Story Of The Week – The Visit

Story Of The Week

The Visit

by Serena Hillsman

            I was walking down the corridor in the hospital where I worked when I spotted a tall, handsome policeman talking to a fellow nurse who I disliked immensely.  I felt immediate envy as they stood laughing at what appeared to be a private joke.

            When I passed by them, he stopped in the middle of a sentence, stared into my eyes, and spoke with an admiring look.  I mumbled a faint greeting, without looking at him, because I was certain he was only being polite.

            However, I was so taken by his striking looks, that I took a detour from my intended mission, to stop my knees from wobbling.  I popped into a nearby patient’s room and fell up against the closed door in a pretend faint.

            The patient was an elderly woman named Mrs. Brooks, whom I doted on at every opportunity.  She was full of life and very spunky, and I loved talking to her.

            When she asked if I were okay, I chuckled and told her that I had just spotted the man of my dreams laughing and grinning with the enemy.

            She laughed heartily, as I told her about the handsome stranger in the hallway and his obvious affinity for my nemesis.  When I told her how the sight of him had made my knees buckle, she winked and said that’s how she’d felt when she first saw the man who would turn out to be her husband.

            And then for some inexplicable reason, I began to talk about my long search for a companion and my bitter divorce.  She listened intently, as I spoke sadly of how my trust in my husband had been shattered when I came home early from work and caught him in the basement in the intimate grasp of my sexy neighbor.  Tears begin to form in my eyes, as I recalled his cold reaction to being caught and his subsequent anger.

            As Mrs. Brooks rubbed my hand gently with soothing words of comfort, the door suddenly opened and in walked the policeman I had just seen in the hallway.  I was stunned and was immediately convinced that he had somehow followed me into the room.

            When he saw me, he flashed a big grin, as Mrs. Brooks introduced him as her grandson.  I was so shocked, I couldn’t speak.  When he began to flirt and tease me about snubbing him in the hallway, I almost died when Mrs. Brooks told him I had been equally impressed.  It turned out that he was talking to the other nurse about his grandmother’s condition.

            We ended up laughing hysterically, when Mrs. Brooks sat up in bed with a proud look and stated, “I should have known you were talking about my grandson when you came in here because he’s the spittin’ image of his handsome grandfather.”

            By the time, I left the room I had a date for dinner that evening and a feeling of warmth that I hadn’t felt in a long time.  When I passed my enemy/nurse again in the hallway, I smiled at her for the first time in months, and she returned the smile.

            Later that night, as we sat across the table from each other at dinner, and he shared his values of God, family, and sincerity, I knew instantly that I had met the man of my dreams.  We got engaged this past Christmas and his grandmother has become the grandmother I never had.