On the Ice (Stick Side #1)

Twenty-Three

The hum of the hospital’s track lighting was the only sound Alex registered. He was sure there were others. Nurses conversing down the hall, the squeak of shoes on tile, the rattle of a cart rolling by, the drone of the newscaster on the TV in the waiting room. He heard none of it.

He’d arrived an hour ago, less than eight hours after the phone call informing him that Grandpa Forest was in the hospital again with pneumonia.

He’d come to visit, only to be sat in a chair in a corner of the waiting room and handed a bag of Grandpa Forest’s things.