Rhiwbina Living Issue 55

petrichor
"Just bloody move, will you?"
Dan Williams was running late.
After driving around the car park
five times looking for a place to
park, he'd finally spotted the
reversing lights glowing on a Fiat
Panda. Dan had stopped his car and
backed up to allow the Panda to
reverse out. But its driver was still
sitting there, seemingly oblivious to
the situation behind him.
"For God's sake man! Come on! I'm
giving you the space!" Dan yelled,
holding out the palm of his hand.
Out of the corner of his eye, Dan
spotted a car creeping around the
car park, most likely drawn to the
Panda's reversing lights like a moth.
Worse still, the air con in Dan's
ageing Toyota had packed in on the
hottest day of the summer so far. A
bead of sweat rolled down Dan's
forehead, down his nose and
dropped silently onto his lap.
Finally, after a full minute, the
Panda began to budge backwards.
Painfully slowly, the driver - an old
man - reversed out. He gingerly
raised his bony hand to thank Dan,
before clutching around to find first
gear. He eventually found it and
drove off at a snail's pace.
Dan swiftly moved his car into the
vacant space and turned his engine
off. He reached over to pick up his
bag from the passenger seat but as
he pulled it towards him, its
contents spilt out and into the
passenger's footwell. Dan growled.
"God. I hate my stupid life!" he
scowled, reaching over to scoop up
his textbooks and pens. He dumped
them all into his bag and yanked
open his car door to get out.
Unfortunately, he'd only left himself
a few inches from the car next to
him and his door hit the car next to
46
his with an almighty thump.
It was a good five minutes before
Dan had finally repositioned his car
and hot-footed it across the car
park of the hospital. He hurriedly
walked through the automatic
doors of the entrance and out of the
searing summer sun. He
approached the desk where a
young nurse was sitting.
"Hi. My name's Dan and I'm here to
tutor Ollie."
"Ah yes," replied the nurse. "You're
the GCSE English teacher, right?"
"That's it. A bit late, I'm afraid. It's
been a nightmare. Traffic's terrible
and I couldn't find anywhere to
park."
"Oh no. That's not good. Ollie's just
through that door and down the
corridor. Last door on the left. I'll
buzz you in." She pointed to the
door, which Dan approached and
opened. He'd been hoping that the
air-conditioning at the hospital
would have offered him some
respite but the corridor was hot and
airless. A stuffy children's hospital
ward was the last place he wanted
to be on a hot summer's afternoon.
A few of the doors along the
corridor were open and Dan
instinctively peered in as he passed.
In one room, a child was curled up
asleep and in another, a child was
sitting in her chair, watching her
iPad. Neither of the children had
hair.
Dan arrived at the last door on the
left and tapped on the small
window.
"Ollie?"
"Come in," came a voice from
inside. Dan pushed down on the
heavy handle and opened the door.
Ollie was sat up in bed, looking at
his laptop. He looked up as Dan
opened the door and smiled. Ollie's
teeth looked off-white compared to
his pale face and on his head, he
wore a black bandana. His lack of
eyebrows made his bright blue eyes
look like saucers.
"Hi buddy. Are you ok?" asked Dan,
shifting into the room.
"Do I look ok?" replied Ollie.
Dan couldn't tell whether Ollie was
being sarcastic or genuine.
"I'm Dan, your new English tutor."
"Cool. Come on in." Ollie beckoned
Dan in, closed his laptop and placed
it on his bedside table.
Dan looked around the room for a
place to sit. The obvious place
would have been the chair next to
the bed but it was strewn with
clothes and wires. Instead, he
spotted a plastic chair and pulled it
over to sit alongside Ollie.
"Thanks for coming. How long are
you here for?" asked Ollie.
"An hour."
"An hour?"
"Yep. You can learn a lot in an hour,"
replied Dan confidently.
"What will I be learning today?"
"Well, it's more of a kind of getting
to know you lesson this one. I can
find out a bit more about you and
you can find out a bit more about
me. To see if we can work together."
"Ok. That sounds cool," said Ollie.
"Where do we start?"
"I thought it'd be a good idea for
you to jot down a short
autobiography to get us going. That
way, I can get to know a bit about
you and assess where you are with
your handwriting ability too."
"You want me to hand write it?"
"Are you able?"
"I do everything on my laptop
these days."
"I'd prefer it if was hand-written so