sear Soma She didn't seem look like the kind of person I would ever remember. She was large, though not very tall, broader than most women with skin stretched taut under muscles that spoke of physical labor. Her face was long and inoffensively mundane, looking as though she had spent a lifetime gritting her teeth and making the best of things. She wore a university pullover jacket may from simple gray cotton, khaki pants, and steel-toed boots that looked as if they had weathered many hazards over their lifetime and were muddied with the work of today. She walked into the waiting room with a piece of paper held in her hand, and looked around in confusion before tentatively sitting down. She looked like every blue collar worker who had and would ever come into that hospital. She did not look like someone who would linger in my mind. We sat there one hour, perhaps a little more, when she asked me if i knew where to get food. I'd just come back from downstairs, and told her where the closest drive-thru was, as the cafeteria was closed. We chatted a bit, small pleasantries, and she was so kind. Rough around the edges, clearly, but the type of nice you find when someone grows up believing they can trust the people who live around them. When she left, she pulled out her phone, pausing to tap out a call, before moving to slide the slim device between her ear and hunched shoulder. I heard her, as she walked down the stairs, saying the nurses had told her the surgery had just started. "Just popping out for a sandwich, then I'm coming right back." "yeah, another fucking accident." The nurse came out and walked around, looking for someone with a firm expression, then walked back into the swinging doors. Another nurse came out, and swept her graze across the threadbare chairs and me. The person she was looking for wasn't here. No sooner had they walked back, and my phone rang — they'd be bringing my sister to the doorway downstairs. Any thought of pondering the interaction left my mind. Finally, it was time for me to leave. I went to get my car. As I walked across the pavement, I saw her – that woman I thought I wouldn't ever think about again. As I took note of her, I saw the moment change. She seemed agitated, her whole body frozen like a steel rail. Then, those muscles slipped from being taut into being something as loose, weak, and formless as her breaking heart. I heard the wail. I turned and moved quicker to my car, lest I feel her rising grief too fully. My keys, my keys. Where are my— Oh no. Oh no. Please no. NO NO NO. NOT HER. The key slides into the lock. She's sliding into my brain. I turn the key. The engine turns over. Something burns hotly, somewhere within in a dark chamber. 231020 what's it to you? who go blather from