This isn't Goodbye

This isn't Goodbye, It's see you later

Everything was white. It's not that it looked clean, more like it looked like it wasn't supposed to be touched. He was sitting there in the corner. All alone but looked like he was used to being that way. He was 43, but looked like he was over fifty. He was wearing a coat because it was December. The nurse walked into the room. She was a stereotypical nurse. She was older and she was a very sweet lady. "You can go see her." She says this but instantly he knows something is wrong. He slowly stands up and starts to walk down the hall. He has been in this hospital dozens of times. As he walked by the first room he saw his wife giving birth. She gripped his hand so hard all those years ago that she broke his pinky finger. He chuckled to himself as he recalled it. He kept walking coming to the next room he saw the time his son broke his arm. His wife was freaking out saying "How could this happen?" He continued on his apparent trip down memory lane. The next room he saw his wife hearing from the doctor that she would have to quit her job because the cancer was back. His head fell at this one. After a few minutes of just standing there he went the rest of the way to his wife's room. "Hey hunny are you feeling any better?" he said as he walked in. He walked over to the seat that was next to her and sat down. She was sleeping. She always looked so beautiful when she slept. Even now after all the chemotherapy she still looked like an angel. He sat there for sometime just thinking. He thought about the summer when he and Sarah had first met. They were so in love even at first sight. They spent almost that whole summer holding each other so close like they were never going to see each other again. It was just then that he remembered something she said to him that summer. In her soft and brilliant voice she said to him, "Love is watching someone die. So who's going to watch you die?" After that he kissed her on the mouth and said "No matter what I'll hold you until the end." Sarah had woken up at this point. "Hey there stranger" He said to her. She smiled at him and just laid there for a little bit. She started to say something but she was to weak to keep up the noises she was making. He said to her "Don't worry I'll hold you until the end." Then he crawled into her hospital bed with her and just held her. She smiled and gave him a kiss. They both fell asleep quickly. He was awoken a few hours later and the nurse asked him kindly to go into the waiting room while they did the check up on his wife. He was more or less watching the TV in the waiting room. He had read all the magazines on the little table in front of him. The waiting room brought him no comfort. He walked to the vending machine that had the candy bars in it. He reached his hand in to pull out some change. He counted it to see if he had enough. He was short five cents. At noticing this he all of a sudden got really angry and slammed his fist on the counter right next to the coffee pot, Damn you God. He dropped to the floor, put his face in his hands and began to weep. After a few minutes he felt like a million pounds of pressure had been lifted off of his shoulders. He began to laugh as he felt the immense pain in his hand. A few nurses went running by him as he was still sitting on the floor. He got to his feet with out even realizing it and was moving to see where they were going. He thought to himself, Why aren't you turning already, please oh please don't go for Sarah's room. All of a sudden they darted in to the room occupied by his wife. He jolted down the hallway toward her room. Tears began to stream down his face as he reached her room. The nurses were all moving around her very quickly busying themselves trying to do so many things to help her. He slowly walked next to her bed and shoved his way inside the mass of nurses around her. She motioned for him to move closer like she needed to say something. He got real close and all the nurses just stopped doing what they were doing to try and get him out. He forced them off of him and got down close again. She said to him "It's not goodbye, it's just catch you later," he began to weep again, "Will you watch me die?" He shook his head yes as he could not speak from his crying. For the last time he crawled into his wife's hospital bed and held her. They looked into each others eyes. He slowly stopped weeping. After a few minutes of them laying there with the nurses just staring at them. She began to close her eyes. She had closed her eyes and stopped breathing. The heart monitor stopped beeping and started into it's sound that meant it was over. One of the nurses shut it off and he laid there for a few minutes just holding Sarah's lifeless body. He kissed her on the forehead and whispered into her ear "I love you, and I'll see you soon enough."