My contribution received most votes 5 in total a record says I modestly.
Joan and Jack's next month May 27th.
"the next few weeks"
Haven't got the time.
I haven't got the
time now. John Noble mused over those words his son had said a few
moments ago after a short message over the phone. His son had more
pressing things to do than visit his terminally ill father lying in a
lonely bed in the private room of the Priory Hospital. John reached
out to the bedside cabinet and picked up his Rollex watch, it was
eight oclock. With nothing on the television he had tried reading but
soon gave that up. He felt lonely but accepted that he too had not
comforted his mother when she died so he could not complain. His
father had died early from a heart attack and now John wondered
perhaps that was better to go that way than ending up here. Maureen
his wife died several years ago and his daughter rarely visited him
since then and he never saw the grandchildren from then on.
He studied his arms
lying on the white sheets with multitudes of blue veins running down
the length of them so little flesh, the hands of an old man he
thought in disgust.
The words I haven't
got the time echoed in his mind. He recalled when his son was eight
excited by the tent they had bought him for his birthday, pleaded for
his dad to join him inside. I haven't the time he had said. When
Sarah his daughter asked him to help read a book that they bought for
her Christmas he had again said he hadn't got the time. He had always
been busy earning the money to keep his family in the comfort and
luxury he believed was proof that he achieved all as expected as head
of family.
He reached out again
for the bedside cabinet to find the letter. His daughter had written
a very short note to him the first one since entering the hospital
for cancer treatment. He began to read it again. She wrote that she
could not come down to see him as they could not take the children
away from school as exams were coming up but hoped all was well. All
is well he thought bitterly with half of his colon removed how could
any one say that. The typed half page ended with the words I must go
now to get a meal ready and prepare for the children who would soon
be back from school.
God dammit surely
she could find ten minutes to write. Does the imminent death of a
father mean nothing in this world today. He screwed the letter up and
threw it towards the waste bin.
The room seemed to
have darkened the shadows deeper or was it his mind as blackness
descended. He came to again hours later. A shadowy figure tall and
gaunt sat watching him from the corner of the room a spectre that
although not uttering any sound its lips framed one word. The word
entered John's mind as clear as if it had been spoken . TIME.
