Abilities

William sat in the hospital waiting room unable to move, unable to breathe, not sure of what his next move was going to be now that his wife was gone. The love of his life had just passed away and…maybe worst of all, he now had two new baby boys to take care of…by himself. At the age of twenty-four, his life drastically had been flipped upside down.

William Wehde graduated from one of the finest telecommunications schools in the country, Syracuse University. School was fun for him. He got to do all the production work that he grew up wanting to do for a living. He filmed, he wrote scripts, he edited, he directed, and he casted. The only problem was that he wasn’t getting paid for it, but he knew he would be soon enough. Shortly after graduation, he left New York to head back home to Ohio, where he made a great career out of freelance work. He wrote and filmed commercials, and did some behind the scenes work with the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals. His favorite job was a one-day offer to work on a movie set where he got to meet Billy Crystal.

But now all that seemed like ages ago. He sat in the hospital and watched the people around him. Everyone had problems of their own and from the look on their face William could tell there wasn’t much good news going around at this particular moment. He felt invisible, like a fly on the wall. He watched while some people hurried to save a life, and others fought to stay alive.

There were only two speeds at a hospital. There were the people who raced against time fighting every second, fighting death. Then there were the people in the waiting room that moved like molasses, wishing that time would speed up, or worse slow down, so that they could have a few more precious seconds to hold on to loved ones.

William remembered arriving at the hospital. His gears were turning over a mile a minute, but now he was glued to his chair unable to breathe, unable to move.

“Mr. Wehde,” a doctor came into the waiting room. “You should go home and get some rest. Come back in the morning.”

William heard the doctor but couldn’t look up. He meant no disrespect but had no energy or will power to move. He sat forward crossing his arms on his knees and resting his head on his forearms sniffing back what was last of his tears.

“Mr. Wehde?”

“I heard you,” William responded from his lap. As he sat up, he wiped his eyes dry. “What about the kids? I just leave them here?”

“We’d like to keep them overnight in the NICU just to make sure everything is normal. You are free to stay if you’d like, but there really is nothing more that you can do for them.”

“What about Mel?”

“I’ll have her nurse start the paperwork tonight. We can go over things tomorrow.”

“OK,” William looked up at the doctor. His movements were in slow motion. “Thank…” his words fell behind, choked up. “Thank you, doctor.”

The doctor nodded to William. He began to walk away and get back to work, but stopped where he stood. “I’m sorry for your loss, Mr. Wehde,” the doctor placed a sympathetic hand on William’s shoulder.

“I’ll probably be in and out of this place over the next couple weeks, huh?”

“There’s a good chance of it, Mr. Wehde.” the doctor replied.

“Call me William, then, doctor,” William stood eye to eye with his wife’s doctor. “Just William,” he said his farewell with a pat on the doctor’s back. The doctor responded by nodding his head and watched as a shattered husband walked out of the hospital doors.

The drive home took hours even though his home was only a short drive down the highway. The crackle of the radio was on, but the volume was too low to make out anything that was being said. Besides, it was too hard to hear over the murmur of the wind being sucked through the open windows.

The weather was warm, but the speed of the car brought in cold gusts of air. It was a cool June evening. Older kids were home from college and younger ones were on summer vacation. The malls and shops were swarmed by youngsters looking to have a fun night. But none of that compared to the lines at the movie theatre.

Kids, adults, and families were waiting outside the doors to see Bull Durham and the third Poltergeist. They were already in their second and fourth week in the theatre but that wasn’t stopping people from pouring in to see them, although it was considered a weak summer at the movies until July.

William pumped his breaks. He was paying attention to the people in the lines and didn’t realize he was speeding. It was hard for him to look away from the fun that everyone appeared to be having. He closed his eyes for a brief moment…hoping to crash…hoping that he wouldn’t open his eyes. But he opened them. He had to get through this.

Why me? He thought.