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| Truth or Consequences | |
| By jean.day | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 15 August 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES Have you ever done something without really thinking it through and then regretted it, but found there was nothing more to be done? I was in the hospital for an exam a few weeks ago - one that necessitated me fasting for 24 hours and I could hear my tummy rumbling. I was told to sit near on the chairs near the fish tank, and those goldfish, had they been a little bit bigger would have looked very tempting.Things progressed, more or less on time, and when the tests were done, the nurse asked me if I would like a cup of tea. “Yes, please, with milk and two sugars.” “Just go through there to the changing rooms, put on your own clothes, and I will bring it into the lounge area.” It didn’t take me long to change, but it seemed ages before she brought the tea, and when she did, it was in a plastic cup, and filled to the brim. I burned my mouth at the first taste, and that so shocked me, that I spilled a bit which went onto the bare leg of the person sitting next to me. I felt guilty about that, so putting the drink down carefully on the floor, I got out my white handkerchief and wiped up the mess, apologising for it too, of course. But the tea was awful. She had used powdered milk and forgot the sugar and it would have taken me a good ten minutes to drink it, if I had wanted it, and I certainly didn’t. But what to do with it?I looked for a nurse but none was in sight. But I did notice an open window. So I surreptitiously made my way to it and dumped the contents out. Then I neatly placed the empty cup in the bin provided, picked up my books and dressing gown (have to bring in your own now!) and left the area. I decided to go down the stairs, as from the queue at the elevator it looked as if it would be quicker and easier. The two flights didn’t take long, but I hurried as I knew my wife would be waiting for me. She had come with me because the information pack said the injection I needed to have might impair my vision, so I thought it would be foolish for me to drive myself. As I got towards the front door, I could see her, sitting on a bench outside. But in order to get through the front passage I had a bit of a bother. There was an old lady in a wheelchair crying softly and looking very stressed, and two children, aged about 8 and 10 were down on their hands and knees with what looked like napkins, wiping the pavement. They were obviously angry and one was in tears too. “We didn’t do it!” shouted the boy to his irate mother. “Of course you did it!” she shouted back. “You were running around and being stupid and you knocked that old lady’s tea all over her.” “We didn’t touch her!” “Shut up and get on with cleaning up that mess or you will have a lot more to complain about.” I hurried up to my wife.“What a performance,” I said, indicating the scenario in the front. “Oh, I saw it all,” she said. “Some idiot threw out the dregs of his drink from the window up there,” she said pointing above, “and there was a sharp gust of wind and some of it blew onto the old lady’s arm. She was surprised by it, but maybe hurt too, and she dropped her tea cup all over herself and the floor. The kids were messing about, and their mother, assumed, but not correctly in this case, that they had bumped into her.” I felt my face getting redder and redder. I felt in my pocket for some loose change and only found pound coins. I hadn’t been intending to give that much, but what the heck. I walked back to the entry and gave each of the kids a pound coin. “Wow, thanks,” one said. “You give that back,” the mother intervened. “I told you never to take nothing from strangers. He might be one of those paedophiles that we hear about - and the next time you see him, he’ll be wanting to give you sweets and take you for a ride in the car.” “No, really,” I said, “I just thought they should have some reward for their hard work.” “Mind your own business,” she said, and pocketed the coins that I had meant for the children. “As nice as that was for you to do,” said my wife, “I think I agree with their mother. I didn’t intervene earlier because I thought she was going to punish those kids no matter what I said. And of course, they haven’t done a proper job of it anyway, so some poor underpaid cleaning lady will have to mop up there as well as her usual work. And that poor old lady will probably have to fork out for a dry cleaning bill. All due to some stupid idiot who was too lazy to properly dispose of the dregs of his drink. Anyway, I haven’t asked with all this pandemonium, how was the examination? You must be really hungry, so let’s hurry home so you can have a nice hot cup of tea.”
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