The Oncology Day Hospital...
I arrive later than planned: it’s almost eight o’clock in the morning. The waiting room is full...
I take my number and notice that it is 104...
Listening, I hear a voice announce... "The person with number 12 should go to the blood laboratory” ... Eh, we're only at number 12... It's going to be a long wait...
Looking for a seat, I find a place off in an angle.
Next to me, an older woman is on the telephone... "Hi, Luisa. I've been here since 7... I didn't sleep last night... my back aches... yes I took some Aulin for the pain... Eh, my ankle? It's ok now... yes Luisa, don't stand up too much... Oh, here's Gino... He had blood drawn, so now I have to go to him. Bye..."
Next, a man is disagreeing with his wife:. "I told you no! We are not going to the sea to visit your mother..." She replies: "Lower your voice! Why are you so stubborn?"
He answers: "I've been telling you this for a month... We are not going. That's it! Hey... where are you going?"
The wife jumps up, looks at him and says: "I want to get something to drink. Now you calm down or I am leaving!" She hurries away with the heals of her shoes making a nervous sound as she walks...
Two rows over there is a young woman wearing a surgical mask and a flowered scarf covering her hairless head. With a low voice she says to her mother: "Yesterday it was the therapy, today the blood tests, and the aspiration... We spend more time in the hospital than at home!"
The girl's mother replies "Yes, but everything is going so well... You'll see... soon we'll come here less often... Here, straighten your scarf." and with a movement of her hand she adjusts the knot of fabric on the girl's neck...
A very overweight man arrives: he has a beard and disorderly long white hair.
He mumbles something which I cannot understand. His clothes are old and badly kept and his gym shoes are untied. He slowly walks in circles, with tiny steps, then behind him another figure appears. At first glance she has the appearance of a young woman, but she is elderly too. Her hair is gray and falls to her shoulders. She wears a purple vest with a flowered broach, dirty white pants and leather boots which have been consumed too much. She cares for the man with loving attention, gentle gestures, and incomprehensible words whispered in his ear.
They sit close and he starts to play with the ticket indicating the number of their turn.
Through the door of the laboratory room, a man about 70 years old walks out. His step is elastic and quick. With one hand he presses the cotton ball into the angle of his left arm.
His expression is proud and his teeth are straight and white.
Leaning against a cement column stands an elegant man wearing a dark suit, a blue tie, and nice leather shoes. He's handling his mobile phone, and his mouth is forming the words of the message he's writing...
In the background, two doctors cross the entryway, happily chattering with each other. Those plastic cups from the coffee machine are in their hands. Their strides are long and swift, and their white jackets are waving behind them like capes... One more laugh and they disappear through the door of the department...
Meanwhile the loudspeaker announces "Number 74 in room 2"... A man who was speaking stops and frowns "What did it say?"... And those waiting begin their guesses "It was 64..." "No, it was 72 in room 4..." One voice is raised "89 in room H!"
I smile... After a few minutes a nurse opens a door and announces "74 in room 2. Where is 74?"
Then a very old man stands, using slow, measured movements.
He folds his newspaper, and picks up his hat. His cane slides to the floor with a loud noise and he carefully bends to pick it up... Then, with an uneven step he follows the nurse...
A young man with a printed tee shirt and low waisted jeans takes his number at the entryway desk and looks around the room to find an empty place. He's wearing sunglasses, a red cap with a visor, and low cut gym shoes with colored laces. Held tightly in his hand there is a mobile phone which is continuously vibrating... Finally, he answers it... "... hey Gio... there are lots of people here... yeah... so, are you going to Lu? ... Ok... at Lu's. Gio, call Fede... ok... ok... Bye!"
The young man finds an empty chair and literally collapses into it, extending one leg to the side and folding his other one under the seat. His cheek is leaning on one hand while the other hand is already playing with the keyboard of the phone...
The buzz all around intensifies. The waiting room is completely full now. When the loudspeaker calls a number, the noise is suspended for a second. Then it begins again...
I look around at all the faces: the people are young, old, women, men, foreigners laborers... office workers, businessmen, retirees... Each of them at a certain moment of life encountered an obstacle and had to begin to fight. Some were forced to accept new habits: medicine to take every day, periodic controls, physical discomfort...
Others have a more serious motivation to be here: survival...
My thoughts return to my days in the hospital ward, when I too was fighting to survive.
Thin, weak, hairless... with three intravenous tubes at the same time, with terrible back pain, and devastated mucus membranes...
I asked myself what would happen afterward... I could not imagine how "after" could have arrived.
Unable to walk, eat and speak, adding another day to the slow daily count already seemed like a lot...
The voices in the room lower for an instant: "The person with number 104 is requested in the blood laboratory." ... My turn!
Wait a minute... it's now! Suddenly I realize that I am living in my "after".
Beyond the therapies, beyond the transplant, beyond the slow and pathetic last recovery...
I did it and I am fine, finally! Now, I have only the controls to do...
Happily, I roll up the sleeve of my shirt and walk towards the room...
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