I watched my son playing outside from the window in my kitchen. It was going to be a long day at work, so just watching him kick around the soccer ball was as much relief as I would be getting. Whenever he got the ball in the net he’d throw his arms up and run around, accepting all the gracious applause. I smiled, remembering a time when I used to do that.

“Good morning,” a sweet voice entered my ears from behind and delicate arms wrapped around my waist, “How long has he been at it?”

“I don’t know,” I turned around in my wife’s arms and pulled her in close to me, “He was out there when I got up and that was over an hour ago. He’ll be the next David Beckham.”

“Better,” my wife smiled setting her head against my chest and sighing contentedly, “Do you have to work today?”

“Yes,” I nodded and extricated myself from my wife, “And it looks like it’s going to be a long day. I probably won’t be home until late.”

I poured a cup of coffee for my wife and handed it to her. Then I poured myself a cup and took a sip. “Do you have to go?” my wife sat down at the kitchen table, “It’s a Saturday. Can’t you just call in sick?”

I laughed and kissed my wife, “You know that I can’t do that. I don’t have to work tomorrow so we can spend the whole day together.”

The door opened and my son came inside, tracking mud. “What’s for breakfast?” he asked me as he kicked off his shoes beside the door.

“You’ll have to ask your mom,” I ruffled his hair and he scrunched his nose in distaste, “I have to get going. I’ll see you two later.”

I kissed my son on the forehead, which he recoiled from, and I kissed my wife on the lips before heading outside and getting in my car. I started the ignition. I’d be doing a lot of driving. There were a lot of places to be today.

When I arrived I was escorted through a large brick building and into a room with one other person waiting for me. “How’s it going today?” I asked as I set my bag down and looked at the man in front of me.

“I’ve seen better days,” he answered grimly.

“I can understand that,” I nodded, “Alright, well let’s roll up your sleeves and see what we can see.”

The man rolled up the sleeves to his shirt and I began to observe the area on the inside of his elbow. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m checking your veins,” I replied, noting that we wouldn’t have any trouble, “To see if we’ll have any problems with the IV.”

The man nodded and fell silent again, watching me conduct my work. “Well it looks like everything is in order,” I finally said to the man, “I’m going to head down to the pharmacy to get the drugs and then I’ll be right back.”

I opened the door and headed out into the hall. Someone led me to the pharmacy and I was asked to sign a form. Another person on the medical team walked up to me and I handed him the drugs. “Looks like it’s going to be a long day, huh?” the guy asked as we walked back through the white halls.

“Yeah, but it’s been the first one in a while,” I shrugged as we pushed open a set of doors, “We couldn’t have expected it to last.”

“You’re right,” the other member of the medical team replied, “It was nice while it lasted though.”

The two of us set out four syringes and I watched as the other man began to load them. He withdrew the same amount of drug and solution into all four. We only needed two but the other two were kept just in case the others proved insufficient for the procedure.

After we were finished we sat and waited. “I hate this part,” the other member of the medical team said finally, “We just have to wait. If they didn’t call us in until they needed us we could probably get this day over with much quicker.”

“Quit complaining,” I laughed , “It’s not that long of a wait anyway.”

***
About fifteen minutes before the procedure the door opened and a man stuck his head in. “Alright they’re ready for you now,” the man walked out of the room and I looked over at my coworker.

“Well let’s get it over with,” my coworker said and I followed him out the door. We were led down several hallways before we walked into a room.

The man I had assessed earlier was lying on a bed in the middle of the room. There were several other people around him and they nodded to us as we entered. The other member of the medical team and I established an IV site in the man’s arm. It didn’t take long, his veins were not difficult to find.
I looked at one of the men standing near me and nodded and he looked across the room at a long window. The curtain across the window was pulled back and I knew an assortment of people stood behind it. The man I had nodded to looked down at the man on the bed.

“Do you have any last words?” he asked and the man shook his head “no” slightly. The warden looked at me and nodded.

Much Later

“I’m home!” I called as I pulled open the door and my family came bounding to meet me.