St. Elsewhere
Part 13
Later that afternoon Mia found herself in the hospital.
Her least favourite place to be.
It was her father that had opened the door and invited her inside. It was her father that had asked all the usual and polite questions. "How are you?" "How are you feeling?" "Are you happy?" "Working hard?" and then the more probing questions: "How did you get here?" Where do you know that boy from?" "What concert?" "Are you two going out?"
After answering all the right questions with all the right answers and laying down that she and Sean were most certainly not going out, despite what she wanted, her father seemed happier.
Mia did not question her mother's absence. She already knew.
Which was why she was in the hospital.
She was sat on one of the waiting room chairs.
Hard backed orange plastic.
Mia hated that colour. She could never see that colour and not think of the hospital. The amount of times she was sat alone in that chair waiting for somebody, anybody to come and tell her what was happening.
Today she knew what was going on. She knew exactly what was happening. The various callings down to Oxford over the past weeks and the answer phone message had made things perfectly clear to Mia. Crystal clear in fact.
Mia took a deep breath in and stood up.
She was alone this time. Her father had dropped her off here telling she had to go and see her mother. He had already visited her and he had an evening lecture on Albert Einstein's relative theory.
So Mia walked determinedly to room 206, the quicker she went in the quicker this would all be over.
She pulled the door open and saw a single hospital bed in a cream painted room, with a haggard looking woman lying in the bed staring at the TV on the wall that was showing a performance of Swan Lake.
"Hello Mum." Mia said softly and shut the door.
Her least favourite place to be.
It was her father that had opened the door and invited her inside. It was her father that had asked all the usual and polite questions. "How are you?" "How are you feeling?" "Are you happy?" "Working hard?" and then the more probing questions: "How did you get here?" Where do you know that boy from?" "What concert?" "Are you two going out?"
After answering all the right questions with all the right answers and laying down that she and Sean were most certainly not going out, despite what she wanted, her father seemed happier.
Mia did not question her mother's absence. She already knew.
Which was why she was in the hospital.
She was sat on one of the waiting room chairs.
Hard backed orange plastic.
Mia hated that colour. She could never see that colour and not think of the hospital. The amount of times she was sat alone in that chair waiting for somebody, anybody to come and tell her what was happening.
Today she knew what was going on. She knew exactly what was happening. The various callings down to Oxford over the past weeks and the answer phone message had made things perfectly clear to Mia. Crystal clear in fact.
Mia took a deep breath in and stood up.
She was alone this time. Her father had dropped her off here telling she had to go and see her mother. He had already visited her and he had an evening lecture on Albert Einstein's relative theory.
So Mia walked determinedly to room 206, the quicker she went in the quicker this would all be over.
She pulled the door open and saw a single hospital bed in a cream painted room, with a haggard looking woman lying in the bed staring at the TV on the wall that was showing a performance of Swan Lake.
"Hello Mum." Mia said softly and shut the door.