Eternity

I paced back in forth in the waiting room of the hospital with Jenn and the Jonas family, waiting for a doctor, a nurse, really anybody, to come and tell me something about Joe. I avoided hospitals as much as possible, especially since last year.

My muscles were tensing up and I continued to walk from one side of the waiting room to the other, passing Jenn each time. She, at last, got annoyed.

“Can you please stop that?” She finally roared and looked at me with a threatening glare.

“Sorry?” I arched my eyebrows with surprise and worry all at once. “I pace when I’m anxious; you know this, dummy.”

“Well, goodness gracious,” she mimicked a country accent. “I didn’t realize you would be so snippy with me. I’m just saying.”

“Just…shut up, please.”

She stood up and stopped me from pacing by placing her hands on my shoulders and held me at arms length. I slouched slightly, my arms crossed over my chest.

“Sorry,” I muttered.

“That’s okay,” she said calmly. “Don’t tell me to shut up ever again.”

I gave her a puzzled look and then laughed after seeing a smile spread across her face. She led me to the seat next to hers and we sat down. Denise and Paul were sitting with Frankie and Nick, and Kevin with Danielle. A few moments later, a person, who seemed to be an intern, walked into the waiting room with a few charts in his hands.

“Uh, Jonas?” He said and looked over the chart before being slightly shocked when he saw that all eight of us were suddenly standing in front of him. “All of you?”

We all nodded our heads and waited for him to continue.

“I can only allow family of the patient to be in his room. All of you are family?”

We nodded our heads once again.

“Wow, big family, huh?” He laughed nervously and then cleared his throat. “Well, how about I let in two or three at a time? Would that be okay?”

I turned to look at the rest of us and they did the same. We didn’t know who to let go into Joe’s room first.

“Denise…Paul,” I started and they both looked at me. “Why don’t you go first? I mean, you are his parents. You go and we’ll figure out who should be the next to go.”

“Are you sure, hun?” Denise placed her hand in my arm.

“Yeah, of course.”

They both looked each other before nodding their heads and followed the intern down the hall to Joe’s room. The rest of us stared at one another, wondering who would be going next.

“Well, I’m not family, so I don’t think they’ll let me in. They’ll figure out I’m not related,” Jenn crossed her arms. Over the last year, she had become pretty good friends with Joe, and I could tell she was only bluffing.

“Just come with me,” Nick smiled at her. “You and I can go in together.”

I stifled a giggle by coughing and cleared my throat.

“Okay, then. Frankie, you wanna come with me?” I asked.

“No,” Danielle cut in. “You should go in on your own. Frankie can come with Kevin and I. You two should be by yourselves.”

“You’re sure?” I hadn’t thought of that.

“Works for me,” Frankie answered for me. “All that mushy stuff is boring anyways.”

I laughed out, as did everyone else, and I nodded my head at the idea.

“Sounds fair,” I stated. “I’ll go last, if that’s okay.”

They agreed for me to go last and it was at least an hour and a half before I was able to visit Joe in his room. Nick and Jenn were the last to visit him before I was able to go. I was snoozing on one of the small sofas in the waiting room for it was quarter to one in the morning when they finally came out of the room. I was surprised to know that they were allowing us to visit considering visiting hours had probably ended hours ago.

Jenn sat down on the small table in front of the sofa that I was lying on. The hood on my sweatshirt was pulled up on my head and over my face to block out the light, and my arms were crossed. She shook me lightly to wake me up and lifted my hood just a little, revealing the bright lights of the waiting room.

“Whoa,” I croaked and squinted at her. “Who turned on the sun?”

“Get up,” she laughed. “It’s your turn now.”

If I hadn’t been so tired, I would’ve shot up from the sofa and ran down the hall to see Joe. But I was cranky and irritated from the fact that it was now officially one in the morning. I doubt Joe would even want to stay up any longer; I knew I didn’t.

“Ugh,” I stretched my arms in the air as I stood up, lifting my sweatshirt slightly to expose my belly button. “What room?”

“407,” Nick answered. I nodded my head and rubbed my eyes before taking off down the hall to find Joe’s room. I peaked around the corner of the door to room 407 to see Joe flipping through the channels on the small television they had mounted on the wall across from him. He looked angrier with every push of the channel changer.

“There’s never anything good on at one in the morning,” I yawned. “Then again, not many people are up this late anyway, except for you.”

He turned his head, shutting his eyes tightly and wincing from the pain. He had neck brace on. It took him a moment to open his eyes again and when he did, he smiled wide.

“I was starting to wonder whether you were gonna visit me or not. I had a feeling you might’ve been on a date or something,” he joked.

I walked over to his side and leaned over to kiss him softly on the lips, trying not to cause any pain.

“Nah,” I chuckled. “He was annoying, so I left.”

“Hah, funny,” Joe laughed with me and blinked furiously for a second.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just a little banged up,” he replied. “It’s not that bad.”

“Not that bad?” I questioned. “You’re in the hospital with a neck brace and a cast on your right arm. And you say it’s not that bad? I’ve been worried for the past few hours about whether or not you were even alive.”

“Alexa, it’s okay. I’m alive; relax.” He slipped his left arm out and pulled me closer to him. “I’m fine,” he whispered, and I could feel my eyes fill with tears.

I wasn’t upset that he seemed so calm about everything. I was more relieved to know he was okay. I pulled my right leg up unto the bed next to his and then brought up the other so I could lie next to him.

“Shh,” he whispered in my ear and stroked my hair lightly. “It’s all right. I’m okay.”