Call and Response: Viewpoints in 100 Words (#5)

"I can't get sick," he said. "Not now, at least." He stood at the desk, chatted with me and Mary, the roving nurse. He wrote in the notebook he always carried. Then he went back to the waiting room, and he and the other man watched fish swim around the tank. "Fish can have a calming effect," he said aloud, but I knew he didn't need a response. He always seemed calm enough; we liked him because he paid his bill on time and brought us cookies at Christmas. He'd been our patient for years, just as his wife had.

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I'm not calm when I visit my doctor because, given my family history, we both know that eventually he'll find something wrong. The man beside me had yellowish skin. He commented on the fish. He went in first, then I was taken to an examination room. "Is Doc telling him today?" the woman at the desk said to someone as Mary closed the door and weighed me. Then Mary said the doctor might be later than usual because he had to give someone some bad news. When Mary left, I looked out the window. The rain was soft and gentle.