Tuesday

The grey/white clouds clung to the distant Tararua Range obscuring its peaks like a blanket tossed carelessly over a sleeper. A single Norfolk pine climbed proudly passed the fifth floor as if penetrating the blue azure sky out of sight. 

He thought about his disturbed night. A bug incongruously picked up at hospital on the previous Sunday. Hospitals are a two edged sword; dishing out as much as they heal. He still had a tickle in his throat and a sniffle. Really he shouldn't be here. But it was needed. No, more than that, essential. As good as health professionals are, they are human.

 He'd witnessed the benefit of a close relative at the bedside. He'd witnessed first hand what could happen to patients on their own. Hours of pain that only terminates with a concerned word of a visitor. Suddenly there is action. Running feet. A drip, a catheter and a doss of pain relief. But not too much. He'd also seen the opposite. Too much relief to preserve the quiet in the early hours. Now all was as it should be. 

He walked out to the passageway to clear his throat. Remove the tickle for a second or two.