The Sitters in Life

Sitting and waiting, Sitting and Watching

We sit and wait, watch and do things in life

We are always sitting, or it seems like it for most of our lives. Of course, we need to walk around to get things done in life. However, we finally end up sitting as we wait, as we watch life pass by, or as we do our work.

Sitting for the Examination to Begin

Waiting in patient expectation

Harry was waiting for his examination to begin. The room was getting busier. More people were coming into the examination hall. It was a well-lit room. There were about forty people in the room. Harry had prepared for this examination and now was the final day. He was nervous but he had to be strong to complete this paper.

The Examiner a slim lady in her forties wearing a pink dress holding the exam papers in her hand walked into the busy room. The bell rang. The room quietened down.

The Examiner started handing out the question papers and the answer booklets to the examinees. Harry got his paper handed to him. He looked at the questions and he gasped.

He was going to ace this paper; he knew all the answers. But, as he started to write the answers, he was shocked, as the answers were disappearing. He kept writing answers to all the questions, but the answers kept disappearing.

Harry was desperate, how was he going to pass this examination? Passing this examination would help him to qualify for a post as an astronaut on the space shuttle Nemo VII.

He was suddenly shaken awake. He was in space and he was hurtling towards the Sun in his shuttle.

Sitting in the Departure lounge

Ready to set off on Travels

It was great to be back in the airport, Jackie thought to herself. She was finally sitting in the departure lounge waiting to board the flight to Australia.

It was over two years since she last saw her family. She had been in touch with them over the phone and on video calls. But there was nothing like meeting her two sons who were with her parents in Australia. The boys were teenagers and were staying with their grandparents on the other side of the world.

Jackie took her to leave from work when the boys’ Billy and Jack video called her to come as soon as possible. There was news that the boys needed to tell their mother. They told her that her parents were away for the weekend.

Jackie did not notice the sound of anxiety in their voices. They had wanted to tell their mother that her parents were killed in an automobile accident, but they could not do it.

The plane was ready for take-off and Jackie was happy that she was finally going to meet her family. She could hear the voices of her parents saying, “Welcome Home Jackie!”

Sitting on the Train to get to work

Getting from one place to another

Everyone was masked on the train. There were people sitting and passengers standing in the aisles. The train was crowded, just like the days before the virus attacked humanity.

Rudy was happy to be going back to work. He did not mind the long two-hour commute from home. He was content that he could leave home and get to his work on time. Rudy loved his job working with all the printing presses in the newspaper office.

He noticed that most of the commuters seemed to be engrossed in the headlines of the front page. Rudy noticed something unusual. The date on all the newspapers was for the following today. Today was the 29th of October, yet the newspaper date was the 30th of October.

The headline of the paper was about a train crash. The photograph on the front page was in brilliant colors. Rudy realized at that instant that the crash was about the train on which he was riding. He was not going to make this journey or arrive at his work on time.

Sitting in front of the television

Time for Relaxation and Rest

The couple sat in front of the television. It was the weekend and it was binge-watching time. The three children were away staying with Mary’s Brother Ronald and his family. The children were excited, as usual, to go and visit their cousins at the weekend.

The weekend was a time for rest and relaxation. The young couple had all their snacks prepared. They had been watching the television for over three hours now. They ate their dinner, drank the wine, and snuggled up in bed.

Five hours later, James heard the sound of the front door letterbox opening. He rushed downstairs and saw that a manila-covered large envelope was dropped in, with the handwritten scrawl addressed to James Winterburn.

Mary had walked downstairs excited. The couple were both excited this was the best part of their weekends. They both rushed to get dressed up and get their equipment for their weekend fun. They were a couple of weekend assassins. The envelope contained the names, details, and photographs of their victims.

Sitting at work and getting the job done

Waiting for the Clock to strike Five

Working at the factory was not much fun for Edgar. He had been working at the same factory since he was a teenager. He got the job done and could not wait for the clock to strike Five. The stuff Edgar was making had changed over the years. He was now making toys and he did not enjoy doing it. But there were not many alternatives at the age of sixty-three.

Edgar remembered the time that he was assembling guns, bombs, and bullets during the War period. His company like most of the others were making weapons for the military. He really enjoyed his work during that period of his life, when he was a young man.

That evening when Edgar returned home, he made his dinner and sat down to eat. He was happy that another day had ended for him. Edgar opened the door to his basement and walked down the rickety stairway with a bowl of soup in his shaky hands. He switched on the basement light. He glowed with pride when he looked around at his collection of guns, bombs, and bullets he had in his basement, after assembling them in the factory all those decades ago.

Edgar took the bowl of soup to a corner of a cage where a skeletal frame of a man was sitting on a grey and dirty mattress.

“Hi Gerry, this is your bowl of soup,” said Edgar handing over the soup, as the skeletal fingers grabbed the bowl.

This skeleton of a being was Gerald, the Manager of the Factory, who was kept as a prisoner by Edgar when he was caught stealing guns, bombs, and bullets for his own private collection.

Sitting and Waiting for the new arrival

When a Child is born

The old man was sitting in the corridor along with a long row of other patients waiting for his turn. Ken had come to collect his heart medication. He did not like doctors, hospitals, and medicines, but there was no alternative. He needed to have his medicines if he was to live longer to take care of his only daughter Kimberly. She was all grown up and working, she never married. Kim stayed with her father and took care of him.

