Entering the Exit

Aaron Solburg had been lying in a hospital for almost 3 weeks. His doctors said that didn’t have much longer to live, even though he had improved greatly in only the short period of time that he had been admitted.
When the ambulance arrived, the occupants inside both of the two vehicles had died except for Aaron, who had been on the brink of dying himself. The driver of the mini-van that had hit him had had to much to drink and drove right across the yellow line into Aaron’s lane. Two of the three people inside the van died before paramedics arrived, the other died on the was to the hospital.
Aaron was unconscious when his wife, Lindsey Solberg arrived at the hospital, though he had come out of it not long after she got there.
As Lindsey walked in the heavy door of room 406 on her second visit of the day he looked up and smiled at her. He was lying in the hospital bed in under the sheets with his head tilted on the pillow so that it faced the door.
“I’m almost there.” he said looking at her as she made her way to the chair that sat beside his bed . She had filed theat chair every day, twice a day for the last 19 days now.
”Where?” she said sitting down in the chair.
“To the light.”
“Don’t say that,” she said as the tears flooded her eyes. “You have made it this far and you are recovering well. The doctors say that you can make it the rest of the way.”
“No,” he replied bluntly. “No I can’t.”
“Yes you can. I just talked to the doctor in the hall.”
“They get brighter and brighter every time I dream. That’s all my dreams are anymore. Just lights.”
“There re no lights Aaron” she emphasized, ” its just something you heard happens at death and you imagination is using it to turn it into a dream.They aren’t real.”
“I’m dying and I am not going to waste the little time I have left pretending its not happening when I know that it is. I won’t pretend I don’t know.”
“Your boss called today.” she said desprit for anything that would get them off the topic of death. “He says when you get better and out of the hospital you still have a job if you want it.
He laid his head down on his pillow and closed his eyes. After sitting in silence for what seemed like forever, Lindsey rose and started for the door. Just as she was reaching for the door it started to slowly open.
The nurse walked through the door when it was open just enough for her to get through. She bumped into Lindsey , not expecting to meet her there.
“Sorry,” the nursed said in a confused type of whisper. ” Just came to tell you that visiting hours where over. I gave you an extra five minutes. Thought you might want the time with him.”
“Yeah,” Lindsey said in an equally hushed voice. ” He passed out again while we were talking.”
“It must have been the drugs. We gave them to him not long before you got here.”
“I guess I better be getting home. I still have homework to grade.”
Lindsey was the 8th grade science teacher at the school. Since Aaron had been in the hospital she had gotten behind on grading. She couldn’t ever really remember wanting to be a teacher. Looking back at all the things she wanted to be, they now seemed out of reach.
She reached for the silver door handle, twisted it, pushed and walked into the hall. Straight across from her was a door exactly like the one that she had just stepped out of, with the exception of the room number. On the right there was three more rooms and a nursing station at the end. To the left there was six more rooms with a hallway running between every two rooms. At the end of the hall was a doorway leading to the stairs that lead up to the top floor and down to the bottom floor.
She walked to the second hallway and turned left to go to the elevator that she had taken up to the floor she was on now. In this hallway there was more rooms and a men and a women’s restroom about half way down the hall.there was a water fountain in-between them. At the very end it opened to a lobby and the elevator was strait across the lobby.
Lindsey walked straight across, only pausing to let a toddler, who had apparently gotten away from his mother, run passed her while his mother chased him.
She pressed the pressed the elevator call button when she reached it and a few seconds later the doors began to open. She stepped in alone and found herself standing next to a woman who, by the looks of it, had just gotten off work. Her long blond hair was frizzed and went half way down her back, where it rested on an old faded blue tee shirt.
Lindsey glanced at her and smiled. But the woman did not return the smile. The woman glanced at her and went back to stairing at the wall. She reached out and button that would take her to the first floor and it lit up. Lindsey and the women rode in silence until the elevator slowed and the doors opened. She steeped out into the lobby and left the women. She made her way across the lobby and out the double doors.
The first thing she noticed was that it had gotten dark outside while she had been there. The second thing she noticed was that the amount of cars in the parking lot had decreased dramatically
As she walked to her car she thought of how the discussion had went. She had thought that he would be happy that his boss would still let him have his job, despite the long absence. He had worked at the Copper Construction Company for almost three years now and still loved his job. But he didn’t even seem to care any more. Not only was this something that he didn’t care about but there had actually been many things in the past that he had not cared about that would normally be important to him.

“Well so much for a good discussion this evening,” she thought. “It’s not like this day hasn’t been bad enough. Not just today but the last 19 days.” Most of the time that he had visited he had been sleeping. And even if he was awake when she got there, he had always fallen asleep before she had left.
She fished in her pockets for the keys. When she had found them she paused the key into the lock and unlocked her car. She opened the door and sat in the drivers seat. After she had the car started, she pulled out of the hospital parking lot and got on the highway. It was a trip that she made very day. The same route every time. She lived forty-five miles away from the Copper County Hospital, so it was usually a long drive, even when the traffic was bad.
She fished in her pockets for the keys. When she had found them she paused the key into the lock and unlocked her car. She opened the door and sat in the drivers seat. After she had the car started, she pulled out of the hospital parking lot and got on the highway. It was a trip that she made very day. The same route every time. She lived forty-five miles away from the Copper County Hospital, so it was usually a long drive, even when the traffic was bad.
****

Lindsey woke up when the phone rang. It was 8:00 a.m. She had fallen asleep on the couch and the television was still on.
“Hello?” she said into the receiver.
“Hi, is this Mrs. Solberg?” the reactionist said.
It was the hospital.
“I really don’t know how to tell you a thing like this. Its my first time having to tell someone this kind of thing. Please forgive me when I tell you. This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do.” said the receptionist trying not to cry but failing. ” Your husband died last night.”
Lindsey dropped the receiver.