A View

Two men, Trayvon and Jim, shared a hospital room. Trayvon’s bed was next to the only window in the room and Jim’s bed was across the room in the darkened corner with his only view the room itself. Both men were there as results of accidents and Jim’s leg and arm were in traction. Trayvon had no family and lives in a town quite a distance away from the city in which these two strangers found themselves in this hospital room. Jim also was without a family and had no real friends. So, the two men were dependent on each other. Trayvon persisted in making contact with Jim and eventually their conversations began.

Trayvon began to chuckle, and Jim said, “what's so funny?”  Trayvon said, “well, there's a park outside the hospital and there's a dog walker there who has five dogs on five leashes all wanting to go in five different directions, now they're all in a heap on the ground!” No one is hurt however, so both men laughed.

Each afternoon Trayvon described something that he saw through the window. There were three little girls playing skip rope. You could tell they were calling out the rhymes that went with that game. There was a little boy who very reluctantly and slowly climbed the ladder to the top of the slide. When he got to the top and looked down the slide, he then climbed back down the ladder much to the consternation of the children coming up behind him. He watched the others for some time until finally he got up his nerve to take the plunge. His smile lit up the park and his confidence grew.

There was an old couple who came out every afternoon. You could set your clocks by them at 3:00. They came out together and sat on the bench that faced the playground each with a cup of take-out coffee. There were the gardeners who planted the spring flowers around the trees and the pollinator plants in various spots all across the park. There were people hustling down the sidewalk that ran past the park and young lovers strolling hand in hand.

Even on a rainy day, the children were not deterred. The little boy of the slide came out in his raincoat, Wellington boots and a big umbrella searching for puddles to splash in. Even the old couple came out in the rain with take out coffee in one hand and an umbrella in the other. Each day brought a new event and Jim began to live for these stories.

Their doctors visited them both. Jim was destined to be there for a very long time unable to leave his bed, of course. But Trayvon was getting better and better. And soon his doctor said, “good news! You have been walking the halls with your walker and tomorrow afternoon you're going to be moved out of here to the rehab hospital”. Jim overheard this, of course, and thought, “typical, he's going out. He'll be able to see people in person, experience the sunshine and the rain and I'll still be stuck in this dark corner in traction”.  So the next afternoon they came for Trayvon with the wheelchair and settled his packed suitcase on his lap. As they pushed him out of the room Trayvon tried to say goodbye to his friend Jim, but Jim turned his face to the wall and was pretending to be asleep. Trayvon had mentioned that maybe they would move Jim into the side of the room with the window, but Jim didn't have a lot of hope for that. Soon the nurses came in and made-up what had been Trayvon's bed with clean sheets. And a few moments after that Jim’s new roommate was wheeled in and settled into the bed next to the window.
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Eventually the new man and Jim introduced each other. Jim looked up at the clock on the wall and saw that it was 3:00 and asked the new man, “could you do me a favor? I’m wondering, is the old couple sitting on their bench? You can’t miss them. They'll have takeout coffees and she'll have some crazy sweater on; she has a remarkable collection of bizarre sweaters”. And the new man said, “sorry buddy, but the only thing visible out this window is the brick wall of the building next door”.

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