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The good news - a short story

She was a classic. Wide face, and heavy features, broad nose, solid cheeks, full lips, and blond, strawlike, streaky hair. . She slapped back and forth in the waiting room, wearing thick soled rubber sandals. Her 'sexy' midriff revealing shirt, and low skirt left a roll of belly and side fat she would have been better off covering up. The patient was her boyfriend, he wasn't going to have good news today. Today his vices had come to claim thier due. He had tested positive for H.I.V. and for hepatitis.

The boyfriend ,Wade,was working on "getting" how sick he was, and not coming up with the answers by himself. The nurse explained again, "You are H.I.V. positive." "It doesn't mean AIDS, but you are going to have a lot of medications, do not leave without prescriptions, and here is the name of the Doctor for follow up" . "You have hepatitis, you are going to need follow up for that too". "We have a support group, they will be calling you, understand"? "So, I am okay then,? I don't have aids?"
"I have prescriptions, the Doctors referral,and information you need. I'll get those for you".

He sat on the edge of the examining table, skin and eyes yellowed by the disease. Recent weight loss showing in his loose and wrinkled belly, chin, and arms. He wanted a cigarette. He wanted a fix.
He knew there was nothing wrong with him. He slipped off the table and began pulling on his jeans, heavy with a chain attached to his wallet. He bent to pull on his grimy socks, and heavy worn boots. Over his head with a sleevless black tee shirt. and he was already walking out.

Colleen went out the door behind him, and asked "what did the doctor say?"
"He said nuthin' ". Lighting a cigarette, "I need a beer, wheres that five you got?"
They climbed into a primered chevy truck, and headed to the Circle K.
For as bad as he felt, they sure didn't know nuthin'.
Colleen was feeling a little queasy herself, she wondered if it was a bad time to tell Wade he was gonna be a daddy.

Posted by circe on 2008-07-11 19:31:31 | Rating:

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		ouch...very punchy... you don't mess around. nice punch-line too... great stuff. :) cheers!
Posted by badlydrawnstickman on 2008-07-11 20:24:55


		Gwatlan, Yes, it does happen. hopefully less as time goes on, and more people get clued in. Stickman, thanks for the "cheerful" encouragement.
Posted by circe on 2008-07-11 21:05:37


		Circe, Do you mind if I use this as a reading for my students? Good work!
Posted by cwzywbt on 2008-07-11 23:35:57


		Thanks Cwzywbt, by all means, it is a sad but all too often true story
Posted by circe on 2008-07-11 23:51:52


		nice story really. Makes you want to stop and think about how precious life really is/. Might use it for my post grads ok
Posted by norm4u2 on 2008-07-12 05:34:34


		Yes, Okay, Norm, use it. Hope your post grads understand American sub culture.
Posted by circe on 2008-07-12 12:13:20


		great story well written sometimes I think God helps us sometimes, instead of stressing out, like most of us would have done, this couple are going about their merry way I guess ignorance is bliss
Posted by roe on 2008-07-12 12:29:10


		another example eyesight it gets worse when we get older so we cant see all our flaws as clearly as we once did
Posted by roe on 2008-07-12 12:30:55


		Well, I wanted to show a not so merry way. And that ignorance (in this case hers) is dangerous. He is in what happens, when the news is really bad... denial. You are right about the flaws, but I think we are more comfortable with ourselves, too.
Posted by circe on 2008-07-12 14:08:26


		a personal look at the evils of addiction/alcoholism. dulling the senses, blinding the mind, suck their victims into a false sense of well-being. tragic. good, insightful view. thanks, circe
Posted by paperlily on 2008-07-12 14:32:06


		Not my personal, thank God. Thanks, Lily
Posted by circe on 2008-07-12 15:06:30


		Wow!!! That's such a great story. Well not great, but wow tragic. Thanks for sharing :)
Posted by EasyToSay on 2008-07-14 04:50:11


		I'm sure this story is more peoples reality. More than we know. Anyway it is well written. Good job. My cousin by marriage had been in prison his whole life almost. He went in around the age of 19. He was drunk and doing other hard drugs. He killed a girl or thinks he may have. He woke up and she was dead, she had been beat with a pipe of some kind. He called the cops and said he thought he must have done it because they were the only two there. I don't know if he ever had any memories of really being the one who did kill her. I don't know if there was even an investigation since he called and made this confession. He was given a life sentence. As soon as he was locked up he was gang raped by a group of other prisoners. A short time later he learned he had HIV. He was never to be let out of prison but after getting very close to death they let him come home. He is home now in tons of pain, unable to eat and is very near death. Full blown AIDS and organ failures are killing him fast. When he first got home around 6 months ago you couldn't tell he was sick at all by looking at him. I took my daughter over and asked her if I had not told her would she had known he has AIDS. She said "no". I said "let that be a lesson to you". They don't have to look sick and it isn't wrote on their face. I think it was a good lesson for her.
Posted by anotherdaze on 2008-07-15 12:47:57


		That is so sad, anotherdaze, I pray there will come a day when people do not have to pay so dearly for mistakes. Because, we all make mistakes of one kind or another. Some never recover from thiers.
Posted by circe on 2008-07-15 13:07:29


		I agree circe! Such a young person to be jailed for life. I know the people who lost that girl can't feel like it was even enough. Anyway there were more than one good "lesson" to his story. One of drugs and drinking, a life spent behind bars and a horrid death coming soon! I feel for everyone involved! His father remarried his mother after my aunt died of ALS. His mother died of cancer just before he got to come home to die. So my poor uncle has burried two wives and now is watching his son die. It's heart breaking! It makes me feel like I have no real problems. But I do, I have the problem of waking this girl up and making her see these things really happen in life to not just other people. It's a JOB!
Posted by anotherdaze on 2008-07-15 13:44:22


		The part I liked best was the irrational ability of Wade to cling to "you don't have AIDS" part of the diagnosis. The human ability to rationalize is practically without limit. Nicely done.
Posted by LawOdyssey on 2008-07-15 17:14:25


		Thanks, Law Odyessy, that is so true though.
Posted by circe on 2008-07-15 18:14:16


		merry way was a bad choice of words...but denile is sometimes the only way some people cope...this is so sad, and so descriptive circe... painting again...you are an artist with words...Her 'sexy' midriff revealing shirt, and low skirt left a roll of belly and side fat she would have been better off covering up....I have a very clear picture of this...Ive seen it before...on other people of course, not me...I digress...another form of denile, its as if they dont know its there, most people would go to great pains to cover it up, with different clothes. etc...but she doesnt even know its there...its just not something she thinks about...she does not see herself the way others do... and anotherdaze, wow, what can I say? what a story! life!?
Posted by roe on 2008-07-15 23:59:39