edgey and lost.

Jack Tait woke up in a panic and ran into his daughter’s bedroom.  she was screaming in pain.  sometimes people scream in ecstasy but this wasn’t one of those times.  Taylor had fallen earlier in the day during a game of basketball.  she loved basketball.  Jack never played the game but he always appreciated when someone had a passion for something as most peasants only have passions for dumb tv and dumb movies.  Jack consoled Taylor.  “are you okay Taylor?”  Jack asked his beautiful daughter.  “No Dad.  I am in pain.  It hurts.”  Taylor replied in obvious pain.  Jack woke Sarah up and off they went to the hospital.  They hoped it wasn’t going to be filled with the misfits of Orangeville.  the drunks.  the wife-beaters.  the drug dealers.  the jobless.  the heartless.  the toothless.  the brainless.  the hairless but hairy fuckers that usually occupy the Emergency Intake at every hospital in Canada.
Jack and the family entered the front doors and were immediately surprised at how quiet it was.  “There’s nobody in here.  We’ll probably be out in two hours.”  Sarah said excitedly.  “Yeah, it beats the six hours.”  Jack responded angrily.  he was always angry.  angry or horny.  one of the two.  he preferred horny but sometimes got angry.  twists and turns of life.  always complicated but never dull.
  Taylor went through Triage in pain and Sarah filled out the forms.  boring paperwork that never seems to go away even when school is but a distant memory.  Paperwork done and the family walked by the three people in the waiting room.  A Filipino family, a fat couple, and one old lizard.  They walked by them and through the yellow doors into the next waiting room.  so many waiting rooms.  so many people.  so many diseases.  so many lost souls and lost children.  no Mom’s.  no Dad’s.  struggling through a life that will never get better.  only older and more dull.  more painful.
Taylor, Sarah, and Jack sat down in the waiting room beside an old haggard lady with stringy hair and a stringy purse.  she looked up and smiled.  two missing teeth and a big tongue.  she then went back to her ipad game of Candy Crush.  “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU PLAYING MAAM?  ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?  CANDY CRUSH???  HOW FUCKING OLD ARE YOU?  YOU ARE WASTING YOUR LIFE AWAY!!!  WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU READ A BOOK YOU FUCKING PEASANT???”
the haggard lady looked up stunned but dull and smiled.  she then went straight back to her game.  two minutes later her haggard looking daughter came out from some room.  she was haggard but still had hope.  nice body.  cute.  lost.  she will be her Mom in twenty years.  the blind always leading the blind.  a sad mom passing on her sad life to her daughter and the cycle goes on and on.
Half an hour later the doctor came and brought Taylor into the x-ray room.  Taylor was scared but Jack and Sarah had hope.  they hoped it was a sprain.  a strain.  Sarah looked at Jack.  “As long as we think positive thoughts everything will be okay.”  Jack laughed.  “what?  why are you laughing Jack?”  “Just as you were telling me that we should think positive thoughts I was wondering how many people are dying at this point in this hospital.”  Sarah gave Jack a death stare.  he didn’t worry as he had seen the stare many times before.  then Jack went back to his thought.  he really did think he was among the dying.  the sad family members left behind.  the sad sacks who will survive but have wasted their lives away so badly that they might as well be dead.  the hospital is a very odd place.  it looks like a sterile jail with it’s white walls and stale odour.  it is filled with average looking workers and Mongolian looking patients.  “do normal, rich people not get sick?” Jack thought.
Fifteen minutes later Taylor came out of the x-ray room.  she was still limping and still in pain.  she went to her Mommy and then they all went to the next waiting area.  so much waiting.  so many workers.  so much standing around.  eerily similar to a film set.  Taylor, Sarah, and Jack waited for the news.  more weirdo’s walked by.  more odd people.  odd hairdo’s.  odd shoes.  odd dresses.  everything seemingly odd in such a dull place.  Jack decided to wash his hands with that gel for the twentieth time as he couldn’t afford to get sick.  he had to drink and observe.  he also had to drink and fuck.  maybe even masturbate.  the waiting continued.  the observing continued.  everything continued but still Jack was thinking about how many people were dying as they were laughing.  such a weird stale place.  a much needed place but an odd place nonetheless.
After another twenty minutes the doctor came out and gave Taylor the bad news.  “You have a small hairline fracture in your wrist as well as in your ankle.  I will put a soft cast on your wrist and we will wait until the swelling goes down for the ankle.”  Taylor immediately began to cry.  tears streaming down her face.  sarah consoled her.  Jack did too.  they waited for the cast to be put on and then they left the building.  they left the lost souls.  they left the stale air.  they left the dying men.  dying women.  some even dying while living.  the worst kind.  wasted lives.  humans with no excitement except Candy Crush.  Jack wanted more but was getting less.  things needed to change soon.  he was struggling inside.  he was struggling outside.  he wanted to connect but was finding human connection harder and harder to find.  he went back home with the family and ate lunch.  he then kissed Taylor and told her how proud he was of her.  he then left the house and rode his tricycle away from Orangeville.  riding to nowhere.  he couldn’t think today.  too edgey and too beaten down.  “I hope tomorrow will be better.”
Goodnight.  goodnight.  goodnight Irene.