#Fridayflash - Better to Have Loved And Lost

Two men in hospital scrubs walked into Beverly's room.  One checked the bag of fluids dripping into her, the other sat down on the mauve chair next to her hospital bed.  The bag checker left quickly without saying a word but the one who sat down took Beverly's hand in his.  She wasn't surprised; the hospital often sent people to sit with the dying, volunteers to listen when no one else would.             "You're quite a looker," she said to him.  Easily a quarter of her age, the comment was probably an inappropriate thing to say to such a young man, but what the hell did she care.  At her age, when you thought something you said it.

"Thank you," the young man said, "But not everyone would agree with you on that point."

"Fiddlesticks. You are!  Actually, you remind me of a young man I met in the '40's. "

"Tell me about him, Beverly," he said.

She licked her lips and tried to adjust herself in bed but she found she couldn't move.  There wasn't pain exactly, but a pressure over her chest.  Getting old sucked.   She decided not to think about it, to enjoy the young man's visit while he was there.  She decided to tell her story.

"Back then, I was an Army nurse working in the field.   Don't even ask me where I was—somewhere in Europe I guess.  It seemed like we moved our hospital tent every couple of weeks. 

Anyway, it was a particularly hard day.  I'd seen boys coughing up black pieces of lung, limbs blown away, and soldiers so full of bullets you didn't know were the blood was coming from.  I was covered in it: blood everywhere.   I don't even know how many people died that day but eventually, you know, you grow numb to it.

As soon as the next nurse relieved me, I ran to the edge of the barracks and threw up.  I'd been up for something like thirty hours straight and I should've gone straight to bed, but who can sleep after seeing something like that?

This man I'd seen around but never met before offered me a drink.  Well, you didn't turn down whiskey during the war, I'll tell you that.  We drank and we smoked.  He was dark like you, and pale… with the same sunken eyes.  God he was handsome.  We talked about the war, and the blood and the death.  And do you know, somehow that man made me feel all right about it all, like it was what was supposed to happen. "

Beverly paused and took a deep breath.

"What happened then Beverly?"

"Well, we kissed and some other things a lady shouldn't admit to.  And do you know it was absolutely heart stopping.  I remember kissing this boy and thinking I might die from the pleasure of it.  But afterward, he said I had my life and he had his and that was that.  I never saw him again.  But you know what they say, it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

The young man was shaking his head, smiling wickedly.

"Did I embarrass you young man?  Don't like to hear about an old lady having sex? But I wasn't old back then, dear.  When I was your age, I had many suitors."

"It's not that, Beverly," the young man said, "You were tired and you didn't remember what the man said.  He didn't say you had your life and he had his.  What he said was you had your life and you needed to live it.  It wasn't fair to take it from you before your time."

"Oh, yes, I guess that is what he said. How could you possibly know that?"

The young man stood from the chair and reached a hand toward her heart. "Because Beverly, it is finally your time."  His hand passed through her breastbone and caught on something filmy but strong underneath.  There was a moment of discomfort and then Beverly stepped from her ancient body, her twenty year old hand clutched in the young man's.

"It is you!" she said. "But, how is it you're still young?"

"For the same reason you will now remain young my Beverly, because Death is timeless.  Come, we must go."

Beverly allowed Death to lead her from her body and the beeping machines, into the hall, passed the rushing nurses, and towards a bright light near the elevators.  He paused, as if he'd heard a voice then pressed a kiss tenderly on her lips.  "I hope you won't mind waiting for me a moment longer, my Beverly.  It appears I need to pay a visit to room 305."

Beverly nodded.  She didn't mind waiting.  After all, they had eternity.