valorous idylls chapter 13

When Worlds Collide

Sitting alone in a waiting area in the secure part of Tallaght hospital.
It is about as secure as I am.
A brace of security men, leaning against a wall nearby, are indifferent to the presence of a rough looking wild haired inebriate who has apparently already outwitted all the security protocols in the building in order to access this supposedly inaccessible part of the hospital.
He must be one of those clever inebriates.
He is weaving about on multiple trajectories.
He'd be a good character in a tough urban television drama.
He'd be one of the scary ones.
Occasionally he goes up to the counter of a staff cubicle, bangs on it, and demands to be admitted to the hospital as a patient.
At other times he addresses one on one, the paintings hanging in the hall.
No one takes much notice of him except me.
Because I just know he is eventually going to find time for me.
Eventually his schedule permits and he does.
There's twenty empty chairs in the waiting area.
He sits beside me.
He turns and confides: "I wish I had cancer."
I look into the middle distance.
My handsome preraphaelite features betray a touch of strain.
Disappointed in my lack of anything, he gets up and weaves down a randomly chosen corridor.
He's about half way down the long corridor when a door beside him opens.
Fiona, the elementally beautiful triage nurse, steps into the corridor.
They are face to face.
Two worlds collide.
Their eyes meet.
Without hesitation the inebriate drops his trousers, seizes the Honorable Member of parliament for Nethers South, and waves him enthusiastically like an election banner.
I understand his idea but I have to tell you bold readers, this approach rarely works.
Fiona does a great expression.
It doesn't stop the guy brandishing.
But it's a really great face.
Leonardo Da Vinci would have had a field day.
She hasn't flinched.
Just a great face and a faint disappointed shake of the head.
Worth the price of admission.
She says nothing.
The inebriate is still waving the Honorable Member, possibly hoping to change her mind, when the security men arrive at a run.
They are gentle enough with him as they pull up his trews and lead him back to the parts of Tallaght hospital where such behaviour is permitted or at least less frowned upon.