The Thin Blue Line
I sat on the artist’s bench, painting a picture of the tree staring at me.Squinting my eyes as the sun was so bright.My hat didn’t do any favours, sweat pouring from my hair.From the corner of my eyes I saw a moving thin blue line. Did he smile with me? Yes he did.I can’t imagine anyone smiling with me these days.It was a captivating smile that came from deep inside to light his eyes.I heard it in his voice, “I will speak to you soon." I continued with my artwork, when I saw him standing next to me.“What are you painting? Can I sit next to you?He introduced himself and showed a great interest in my painting.Behind that smile I could now see that he wanted to find out something. Who sent you here? Finally it all came out.He said the medics felt that I was showing early signs of memory loss.I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.I knew I didn’t have any issue with my memory. He then spoke to me about my other interests one of which was cricket.We had a good conversation, comfortable and effortless.I felt that this had nothing to do with my memory.This person really liked speaking to me. I was happy, for a long time no one found me interesting to speak to.Here is a young man who treated me as a person and not as a patient.I passed two memory tests without any problems.The hospital wasn’t satisfied. I suppose I come in that age group of over 60! As days went by I was looking forward to speaking to this young doctor in scrubs.He was very polite and never made me feel anything less than what I deserved.The hospital report requested my GP to do further tests on my memory which annoyed me and made me very sad,I will show them that I don’t have any issues with my memory. They were misinterpretations and exaggerations. My three weeks of pain management course was coming to an end.The only people I was going to miss were some patients I had made friends with and of course, the doctor who was often in his blue scrubs.I realised I had a soft spot for him.Will I be able to keep in touch with him as a friend, a friend I do not have.