Farewell
Short story
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PUBLISHED BY:
Pierre Reinard on Smashwords
Copyright © August 2010 by Pierre Reinard
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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FAREWELL
by Pierre Reinard
I was sitting in the waiting room. Nervously. My hands browsed through the stack of magazines. There was plenty of reading material, a gossip magazine, a magazine with news about cars and a magazine with scantily clothes ladies.
I wondered why especially this magazine with half naked ladies was available in this ward. But I couldn’t get myself to read. My mind was simply elsewhere. OK, I had taken the decision, but still a lot of questions prowled about in my head. Had I taken the right decision? Wasn’t I far too young? Was it actually not too definitive when you thought about it rationally? You don’t have yourself sterilized just like that. I really had given it a lot of thought. Without David in my life I did not want children. I only wanted his child, but that was no longer possible. My feelings told me I had taken the right decision.
Negligently I threw the magazines back on the table. My favourite was not among them. Besides, why should I read it here? I had it at home and I didn’t feel like going through the other magazines. As a said, my mind was elsewhere. But I had made up my mind. I loved my work a lot, I had my circle of friends. I lived all by myself and it suited me fine.
I rummaged in my bag, put it down and looked around me. It stroke me that it was very quiet in the hospital this morning. I didn’t mind, because I didn’t have to wait long. I wished it would be over soon.
Last week the doctor told me it was a relatively small outpatient surgery, but my friend Emma got seriously ill after she had been treated. Perhaps this was caused by the narcosis, perhaps by her emotions. Sterilization is not a simple everyday surgery...
I felt nervous. It was the usual nervousness I felt when I had to go to the dentist. It was not the fact that the surgery was so definitive, it was not knowing what was going to happen.
*****
I was alone that morning, so I had to go to the hospital by myself. Should I have informed my mother? Then she could have come with me. Just to have someone to talk to. And I often heard that it is better not to drive after surgery.
The night before I talked to my mother on the phone, we had been chatting for over an hour. About one thing and another, as usual. And about the problems she had in the card club. Bah, I didn’t want to grow old that way. Should I have had to tell her that I definitively decided not to have children? No, my mother would never agree to that, let alone she would support me in the hospital. In fact I liked being alone. If I wanted someone with me, I could have called a friend. Why should I have to ask my mother at all costs?
A smiling nurse came towards me. I took a deep breath and said to myself: “Samantha, come on, it is time to do what you have to do.” I took my raincoat, stuffed it in my bag and wanted to get up. The nurse nodded kindly to me.
“Just a minute,” she said, while she disappeared into the long hall through one of the doors.
Coffee! My whole body cried out for a cup of coffee. Would it be allowed to drink coffee?
-You have to appear with an empty stomach- it said on the information brochure. Well, I had not had a drink at all, no alcohol anyway.
“So what?” I mumbled in myself, “just two minutes for one cup of coffee.” I got up, took my bag and I walked along the long hall. I thought I had seen such a machine, somewhere in a corner. I was right.
“I hope I have some coins,” it flashed through my head and I took my purse out of my shoulder bag. Of course I had no coins, just banknotes. So, no coffee.
Fortunately a man came around the corner.
“Sir, can you change money?”
My voice caught in my throat... I was shocked and looked again, but it was really him. Here in the hospital, right on the same day!
“David... David!”
I stammered with a hoarse voice. My voice broke. The man turned to me and looked at me.
“Samantha,” he said surprised, “what are YOU doing here?”
One full second we stared at each other. Shocked, shy, yet also curious. He put himself together and cleared his throat.
“You’re looking good. How are you?”
Ow, that hurt. Then he did not wonder how I was at all. Then he was not interested in my feelings. Then it took only one phone call.
“How on earth can you ask me that?” I replied bluntly. I couldn’t help bursting out like that and I immediately regretted it.
“Sorry, I didn’t know you would be angry. It has been some time ago, you know”.“
“Three years, one month and six days,” I said.
My heart hammered. I felt a struggle between the butterflies flying in my belly again and my increasing anger. The butterflies awoke again, because they remembered the cheerful, kind and passionate David, who once and a while came home with flowers and always made funny jokes. The anger came back, because this man had cheated me enormously.
That’s how I saw it. It was cowardice just walking away like that without addressing the problems. And in this moment the anger won.
“You just went to fill up your tank and I never saw you again. One phone call, that’s all I got.”
After all that time it finally came out. I didn’t hold back myself.
“Actually you are a child, a coward.”
*****
I met him at a staff party. He was a sociable guy, an excellent talker, extremely funny and he liked a flirt. I was alone and so he flirted with me. He started with old-fashioned clumsiness.
“I cannot understand why a beauty like you is here all by herself.”
I reacted immediately.
“You haven’t thought about this opening sentence very long. You’d better start again.”
His face showed his surprise and he started laughing.
“OK, you win,” he smiled. “I’ll start again.
“Good evening, I need an advice. The dollar is under pressure right now, and I wonder if I should sell my stock now. What do you think?”
Herewith he thought he could outsmart me.
“Of course this depends also on the unemployment in America. How is the AEX-index doing right now?” I asked casually.
He couldn’t look more surprised. My job had some financial aspects and I know something about financial matters. It was obvious that he had not expected such a reaction.
“What do you like to drink?” he stuttered.
I just loved his innocence.
“Just give me a soda,” I said with a wink and we sat down at the bar.
That night we went far more than just a flirtation. He took me home and I asked him in for a cup of coffee. “Yes, please,” he laughed, I wouldn’t mind a drink either”.
While we chatted about one thing and another we both got overwhelmed by feelings of passion. We got very hot, due to the drink, the heat, the cosiness and most of all due to the fact that we liked each other very much.
We got so hot, that we tore out our clothes and made love in the middle of the room. The curtains were still open and I’m sure the people that lived in the apartments across the street have been able to see a few things...
But I didn’t think about that. What did I care, it was a wonderful lovemaking. I made love like I never did before. We both did it as if our lives depended on it. One moment I lied on the floor, the next moment I hung across the table or I lied backwards on the couch. Our naked bodies were an inseparable unity. We experienced all possible positions, extendedly and with full dedication...