What are you doing now?” Big L asks.

“I’m tired and I need to lie down and they wont give us a room so what else can I do? It hurts to sit up.”

I close my eyes and my rest is interrupted by nurses coming and going, patients, opening and closing doors…

The janitorial staff makes comical jokes now at me. I sneer them off. Cant douse my glower power.

Nurse comes to take my bood. She puts us back in the waiting room since the chairs have arms…



As we walk in, Factory boy walks out and says “I am going home!” with his arms up. We congratulate him and we go around looking for more magazines to read. I dig up that copy of THE WALRUS for Big L and I grab a shitty women’s shopping magazine called LUCKY. As I finish LUCKY I notice blood stains all on the back cover. I get up and wash my hands in disgust. Sitting back down I see a large beetle on Big L’s shoulder and I flick it off. We then spend the next moments counting the amount of beetles in the emergency waiting room.



FOUR O CLOCK

Patience is wearing thin. I can see a new Nurse shift starting. I am becoming drifty, hungry, tired. I start pacing slowly around the waiting room as a few nurses point and ask to why we are still here. The Bull Nurse at reception says “Waiting on blood work” and they walk away.

I start to feel as if I am forgotten.

I walk up to reception and they finally call my name.

They shove us into a better room, this one clean, no tears and with fresh blankets. Right away the doctor runs in and says “Yup. Mono. You’re off for one month!”

The 4:20


Big L and I finally get home. I change into my housecoat and reflect on another wasted day in the local hospital with a big bottle of water in my hands. We eagerly await for our TV shows to come on as I scan the news feeds for information about Garth and catch him addressing the media live on CBC.





Another day in suburbia, another reason to cry, it rains, it pours, I keep going because I just gotta. Does it disillusion you? Does it hurt inside?



It does hurt. My whole jaw hurts, my body aches and my attention spans shortly.