I'm just here trying to do my job, but it's hard to ignore the young man with the phone. For one thing, he is constantly moving, and his voice, louder surely than he realizes or intends, follows me everywhere.
"Hi, it's me. Yeah...yeah...Listen, I'm at the hospital. Mom's here. She's in the ICU. She got hit by a car...Some high school kid didn't want to stop for a light...He just didn't see her..."
He sits in a chair for maybe half a minute, he leans against a railing, he braces a shoulder against a window. "No, not good...I'm gonna be here awhile...Awhile, you know?...As long as I have to be...I'm not gonna leave, she's gotta have...Someone has to be here...Yeah, I'll have to run home and get some things...If you could bring them?...That would be, thanks so much...No, I know, I just don't want to leave her..."
You work in a hospital, you hear things like this. Sometimes you can't help it, you want to hear it all, embrace every detail, remember that you're human. Sometimes you want to shut it out and get as far away as possible. Which response is better?
