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 Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 12:21 pm
Tony had never been much for video games. When he was moved into this room he had been glad for the old playstation being there, if only to have something other than a book or a magazine to keep him occupied when he couldn't sleep. And recently he hadn't been able to, his head aching or his leg giving him trouble. Only when they upped a fresh dose of painkillers did he really get some sleep through out the day.
At the moment he wasn't sleeping. He was playing the playstation. As it turned out, Spyro the Dragon was not a very long or difficult game, and he was nearing the end of it. For some reason he was invested in the story now, and wanted to get to the last boss and see the ending.
At least now he could relate to kids these days a bit better. Video games hadn't been too big in his youth, but they had a much bigger presence for those growing up today. And, as it turned out, they were fun. The little purple dragon, at least, kept the librarian entertained. Of course, it also bore the novelty of being the first, and so far only, game he had ever played to near completion.
Maybe he was just charmed by it.
His recovery felt like it was taking forever. Of course, he hadn't been there that long, and he had been unconscious for three days to boot. Sitting around was intolerably boring, unfathomable in how utterly useless he felt. At the library he was always doing something, be it talking to people, helping them, or spending time sorting and shelving books. As boring as people thought the place was, it kept him entertained all day. He already missed it.
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Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 1:34 pm
Yvette was just outside of Mr. Darrow's room. She could hear the game he was playing. How she had gotten to the room was a long story in itself.
She had gone to the library to get more books for her mommy, and Mr. Darrow wasn't there. Of course, the shy girl was curious as to why the head librarian wasn't at his post, and after a bit of waffling around, she managed to somehow ask the substitute what had happened. All she managed to get for an answer was that Mr. Darrow was in the hospital.
That evening, she spoke with Mommy while giving her the books that were selected by the substitute about Mr. Darrow. The woman seemed a bit disappointed with the picks the substitute made (since she had already read 2 of the 5 books that had been checked out), but she didn't voice her opinion over the matter.
"Can I ask for a favor, Yvette?" the woman gently requested as she set the books upon the nightstand by her bed.
Yvette nodded her head silently.
"If you can manage to squeeze this into your schedule, I would love it if you could stop by Mr. Darrow's room at the hospital and drop off some flowers." It went unmentioned that Mommy meant for the girl to pick some of the wildflowers that grew at a local unclaimed patch. This was always how it worked, since flowers were something they couldn't afford to frivolously spend money on.
The next morning, Yvette woke up earlier to go gather some of those wildflowers. It was a beautiful mix of golden yellow blossoms with some deep indigo flowers. She carefully wrapped the bases of the flowers in some tin foil, to keep a small bit of water at the stems. School passed by without much notice, and just between going to work, the girl planned to slip to the hospital to drop off the requested flowers.
And now she was there.
"Uhm... Mr. Darrow?" A pair of purple eyes shyly peered around the doorway to look at the librarian. Maybe he was too busy to see visitors?
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Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 6:48 pm
Tony slowly looked toward the door, like he was loathe to take his eyes from the screen. He hit the pause button, though and, put down the controller so he could see who it was that was visiting him. He smiled brightly when he recognized Yvette, standing like she was trying to hide behind the door, peeking at him bashfully.
"Hello there!" he said cheerfully, despite looking ragged. He was clearly tired, eyes a bit dark and face drawn. He had an ugly bruise on one side of his face that kept one of his eyes near closed. The back of his head was stitched up and covered in a bandage, half of his hair shaved because they had to reach the wound.
He noticed she had flowers, and his smile warmed further.
"How are you, Yvette? Come in, come in!" He seemed happy enough to have visitors. Truth was, he couldn't bear being alone or left to his own devices. Visitors were the best kind of distraction from the boring day, and he loved the company. Even if sometimes he got awkward at work.
The people who came to visit him were his friends.
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Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 8:24 pm
Timidly, she made her way into the room, trying her best to not stare at the librarian's obvious injury-induced "look." She had never stared at Daddy's injury when he had been staying at the hospital, but it was simply because his injury was all in one foot. It was easy to avoid looking at a foot in comparison to a man's face.
"Um... Mommy asked me to stop by before work to drop these off..." She walked up to his bedside and held out her flowers, which were awkwardly held together by foil.
"She says the library isn't the same without you, Mr. Darrow." She offered a small smile before turning towards what had been occupying his attention prior to her entering. Whatever it was, it was paused like a VHS tape.
"Oh! I hope I didn't interrupt anything... that looks like a strange little movie..."
Yvette Weaver, technological idiot extraordinaire.
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Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 8:48 pm
Tony smiled, looking at the flowers. He reached for them carefully, glad his motor control was getting much better. Maybe the video games had been a trap, to get his head working again. Before he started playing he had trouble just holding silverware. Now he was blasting bad guys with fire. He admired the wild flowers, finding them rather pretty.
