Teen Ink

The Beginning

“It’s simple. It’s fast and is a solution to all our problems.” The voice of an old man cuts in and out of the microphone he speaks into. His gray hair is cut short and his forehead glistens from the tiny beads of sweat created by the stage lights. He wears a plaid shirt and jeans, very casual, and a white nametag with a messy cursive name is stuck on his breast pocket. The experienced doctor furrows his eyebrows, which makes the wrinkles on his forehead look deeper than what they actually are. Massive glasses are pushed up on his nose and without them the man is practically blind. As he concludes his speech he takes a deep breath, and waits for a response from the people that look up at him. The audience holds faces of the young and old. Eyes of many colors stare up at the man on stage and wonder what to do next. Minds of the wise and inexperienced ponder the old mans proposal. The old man’s hands start to sweat as he waits for what seems like forever for a response from his viewers, all of them physicians from across the United States.
The old man finally waits until the whispers start before he decides to make his way to the other side of the stage. His steps are somewhat quick, since there seems to be no reaction from the other doctors. He is halfway across the stage when a fellow physician stands, and walks slowly and calmly up the stairs. When he reaches the old man, he offers him his right hand, and says with a small smile, “When do we start?”