chocolate pudding

so i tried to apply for this scholarship, and i finished the essay i was writing for it, but then i went to turn it in and found out the deadline had passed by a couple of hours. FML.

might as well put the essay to good use. we'll call it a short story. ^^

There is a saying that talks of moments that change us so profoundly that life afterwards will forever be known as before this moment, and after this moment. I had promised a game of rummy with him after dinner. Of course, as nursing goes, we get swept aside with tasks suddenly pressing; it is too easy to become consumed by what needs to get done. The promise flew back to me a few hours later, and as my feet rushed, my hand clenched around a deck of cards in shame. The room was dim, the curtains drawn, and sleep was looming and reproachful. I tread toward his bed, and touched his arm. Graciously, he smiled as my feeble apologies tumbled forth. And when I asked what I could do to make it up to him, he politely requested chocolate pudding, if I could find it. “Two spoons!” he called, as I practically ran out to fetch it, eager to alleviate the embarrassment I felt over the missed game of cards. There was no chocolate pudding anywhere. Suddenly, I remembered the fortuitous chocolate pudding I had brought and was saving for my break. I strode victoriously back to his room, and whispered to him our luck that I had found the last one. He smiled again, insisted that the second spoon was mine, and we shared the pudding over talk of swine flu. When the last of the pudding was gone, he sighed, "That really hit the spot." He turned toward me and smiled widely, his eyes glittering in the soft orange light. As he thanked me, he said, "You really made my night." I couldn't help the answering smile breaking on my face, as I whispered back that he made my night as well. There was before this moment, the textbooks, the tests, the tiredness, and the theories of nursing school. And there is after this moment, the connection, the communication, and the kindness: all conscious, faint, and feathery, but present and alive.