He gasped as he suddenly awoke from a terrible dream. "Where am I?? How did I get here?!" he thought frantically as he looked around the hospital room. A few seconds later he remembered—he only had a short amount of time left.
"Left to do what? Wheeze and throw up? Watch my wife and mother cry and feel my eyes water from all the stinkin' flowers in my room? Yeah, what a life this is," he thought miserably. Lying on this hospital bed day in and day out has made him start to wonder what all this is really about. You're born, you go to school, you get a job then you rot and die. There's gotta be something more to it than this!! If only he knew what…
Just then, his little sister with her ugly purple hair, two thousand and one piercings and her too-cool-for-school boy toy waltzed in.
"Oh, Lord, what now?" he thought wearily as they came up beside him.
"You look like a ghost, bro" his sister remarked, making a face. "Yeah, man, you look whiter than Michael Jackson," her oh-so-suave boyfriend commented. Obnoxious laughter rang out in his room as they both doubled over, nearly knocking over two dozen roses.
"Leave me alone," he grumbled, closing his eyes. Maybe when he opened them they would be gone, maybe everything would be gone. "I'm sorry, bro, really. Look, I just came to say I love you and all that stuff. I just wanted you to know that."
"Uh, thanks, sis, that's real, um, sweet of you." "Anything for you, bro," she grinned as she started to walk out the door, her boy toy in tow.
"Wait," he said, not sure where that came from. "Yeah, bro?"
He paused, trying to collect his thoughts, which were mostly made of mush these days. Slowly, he uttered the words, "Don't go." His sister looked at him in a way he'd never seen before and came up beside him again. Her boy toy took a seat next to the door. "I'm here, bro, I'm here," in a rare moment of tenderness, she took his hand in hers. They stayed like that for what seemed like hours to him.
Finally, he looked up at her and whispered, "Sis, what is all this for?" His voice cracked as he uttered the last word and tears started flowing down his ashen cheeks. With tears in her eyes as well she whispered back, "I don't know, bro, I really don't know." Suddenly, her boy toy cleared his throat loudly, an obvious indicator of his growing impatience. "I do know, though, that life isn't all about that guy," she said as they both laughed gently.
"Thanks, sis," he said genuinely, giving her hand a light squeeze. "For what? I didn't do much. I can't even answer your question."
"You've done a lot more than you realize," he said softly, growing weaker. "Well, alright then, I'm glad I could help. See ya later, bro." With that, her and her boy toy were out the door.
He passed away about twenty minutes later wearing the most blissful look you ever did see.
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