Ken noticed a young slim girl sitting across from him. Ken thought to himself that the girl could have been Kim’s age. I wonder why she is here; she does not look like she is ill, he thought to himself. But it is difficult to say nowadays, with people having so many hidden illnesses, that are invisible to the naked eye.

There was suddenly a burst of activity in the hallway. A young pregnant woman was being rushed into the hospital, the attendants took her immediately to the operating theatre. “The baby is coming”, shouted out one of the attendants.

After about two hours the sound of a newborn could be heard coming from the operating room. Almost at the same time, the young woman sitting across from Ken rushed to the toilet in her black coat. In a matter of five minutes, she rushed out of the toilet and went straight into the operating room. Ken wondered what was happening. If the young woman was a nurse, why was she sitting with all the other patients?

Within a matter of minutes, the young woman in the nurse’s uniform rushed out of the operating room with a tiny bundle. After fifteen minutes the doctors, nurses, and attendants came out of the maternity ward and started to question everyone in the hallway if they saw anyone carrying out with a baby.

Ken raised his hand to speak. There was a pain in his chest. He clutched his chest and fell to the floor. There was just one thought on his mind, that he would not see his little girl Kim at home.

Sitting and Waiting for a Departure

As a Soul leaves the world

The family was waiting in the corridor just outside the Emergency room. Their mother was very ill and was rushed for an operation to be performed. There was no time to waste, minutes were precious and it was a matter of life or death.

As the family waited, they noticed an elderly woman in the garden sitting on a bench and looking at the flowers and the butterflies. A small girl approached the elderly lady and the two were absorbed in conversation.

A few minutes later, the attending doctor and a nurse came to the family with the sad news. Their mother had passed away on the operating table. The medical team had tried their best to save her to no avail. The father, the two daughters, the three sons, and the four grandchildren were inconsolable.

As the family sat and wept, a young girl walked up to the father Harold and said, “Judy said to take care of the family. She has gone home. She loves you all very much.”

The young girl took out a flower from her pocket and placed it in the palm of Harold’s hand. The family was shocked. The young girl walked away to where her mother was standing and smiling.

Sitting and Waiting for Love

As the thoughts of Romance fill the Mind

Victor was sitting on a bench and waiting for his crush to walk by after her college classes were over for the day. Alice walked towards him with a group of her friends. She always looked so pretty thought Victor to himself. As Alice walked past, she smiled at him.

Thoughts of love and romance filled Victor’s mind, whenever he thought of Alice. It was seven years now since he had married Alice. He was sitting now waiting outside the School Gates to collect his five-year-old daughter Leesha.

Leesha had his wife’s hair and those bright sparkling eyes. He could see Alice in the face of his daughter. It was now two years since Alice passed away.

Sitting and Waiting at the Chapel

As the Bride arrives for the Wedding

The Church was filling up with people. Both the bride’s side and the groom’s side were occupied in the Church. The guests were sitting at the back of the large church.

Sean was dressed up smartly with his suit and tie, sitting in the front of the Church with his groomsmen beside him. The priest had been waiting for the last half an hour. He was breathing a sigh of relief as it was announced by the Maid of Honour that the bride was on her way.

The lovely bride walked down the aisle, with her father. Sean was beaming with happiness. This was the day he was dreaming of since he met Liana three years ago.

After the blessing was over and the couple was married, it was time for the groom to kiss the bride. As Sean kissed the bride he noticed a mole in the shape of a flower on her right cheek, he never noticed that before. As they walked down the aisle, Sean realized that he had married Liana’s sister Lisa, who was one of the quadruplets. Lisa walked with a slight limp. It was too late now to say anything, so Sean decided to keep quiet and wave out at the wedding guests while holding onto Lisa his new bride.

Sitting and looking into a Crystal Ball

Discovering the future in cosmology

Professor Wilson Bright was one of those people who did not believe in fortune-telling, gemstones, cosmology, and crystal balls. Yet, he was here sitting in a tent in front of “Alexa, the Fortune Teller”, in an amusement park.

The young woman gazed intently into her crystal ball. After five minutes she sipped the cup of tea she had beside her. It helped her to concentrate and go into the psychic zone.

An attendant came with a cup of tea and placed it beside Wilson’s left hand. He waved it away, but the attendant still left it next to his elbow. After ten minutes of gazing into the Crystal ball, Wilson was feeling thirsty, so he sipped the cup of tea.

“Can you see what I can see?”, asked the fortune-teller, Alexa.

The ball was now getting hazy, as Wilson felt a strange feeling in his head. There were images forming in the crystal ball. He could see himself doing his dark deeds, like murdering Professor Mumbling, burying Professor Grumbling, and planting roses on the garden patch below which lay, Professor Alexander Farthing, his most recent victim.

These were all so disturbing, these gory images of him doing the evil deeds as he planted seeds in his garden at home.

The fortune teller was coming closer to him above the crystal ball. Professor Wilson Bright, noticed the glimmer of metal, like a knife in her hand. Yes, the fortune teller looked quite familiar, she had the features of Professor Alexander Farthing.

Now, Professor Wilson Bright, who was not very clever or bright, realized without a doubt that his end was drawing near, as he watched himself getting stabbed in the heart, in the crystal ball, by Alex the soothsayer and fortune-teller.