I Need Blood

"We'll need to compare your blood against someone else's before you can leave," a doctor tells me.

I am outside and it is autumn. This is a hospital and it is also the courtyard in the center of the hospital. Orange, red, and yellow leaves dance and fall and decay around me and the branches of trees are baring and skeletal. People bustle.

"Okay," I say.

"Do you have anyone you can call to compare it to?"

"Yes."

I sit on a bench near the registration desk and the breeze is cool and I relax a little. I use my cell phone and call Cliff.

It rings and he answers immediately.

"Hello?"

"Hey," I say. "I need blood."

"Okay."

He hangs up and I put my phone away.

The doctor looks at me impatiently.

I wait for hours and Cliff does not show.

Someone calls my name from near the large stone archway entrance. It is Gene. Cliff's brother.

I stand up and walk over to him.

"I have been waiting forever," I say.

"I have blood," Gene says.

He walks to the registration desk and I sit on the bench again. I can almost hear the conversation.

Gene says: "You'll see some scarring..." You know, how when bone... Under it, it has... like that."

"Like this?" the doctor asks as he lifts his shirt.

"Yes, a forklift got right under it. In my ribs."