Friday Fictioneers is hosted by the wonderful Rochelle, the undisputed master of what I call Sound Bite Fiction.
She sets the weekly challenge, and the standard.
And the prompt photo, which this week is provided courtesy of Penny Gadd.
The idea, as always, is to write a story of around 100 words based on this picture, below.
© Penny Gadd
Click here to hear the writer read his words:
Waiting Room
Interesting places, doctors’ waiting rooms.
Eight people here when I arrive.
Several coughs, a spectacularly bandaged leg, glowing noses.
A couple talk in what they imagine are hushed tones but, in the white-walled low-ceilinged space, sounds carry.
Despite the radio’s barely audible mid-Atlantic pop/rock.
Women read crumpled magazines from a low table.
The lone male plays with his irritatingly beeping phone.
I make notes, as always.
New faces arrive to replace those already summoned.
This adds spice to the game in my head.
Who is next?
More importantly, who is last?
I could ask, but where’s the fun in that?
Sound Bite Fiction 
Having to wait at the waiting room for an awfully long time is not the best feeling in the world. But I have a feeling that the plant is about to end the waiting time for so many people! Great story!
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Uh, oh, a plotting plant. A good story, CE but I don’t know if I’d want to eat a sick person. It could be the end of the plant as well. Well done. 🙂 — Suzanne
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Fascinating. Places like waiting rooms make me wonder what would happen if some situation occurred where the people were trapped in there for a time and had to start communicating and co-operating. How would the different personalities interact? That’s what I think about when I’m sitting there. Buses and train carriages also make me think this way. Maybe I’ve watched too many disaster movies.
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I just wonder which of them I’d eat first…
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Doctor’s waiting room nicely described, Why were you brought here? To get a treatment or to simply hang there and look beautiful?
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Laughing here, sir.
Your sarcasm is quite splendid, thank you!
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I have a feeling the last patient will not make it to his appointment. I wonder what you meant by MidAtlantic pop/rock. As in the Atlantic coast of the US and the midatlantic states (ie Pennsylvania and Springsteen) ?or did you maybe mean a music that emanated from neither coast of the Atlantic, but rather sprang from somewhere in between, ie music belonging to no one, as in Muzak.
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Ah, Andy, I love that we speak a different language!
Mid-Atlantic means having no disernible roots, bland pop/rock, if you like.
It is not muzak, but typically barely charted songs from the sixties onwards that most of us have forgotten and no one ever wants to hear again.
Re Mr Springsteen, I had the great pleasure of seeing him perform in a packed stadium (50,000 people) in Glasgow a few years back.
Very much not mid-Atlantic!
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I have heard it’s one of the best concerts ever. Never been, though I did see the Stones once. 😊
One benefit of being part of FF is that I’m always learning new terms! Thanks for the tutorial!
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I went to see the Stones in Glasgow’s Playhouse, thinking it might be my last chance to see one of the truly great bands.
That was in 1974.
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I went a couple years later. 1979 I think. And yet they just came to Florida this summer, and I heard they were (still) great. Amazing.
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I’d rather pass at the chance of visiting the doctor’s clinic.
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I think most of us would, until we get ill…
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Described very accurately.
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Laughing.
I was just there!
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A clever & understated observation about life, all found in the waiting room. Well done.
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My apologies, WwM, your comment went to my Spam folder.
So a belated thank you, glad you enjoyed.
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Waiting rooms are the last place I want to be. Reckon I skip it. 🙂
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I like your plan, Jo, just don’t get ill!
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Life in many respects is a waiting room, whoever is last, ‘Please shut the door.’
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Laughing.
The man wins a cigar.
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I no sooner arrive in a doctor’s waiting room than I wish to leave. Well captured.
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But not as bad as dentist’s…
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I quite enjoy sitting in the waiting room watching the people. As long as I’m not too ill 🙂
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No point in being there if you’re not ill!
Give yourself a shake, and get on with your life, sir!
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You described well the uneasy feeling of waiting to see the doctor. I enjoy watching others, but recognize they are also watching me. In close quarters, that’s a bit disconcerting. Enjoyed the story as always!
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Thanks, Brenda, it is a strange situation, isn’t it.
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Being nosey helps the time pass more quickly, you just have to try not to stare at people for too long!
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The place is full of folk squinting at each other!
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Beautifully observed. And a funereal last line
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Thanks, Neil, laughing at funereal!
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They don’t call it the “waiting” room for nothing. It reminds me of the holding pens at the stockyard. Sooner or later, your number comes up and you’re led to slaughter.
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So I’m actually dead now, is that how it works?
Jings…
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I know it’s probably a perfectly average waiting room with regular sick people and a writer observing…so why do I feel sinister thoughts in the offing? 😀
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I think you’re just that sort of gal, Sascha!
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😀
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My doctors already think that I am strange, now I know why. 🙂
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I think doctors are strange.
Imagine spending your life with sick folk…
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Where is the fun in that, indeed! A great listen this week (YEAH! I can listen again!). Hopefully you’re not the last one. Good write with an air of mystery created that could be explored a million times over.
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Thank you, ma’am, so happy you enjoyed the tale and the reading
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Always do, Ceayr, always do.
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I remember the last time in my waiting room, non-scheduled emergency room, with people coming with bleeding eyes… not that kind of atmosphere, but creepy still.
I was the one ending up in surgery in the end.
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Did you survive, Bjorn, or …
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I did, and i didn’t get blind
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Yuck! Your description was so vivid, I felt like I was in a doctor’s waiting room. Like everybody else, I do the same thing. Sometimes I get so lost in watching people that I forget they can see me too. I’m sure I come off as creepy. My friend and I used to play a game where we would watch people and make up stories about them.
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I think we all do that too!
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I visited a doctor once whose philodendron had grown so that she had it draped all around the room, hanging from the ceiling, and twisting up the slats on the blinds. Kind of creeped me out 🙂
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Not conducive to general well-being, hmm…
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It’s a fun place to ang out. Get to finish another chapter if one’s lucky.
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Not sure it’s fun, Patrick, you pretty much need to be ill to go there!
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Vividly described! It’s what I do in those situations too (airports are one of my favourite places to people watch). Great take on the photo prompt.
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
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Thanks, Susan, I guess it’s where we find our material
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Dear CE,
A doctor’s waiting room well described. The perfect place to find characters. Nice.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thank you, m’lady.
Anywhere there are people…
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Ah, the sounds and sights of a doctor’s waiting room. Perfectly described.
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You sound almost nostagic, Colline!
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It seems we can all relate to this thought-process in the waiting room. Neatly observed.
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Seems like many of us do it!
Although the majority ask who is before them.
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Ah yes!
It is a fun game! 😉
Unless one is too unwell!!
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Then you just spread the germs!
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True! XD
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As someone who arrives well ahead of any scheduled appointment, I’m always incensed by latecomers who take what I imagined to be my turn in the queue. So irritated I could… but no, they’re not well people anyway.
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Why am I not surprised you are an early bird?
But I am surprised you get incensed and irritated.
(Laughing)
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Oh I know this waiting room game well…
Great story.
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Thanks, Tannille, maybe we all play it…
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