On the Other Side Part 1

John could feel his face tensing up and the creases between his eyebrows deepening.

The irritation was building up. 

Sure, he was late five minutes for his appointment but he had been waiting for an hour already. He wondered if the receptionist disliked him and pushed him to the back of the queue, but then again, the last patient (who went in 30 minutes ago) was still inside. Every time he approached the counter to ask how long more he had to wait, the receptionist gave him a dirty and judgemental look. That was if she even bothered, she was busy most of the time preparing medications and answering phone calls.

Finally his number was buzzed and he went into the consultation room. At least the doctor was apologetic. As John continued to complain about the long wait he noticed that the doctor had a look of resignation. Feeling bad, he stopped complaining and started telling the doctor about his discomfort.

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Every day is a rush.

Morning is a rush to bring the children to school. Screaming at the kids to hurry up. Negotiating the traffic. Dropping them off. 

David is never late for work. He would arrive at work early after dropping the children off  to avoid the morning jam. He also hated the judging eyes of the patients if he came into the clinic late. Today was the same. He arrived early, parked at his favorite spot and  went to the office to answer emails. 

5 minutes before the clinic started, he was already seated in the clinic room. As usual, the first patient did not turn up on time and came half an hour late. As usual, his clinic was double booked and unfortunately today, everyone seemed to be turning out. 

As he looked at his queue system on the computer, his anxiety was building up as there was now five people in the queue waiting. Also he had to pee... but he reckoned he would see the next patient before going to the loo. And then the next... and the next.

When he called John in, he knew all was not well. John looked angry and before he could even apologize, John started complaining on the long wait and how his time was wasted waiting so long. He went on and on about how David was a tardy doctor. 

In his mind, David was wondering if the PSA (Patient Service Associate) at the reception hated him. Or maybe the clinic manager was against him. Why is it that his clinic was not only full but always double booked???!!!!

David wanted to stop John from ranting on so that he could get back to the consultation. But he knew from experience that would just escalate things and he would probably just end up with a complaint to the hospital. He even swallowed his sigh. 

Thankfully, John stopped after a while and The rest of the consult was easy enough. 

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The PSA, Jane, took a peek at Dr David as he walked into the clinic room. She noticed that he was always suspiciously early. She wondered in her mind if this Dr  David took a liking to her. After all, given her beauty, who wouldn’t. It must be, since doctors are always late for clinics. 

As the session progressed, Jane noticed that the patient John kept looking her way. After a while, he came to the counter to ask her how long it would take. And the he came and ask again! 

“Aiyah! Why these guys cannot just ask me for my number instead of so much pattern??!!”

She thought...