"You'll have to thank your mother for me," he said affectionately, smiling. He didn't think she was the only one to thank, though, "and I very much appreciate you bringing them to me."
Her comment about the library made him look a bit wistful, and he nodded his head one, pensive. "I'm sure Carol and the others are taking care of it in my absence. They're all perfectly capab-"
He stared at her for a moment. She was a young girl, and though he knew gaming was a 'boy' thing, he didn't think any kid didn't know what a playstation was. He picked up the controlled, to show it to her in case she had missed it. "It's a video game. I'm just at the end of it, about to fight the last level and kill the, ah... well. The bad guy. Do you want to play?"
Or watch him play, if she wasn't comfortable with that.
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Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 9:25 pm
"Video... game...?"
She blinked when he held out the controller, looking at it as if she was staring into a book written in Greek. This was what happened when one wasn't all that savvy with technology. "Oh... um... I think I've heard of those before...?"
If one could count hearing boys at school occasionally talking about whatever new video game they had purchased recently.
Sheepishly, she offered her usual excuse for her ignorance on anything media-related. "I don't really watch any TV..."
The controller was held out in her direction, and with a small wiggle of her hands, she declined the offer. "Oh no, I don't think I'd be any good, a-and, I have t-to go to work." Her cheeks were very gradually turning a bright red color. "...b-but... I can watch you play... um... for a little bit I guess..."
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Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 9:48 pm
"Come here and sit down, then," he said easily. He smiled, patting the bed. Of course, he didn't expect her to come sit on the bed, but the chair near it. He hadn't made that very clear in his patting though.
Settling back, he unpaused the game, pointing at the purple dragon. "That is Spyro, the character I'm controlling. He's ah... this spunky little dragon. It's a bit childish, but unfortunately there were only three games available to me, and the nurse only changes them for me if I ask really nicely."
He then went on to explain the entire story he had been playing so far, not minding if he sounded like a goon. He remembered half way through that she said she had to go to work, and he frowned thoughtfully. He hadn't even really been playing, besides showing her the controls, leaning toward her so she could see the paddle and how his fingers were placed.
"You said you had to go to work, didn't you? I would hate to make you late, babbling on about video games like some pre-pubescent school boy." He shook his head, embarrassed.
It was the hospital. It was driving him mad, as boring as it was. He was clinging to any real interaction and that was just not polite of him.
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Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 11:41 pm
For a moment, her brain did not seem to pick up on the obvious. Her brain was having a lot of those moments these days. Work did that to you. Exhausted you, and then turned your brains into mush.
So initially, she took the man's gesture for exactly what it was. She nodded, then settled her rear onto the edge of the bed, for a moment not thinking of anything beyond taking a seat. It was like putting a kitten down at the foot of the bed. She looked to the TV for a moment at the little angular dragon. "I think he's cute!" Of course Yvette would think it was cute. It was small, it was purple, and it was a mythical creature.
She sat there for a moment, nodding her head as he explained the story further, but then in the middle of his explanation, let out a small "Eep!" She just realized she shouldn't be sitting at the edge of the bed. Suddenly, she got up from where she was sitting and scrambled into the chair nearby. Her fingers clenched at the end of her skirt and for a little bit, she was looking away from the screen. She listened from there, but only half-listened at best. Her mind was kicking herself for doing something so stupid as sitting on the edge of his hospital bed. It wasn't like Mr. Darrow was her Daddy or anything.
However, she fully returned to the conversation the moment he mentioned work. Her eyes glanced down to her watch. "I still have another 10 minutes before I need to check out and hop on the bus." Her cheeks might have still been a bit flush, but she attempted to offer him a small smile. "Don't worry about it... I've actually been spending lots of time in the hospital lately. I mean, Daddy was here for a while too. I know what time I need to leave to get to work on time." Without thinking of it, she looked down to her watch once more, as if expecting a vast amount of time to have passed since 1 minute prior.
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Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 11:50 am
Tony didn't mind her sitting on the bed with him, thinking it endearingly sweet that she would think it a literal invitation. She didn't seem uncomfortable, so he let her sit there with him as he explained the game. That was, until she suddenly seemed to realize where she was, and scrambled for the chair.
Baffled, he watched her, half expecting to hear that something had bitten her. That, at least, would make the sudden realization a bit more plausible. He smiled though, seeing how embarrassed she was about it, and he didn't mention it or bring any attention to the sudden change in location at all. He shifted closer, as best as his leg would allow, so he could continue with his explanation.
"Ah, well, that's good," he said, when she said that she knew when to leave. Then he noticed what he had said and shook his head quickly, "not that your father was in the hospital. That's bad, and I'm sorry for that. Just that... you know when to... leave. Not that I'm getting rid of you."
Oh, shut up, Tony, the librarian thought to himself.
