“Visiting the Sick” By Chad Robert Parker

Good friends pay a visit when you are sick. They come to cheer you up. If you are really blessed they bring you more than well wishes and might even care for you until you are back to health.

It was almost 10am when banging on the outside door shook my whole 640 square foot apartment. It startled me awake and sounded like it was right outside my bedroom door. I slid from the covers, pulled on a tee-shirt to go with my pajama bottoms, and cautiously walked toward the front room. It literally sounded like the cops were outside ready to barge in. “Chad, we know you are in there.”

I rubbed my eyes and opened the door. There stood tiny, staring down from over his sunglasses, overalls already dirty and mud on his boots from a rainy day, nicknamed in jest for his gigantic build. I sneezed. “Oh, you really are sick.” He ruffled my already disheveled hair.

“We thought you were playing hooky.” My tattooed counterpart, whom I normally work with, explained, as they both stepped through the entry. I knew they had been working since 6am so I suspected they were only really visiting because they were tired.

“You owe me,” the first said. “You got anything to eat?”

“He had to fill in for you,” the second explained.

“What, you don’t like our crew?” I asked him as he rummaged through my fridge.

“Nah, actually I’d rather work rotary (billboard changing).” He spun around and shut the fridge. “You got nothing. What do you eat?”

“I know and I’m sick. You two should be bringing me food.” I joked.

I turned around and the other was sitting on the couch surfing my few local TV channels. “You don’t have cable? What do you watch?”

I shrugged. “I don’t hang out here much.”

“Well, you can sleep away the day if you want. We got work to do.” Tiny motioned to the other.

“I’m still resting!”

“But I’m hungry!”

“And I’m sick!” I pushed them out into the elements and went back to bed, with no regrets.

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