Cory

“There ya go buddy,” I said, as I tucked my sharpie back behind my ear and returned his newly signed Red Wings cap. “I hope you’ll be watching our next game!”

The little boy nodded his head enthusiastically, careful not to disrupt his wires. “Oh I will! My mommy bought me a new jersey to wear and everything!”

I smiled and the boy moved onto one of my teammates, begging for their autograph like he had done to me. They wouldn’t say no. Who could when the kid only has months to live? These visits were a real wake up call to me. The first time I came here, I was just a cocky rookie who thought he was invincible. Seeing all these sick kids put me in my place for sure. Especially the first child I met, Emily.

Emily had a tumor in her brain, Brainstem glioma to be exact. She’d been fighting it for months when I first met her, having been bed ridden for weeks at a time. Last time I had been here, the doctors hadn’t been optimistic that this trial surgery would work, but they said that it would be her only hope.

Thinking of Emily, I worked my way out of the crowd of sick kids, their parents and hockey players. Following the signs, I walked down the west wing, after checking her room number in my phone. My shoes squeaked on the tiled floor as I walked, the hallway completely silent except for the occasional beeping in the background.

Turning the last corner, I came to a standstill outside of her door. Or what I had at least thought was her door. Instead of finding Emily cuddled up in her sheets reading a book, I saw a grown woman, wearing some cute Halloween scrubs, laying on the bed sobbing into a pillow.

Edging carefully into the room, I look around. Something’s not right. The room is bare. There’s no pictures on the night stand, no posters on the bland walls, and Emily’s bear is not sitting on the plastic rocking chair like it should be. There’s no life to this room. There’s no Emily.

“Where is she?” The words come out of my mouth more forcefully than I intended.

The stranger on the bed, a nurse I only recognize from one of the pictures that used to be on the night stand, looks up at me with her tear stained cheeks. I think I already knew the answer to that question, but still I asked again, “Where is she?”

The nurse just drops her head back down into the pillow, the tears coming again and that’s as much answer as I need. The tears prick at the back of my eyes and suddenly my knees can’t hold me up anymore. I plop down onto the bed beside this total stranger, and after a minute or two she curled up into me. Her tears mingled with mine and drenched my shirt, but that was the least of my worries right now.

Bridgit

I don’t know what possessed me to cuddle up to a total stranger, but something in me was drawn to him and when he did wrap me in his arms, my heart hurt a little less. Just a little. He held me as I cried, and I could feel his tremors and feel his salty tears on my forehead.

Eventually, I stopped feeling the tears on my forehead and his shirt was able to start the drying process. I lay there until I heard him clear his throat and shift uncomfortably. I pulled away, a blush tinting my cheeks, wiping at the mascara under my eyes. I fixed my crumpled scrubs, grabbing my tote bag off the floor and made for the door.

“Hey, wait!” He called after me as I made it into the hall. “Hold on a second!”

He jogged to catch up to me and put a hand on my arm, turning me towards him. “I didn’t even get your name. I want to know what happened.”

Shaking my head, I looked down at my sneakers. “There’s nothing to know. She went to surgery, and she died. That’s it.” I could feel the tears welling again, and I knew that if I didn’t get out of this hospital soon, I’d have an emotional breakdown. To be frank, I would prefer to do that in my own home and not in front of an extremely cute stranger. “Now, I’ve got to go. I’ve got things to do, people to see.”

“I know she meant more to you than that. You’re Bridgit right? You’re the nurse that was always there.” He looked at me with such deep blue eyes, filled with pain. “You get to know what happened to her. Why shouldn’t I?”

“You can check at the nurse’s desk. They’ll give you all the information they can.” I uttered, trying to get out of the hold he had on my arm.

“I don’t want some bullshit story about how they can’t tell me anything!” The man said in disgust. “I just want the truth. Bridgit, please! Just give me the truth!”

I felt my will crumble as the first tear slid down my cheek. “Here’s my number. Call me and we’ll talk over lunch or something.” After digging through my purse for a pen, I grabbed his arm and quickly jotted down the digits.

He watched me as I wrote on his pale skin in blue ink. “Better yet, why don’t I get you a ticket for my game tomorrow night and we can go out to eat afterwards? I could even get a ticket for one of your friends as well?”

Returning my pen to my purse, I nervously played with the watch on my wrist. “That would work, but I’ll only need one ticket.” Checking the time on my wrist, I looked back up at the man in front of me. “Well I’ve got to go now. As I said before, things to do, people to see.”

I started walking down the hall before turning abruptly. “I never got your name!” I call down the hallway, my voice cracking.

He offers me a smile as he puts his Red Wings cap back on his head. “It’s Cory, Cory Emmerton.”