Many people were in the hospital, even if it was January 1st. Holiday or not, there were always patients in need of care and for that reason there was always staff present. The doors of an elevator opened and a man stepped out. His blond hair was tied in a loose ponytail and the white doctors-coat hang open, revealing a dark-green T-shirt with a yellow owl on it. He held a paper cup filled with warm coffee and took a careful sip as he walked into the paediatrics department. Doctor Andy Bansing was on duty today, but judging by his smile he didn’t mind.
“Good morning everyone!” he said as he walked towards the nurses station.
“Good morning, doctor Bansing,” one of the nurses replied. “And happy New Year.”
“Happy New Year to you too, Tanya! Aren’t you glad to be doing an early shift now?”
She laughed sourly at the question and didn’t answer. No-one was particularly happy to come in early on a day like this, but there had to be a minimum staff present at all times. Why the doctor seemed this cheerful was a mystery to her. “Did you make any New Year resolutions this year?” she asked.
“Of course! I decided I won’t talk with people whose name is twelve characters long. Twelve is my unlucky number you know.”
“Not thirteen?”
“No, I have no issues with the number thirteen,” Andy told her with a grin. “But twelve, it has proven to be my unlucky number, so I will avoid it this year. That is my resolution.” He winked at her, grabbed the file she placed on the counter for him and walked away.
“Good luck with that!” Tanya called after him and returned to her work with a shake of her head.
***
The next day Andy worked again. He started with a round over the paediatrics department, but went down to the emergency care department when they paged him. He had been called down there because a mother with a new-born baby were being brought in with an ambulance, she had gone into labour at side of the road at just 37 weeks of pregnancy and she had delivered the baby inside the ambulance as it sped towards the hospital. The ambulance staff had called during the ride and after their call the emergency department had paged him. A good communication like this made sure everyone was ready as soon as the ambulance arrived.
After checking the baby it seemed the boy was in good health, but the mother was exhausted. They were admitted to the maternity ward and he would go back the next day for a final check on the baby, unless a nurse would call him in before that.
Now he returned to his department and walked up to the central nurses station when he noticed two of his colleagues standing there: doctor Timothy Green and the head of the department doctor Paul Newman. There were two nurses as well, Tanya had to work again and sat in front of the computer. A male nurse restocked his medicine cart. Andy had to take a moment to remember his name, but soon recalled it was Robert. A fairly new addition to the nurses, a month or three if he had to guess. He looked at his colleague Timothy again and chuckled to himself, but pulled a straight face when he reached the counter.
“Morning Andy,” Timothy said.
“Good morning,” Paul greeted him too.
Andy nodded once. “Morning, Paul,” he said.
Timothy frowned at Andy. “Andy?”
Andy looked at him, but didn’t say anything.
“What’s up with you this morning?”
Andy remained silent.
“You can at least answer my question!” Timothy said, who grew more impatient the longer the silence lasted.
Instead of answering, Andy looked at Tanya. “Maybe you can explain it,” he said to her.
Timothy looked at her too. “Do you know what his problem is?” he asked her.
“N-not really,” Tanya said, but when she saw how Andy pointed towards Timothy’s nametag she had to try her best not to laugh. “Oh, maybe I do,” she turned to the doctor. “You see, doctor,” she said as politely and respectful as she could, “doctor Bansing made a New Year’s resolution this year. He doesn’t want to talk with people whose names are twelve characters long, because it’s his unlucky number and he wants to avoid it.”
Both Paul and Timothy looked at the nurse first and then at Andy, who seemed to enjoy himself.
“Are you for real?” Timothy asked, but again Andy didn’t answer him. “You’re so childish,” he sighed as he walked away.
Andy grinned broadly. “Thank you, Tanya.”
Now Robert looked up from his cart. “If I may ask, doctor,” he began politely, “wasn’t your unlucky number six only two months ago? I recall someone asked you if you would join them and when he said it would be you, him and four others you declined because that would make six and that was your unlucky number.”
Andy laughed. “Oh, I remember that. The best thing about that was that he took my arm and said, very seriously, he understood!”
Everyone chuckled at that.
“I thought doctor Hellington was the one you enjoyed teasing,” Tanya said while she typed in some data in the computer.
“Oh, I teased him last year,” Andy replied immediately, “I can’t tease him two years straight.”
Paul chuckled. “I’ll go tell Eric the good news then.” There was a pause in which he started to looked more serious again and he looked straight at Andy. “But be honest with me, you counted Timothy’s name before deciding on your unlucky number, didn’t you?”
“Me?” Andy asked with an obvious feinted surprise and innocence as he put his hand on his chest. “You think I would do something like that?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“You… might not be wrong with that assumption.” He ignored the two laughing nurses and kept his attention on Paul, who obviously had more to say about the matter.
“Are you really not going to talk to him for an entire year?” Paul continued. “I mean-”
“Of course not,” Andy interjected with a reassuring smile and a dismissive wave of his hand. “I still have to work with him professionally and I will. When the situation calls for it I’ll break my resolution. It’s not like I would be the first person ever to break their New Year’s resolution.” He chuckled at his own remark. “But I’m going to try and get through the day without breaking it, that’s my goal. It’ll be fun.”
“Don’t push it, okay? Eric could handle your teasing, Timothy is…”
“Way too serious,” Andy sighed. “I know.”
“I didn’t want to say that, but yes. Don’t push it.”
Andy straightened his back and saluted. “Yes Sir!”
“This is going to be a tiresome year if you begin it like this,” Paul sighed and started to walk away, leaving a grinning Andy at the desk.
*** © Mariska Bekker ***