HOSPITAL ENCOUNTERS

I am standing outside a huge building, like a hospital complex and am trying to get across the parking lot to the front doors.  It is a cold and dark winter day, with old patches of snow and ice on the ground.  To my right, there is a long wide winding road that cuts between two hills, and I see some cars parked along the side of it.  And for some reason, that one silver car right in front of me is blocking my way to the hospital entrance.  I could not go around it!  

Stepping back a few feet, I look at the car and then the side road, and think how much easier it would be to just move the car there.  With that thought clearly in my mind, I begin to move the car, slowly, gently, until it merges with the traffic and eventually I get it parked where I want it to be.  Only then do I realize that the driver is still in the car, looking very startled and confused!  Ooops, I laugh sheepishly to myself.  Neither he nor anyone one else even suspects that it is I who did this, so I continue on my way.

I'm not sure if I work there, am visiting someone, or am a patient/client within it.  I walk the halls, that are bustling with all sorts of activities, until I run into someone who looks familiar.  It is a middle-aged man, with a full salt-and-pepper beard, dark blue eyes and full bushy silver hair.  He's dressed in a dark gray suit and is walking with a clipboard, which he's checking quite often.  He stops when he sees me and tells me that now would be a good time for us to have our talk.

I walk with him to his office - a small space cluttered with books and papers - and he makes space for me on the chair by taking off a s stack of books and setting it on the floor.  I now recognize him as the pastor of the chapel.  He tells me that it's too bad I hadn't come to see him earlier, because the position I was enquiring about has been filled by someone else.  "There is still much to do", he says ruefully indicating the clutter around him, "but i cannot afford to hire a second person".  I am not that easily put off, and suggest that perhaps, since I already live in the facility, I could do transcription work from my own quarters?  Or maybe assist with non-traditional ceremonies?  He looks thoughtfully at me, and says that he will have to think on this.  He's genuinely interested in having me work for him, and I'm satisfied that I will indeed be given fair consideration.