The man stared silently at the green door. He was waiting, waiting for something to happen, for someone to open the green door and give him the news he so desperately needed. But no one did. As seconds turned to minutes, and minutes turned to hours, the man sat still.
He was waiting in a hallway. It was a dull hallway. The walls were painted brown, and they were littered with black scuffs. There were no paintings on the walls. There were no windows on the walls. It was dull.
The hallway was as busy as every other hallway in the building. A great deal of people walked by him, many stopping to stare at his soiled attire, but the man paid no notice. He was too focused on his thoughts to give them any attention. Why couldn't it have happened to me? A single tear fell from his face, falling on his shoes. It clashed with the blotches of red that rested there. He let out a sigh.
The green door opened.
A woman walked out. She was dressed in white, and her clothes had red smudges all over. The man looked up, desperate to hear what she had to say. But she just looked at him and slowly shook her head. The man choked back tears. His lungs felt like lead. The woman walked away, leaving the green door open behind her.
The man got up from the frayed chair. He wanted to go through the green door, he wanted to see for himself. But he didn't have the courage to. He stood there as more and more people walked by him. If only I had been more careful, he thought to himself. Finally, the man mustered up the courage he needed. He put one foot in front of the other and reached the green door. He took a gulp of air and hobbled inside.
The room was as dull as the hallway. An old TV set hung from the ceiling. A small window to the left of the TV gave him a view of the drabby outdoors. Two chairs sat in the corner of the room, frayed like the ones in the hallway. In the middle of the room was a bed; a woman lay there, fast asleep on the bleached linen sheets. The man stared at her with a despondent look in his eyes. He turned his attention towards the floor and focused on keeping his breathing steady. He couldn't believe what had happened, he couldn't believe he had let it happen.
The woman's eyes fluttered open. She lay there, gazing at the ceiling in a daze. The man stared at her, remembering all the moments they had shared together, and unsuccessfully stifled a sob. The woman heard it. She turned her head and looked at him.
"Hey," she said in an emotionless tone.
The man took one of the chairs and sat next to her bed. He responded:
"How you doing?"
"Just as fine as you'd expect me to be."
They stayed still for a couple minutes. Neither of them wanted to break the silence.
The woman opened her mouth.
"I need to tell you...before I go," she said, "tell you the story...of Samuel Telanoff and the summer of 2019."
And grasping her hand with tears in his eyes, the man sat still yet again, listening to the woman's tale of Samuel Telanoff.
"It all started in June, after Sammy had finished his junior year at SAMOHI. Like every other student, he was excited for the summer, despite how uneventful he knew it would be. Sammy was a swimmer, so he knew that while his fellow classmates would be going on vacation in different cities, states, and countries, he would be training ten times a week. But he was fine with that, he enjoyed it."
"Sammy had one goal that summer: qualifying for the Summer Junior Nationals, which took place at Stanford in August. At a swim meet in May, Sammy had almost gotten the cut in the 200 breaststroke, missing it by 0.27 seconds, so he was very optimistic about his chances of getting the cut in the 200 breast and in the 400 IM."
"At every meet he went to, Sammy competed with his goal in mind. But at every meet he was at, he couldn't even come close to replicating his times from May. Meet after meet, Sammy would compete, only to add a couple seconds in each of his events. As time ran thin, he became more nervous. And then the last meet of the season came, and Sammy missed the cut. He was devastated for a couple of days, but finally got over it. He knew that he would just use this experience as extra motivation for the next season."
"But swimming wasn't the only thing Sammy did. He decided to reread Harry Potter, his favorite book series, for the 25th time. He hung out with his friends a ton too: going to sawtelle for dinner, playing video games and board games with each other, going to the beach, and celebrating his friend Micah's birthday were some of the many things he did with them. He also went to a golfing range on multiple days and even tried 'Da Bomb', a hot sauce that is famous for being incredibly spicy. So despite the anguish he experienced through swimming, Sammy had a lot of fun during his summer break. Some may say his summer was a rhetorical device: it juxtaposed grief and joy."
"As school inched closer, Sammy grew more and more excited to go back. I know, it's crazy that anyone would be excited to go back to school, but he was. He was mainly excited because of the classes he was taking. Multivariable Calculus, AP Physics, and his fourth-year of PLTW were all classes that he was looking forward to."
"As the new school year started, Sammy decided to write down what he was most excited for that year. If I recall correctly, he said that he was very excited to start competing in the JPL competition with his engineering class. He also said that he was excited to start applying his previous knowledge of engineering to a more student-based/hands on engineering class. But the thing Sammy was most excited for that year was getting back to swimming and trying to get his Olympic Trials cut."
And so, the woman finished her story. As she got towards the end, it was getting harder and harder for her to breath. The man noticed this and gripped her hand even harder.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. The monitor next to her was slowing down. The woman took a deep breath. The man looked at her. He knew these were his last moments before he lost her forever. Tears welled up in his eyes. He smiled. He leaned forward and whispered into the woman's ear:
"I'm sorry...I'll always remember you."
The woman smiled back. Time seemed to stop as they beamed at each other.
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep.