The other day I was assigned to a porter who was having her first day on the job.
She was young and pretty, a student studying to become a dietician, and her youth, cast amidst the somewhat resigned and much older counterculture of porters, seemed to make everybody a little giddy. Her innocence and simple optimism was a narcotic, and all the men stood a little straighter and attempted to make charming remarks around her. She cheerfully pushed me about in my wheelchair as if it was some high school game and not life on the slippery slope, and it made me want to be outside, in the sun of some past, leaning back and resting my head against her and the limitless smell of her hair… but no, no– there is much work to do.
We pass so many people in the hospital corridors. The always smiling Happy Cancer Ladies, who’ve either discovered their bliss through illness or are frozen in panic, unable to move their focus from the positive for one second lest they shatter into a million pieces. Gratitude radiates from them, and they smile at me as if I’m a precocious child, making gentle, almost holy room for my slender passage. And then suddenly, I was part of a long procession of wheelchairs passing by—bald and pale cancer patients, a girl burned with acid from an honour attack and an elderly man with skin so thin you could almost see into his past. The Happy Cancer Ladies stand aside and beam, practically applauding, they’re so sincerely proud of us.
Men who wear brown coveralls run the elevators. All day they live in these boxes, these boxes that open and close like respiration. They sit there, flipping through the Toronto Sun and wondering what else the world might have to offer them, and when the new porter wheels me in, something happens. It’s like everybody has had three drinks and is now wearing their favourite shirt. Conversation pipes up, and everybody is talking and laughing and flirting, dispensing wisdom and jokes about the myriad complications of negotiating the underground tunnels.
“I was her mission, “ I say, “I am the treasure she has returned with.”
The young girl laughed because that is what she does, but the elevator man seemed intrigued, “You are a treasure?” “Yes,” I said mystically, “I can grant you a wish. You tell me what you want and I will make sure you get it.” I expected a joke, but I could see in his face that he would not let this happen. He looked at me, stating plainly, “I want my mother to be here with me.”
I put my hand on his forearm, ” You have to close your eyes and imagine her, thinking of the best, safest times you spent together, and through this you will summon her, and you will feel her touch upon your skin, her scent returning…”
It cast a little spell, this, and the girl made the sound of a small animal that wanted to be hugged, while the man stared off at a distant horizon. As I was being wheeled out, the elevator man wanted to tell me something, a message from a song by King Crimson that his language inhibited him from pronouncing, and as he leaned toward me trying to spell the title out, the doors closed, the potential of this information lingering between us for a moment, and then falling away.
Comments
13 responses to “The New Porter”
I wish I could grant you a wish. Beautiful writing as always – “skin so thin you could almost see into his past” . I am punching the wind for you
Awesome…the statues of Prague and I salute you.
Bittersweet, beautiful.
Hi Michael – I came across your story on Facebook from a posting by my friend Genie Leftwich. I cross posted this same comment there but I wanted to make sure you saw it. You’ve written this story with an uncanny precision – There’s an ineffable beauty that lingers between us for a moment and then falls away. I feel like your new porter too, following you in the chair every step along the way. Thanks for taking me along for the ride – Joe
Thank you for sharing your amazing stories. Love them. All of them. You make time stop while I read them. Thank you.
Oh, you make me cry and smile in the same instance. You see and share such tender beauty and every once in a while you break up the stream of sublime blogs with a raft of ridiculousness that has me laughing in gusts and gales.
I am hoping that you do not need a porter, no matter how fresh and lovely, for very much longer.
Jesus man! Tears here from your prose. Seriously wow. Keep on keeping’ on.
Dear Michael,
Thank you for sharing these powerful and beautiful words. They are humbling. Keep up with the warrior visualizations and mantras, with love, Ott xoxo
Please. Don’t stop!
Extraordinary….and I pretty much love everything you write.
What a beautiful moment you painted with words
Stunning! More with the words and the putting them together and all that please!
I adore you and everything about this. Beautiful and heartbreaking.