"In any case! I'm sorry if I bored you with this whole... game thing. I only just picked it up myself, and I guess I'm a bit more excited about it than I should be," he laughed, looking back at the screen. He was close to the end of the level now, and the final boss. It was more difficult than some of the other levels before it, but at least he had gotten good enough to hold his own.
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Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 6:43 pm
"It was my fault Daddy was in the hospital in the first place."
It was probably the last thing the librarian expected to hear from the girl, but that was her response to his bumbling of words. Had she been a flower like the ones she brought with her, one could have said she was wilting, for in her chair she began to shrink down a bit.
She wasn't crying. She really wasn't. Sure, the girl looked as if she was about to cry, but she didn't. Her lips attempted to form a smile, but they trembled at the corners of her mouth.
Mr. Darrow's apology was only given another apology in return. That was just how the dark-haired girl worked. "Oh no... i-it's fine... I p-probably shouldn't have come unannounced. Y-you were busy and I shouldn't have interrupted. I... I'm sorry..." She rubbed at her nose, which was starting to turn a much redder color than the rest of her skin. Apparently a few sniffles were tucked inside, for they managed to escape after a few rubs.
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Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 9:52 pm
Tony frowned at her, not wanting to press the subject. The poor thing looked like she was going to cry, shaking, and he wanted to comfort her somehow. But he wasn't sure she would react well to a hug, even if Tony could sometimes be a bit squishy and was very much a hugger when someone needed it, and he settled for a pat on her shoulder instead.
"Don't apologize," he said brightly, "I'm never too busy for visitors!"
Chuckling, he tried to reassure her.
"You're more than welcome here whenever you want to drop by. If you want to again. I mean. Right now is a perfectly fine time for it, so don't worry about that. It breaks up the monotony of the day."
He smiled at her, reaching for the table and offering her a tissue from a box sitting on it. To help with the remaining sniffles. "Your dad is getting better, isn't he?" He asked carefully, hoping it was a good topic and would make her feel less guilty about him being in the hospital in the first place.
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Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 12:43 am
The girl took the offered tissue, but all she did with it was rub at her nose some more. As expected, Yvette was quiet for a minute or two (and out of 10 minutes, that was a pretty long time). It was more in an effort to calm herself down.
When her voice finally seemed to return, the girl uttered "If M-mommy asks me to drop more flowers off, then I will come by again..." Her eyes glanced up and met his for a brief second before they sunk down again to her lap.
"Daddy can't work. I mean... I guess he's getting better... b-but... it's been really hard on all of us..."
She sighed sadly, and once more, her eyes attempted to find his green eyes again, but this time they didn't drift away when they finally met. "I'm sorry... I shouldn't be talking about this sort of stuff... it makes people sad..." Herself included. In an effort to right this obvious wrong, she forced a smile onto her lips.
"Um... th-thank you for showing me that... um... video game..." When all else failed, change the subject, right?
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 10:00 am
Tony nodded, "I understand. You'll be okay. You and your family. And believe me, if you need any help, you can count on me." He could see she was upset, since it was fairly clear in her body language and the way she spoke, so he didn't want to push it.
But he didn't want to see if he could help them somehow. Though he wasn't a rich man by anyone's standards, he had enough for himself. If he could somehow offer to help them, perhaps without them finding out it was him, he would be happy. He'd have to get to work on that.
"Ask your mom to call me some time. Or I'll call her," he said, knowing he at least had a ground line in this place. And Carol would bring his cellphone if he needed her to. He reached for a pad and paper by the bedside and wrote down his numbers, offering them to Yvette. Even if he could do little to help them financially, just offering support was something he wanted to be sure to do.
He liked this family, a lot, and to see them struggling and so sad only made his chest heavy. How could he not want to do something, anything, for them?
"You're welcome! I'm sorry to have kept you if you were just dropping off the flowers, but ah, I'm glad you dropped by. I hope things get better for you." Tony wasn't so great at changing the subject.
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 12:41 pm
The girl slipped out of her chair and wandered over to Mr. Darrow's side. It just made it easier to avoid stretching too much. The librarian was probably supposed to be taking it easy anyways, so excessive stretching was probably against whatever advice the nurses had given him. She took the slip of paper, offering a tiny "It'll be easier if Mommy calls you." Everybody's schedules in her household had been turned upside down. It was a bit harder to catch Mommy at home anyways, since that was the only line she had available to her.
After tucking away the slip of paper, she offered a small nod. "Thank you... and we hope you feel better soon too, Mr. Darrow." Had this been her Daddy, she would have easily given a hug before departing. However, Mr. Darrow was the librarian. He probably didn't want hugs from an 18 year old girl. So with a lame wiggle of her fingers, she then slipped out of the room. It might not have been a very spectacular exit, but it was something characteristic of the girl. Quiet, nothing very memorable, and a bit skittish.
She needed to go to work, and he needed his rest. That was all there was to it.
[FIN]
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