Anthony

It had been a long and boring day. Anthony had opted to stay indoors as he was usually drawn to do. He had hoped to get far reading a book he had borrowed from the county library exactly a week ago but he was yet to get past the first two pages which he had read on the night of the day he borrowed it. He had laid it aside to go through a few slides of a document on the pathology of the skin, he had never picked it up again. Tonight as he went through his pathology notes, a feeling of great weariness overpowered him and brought him to think of what hour of the day it was exactly. It was still nine o’clock, and even though it crossed his mind, and his bed was just beside his study table like most of the other students who stayed in self-contained rooms were, he quickly dismissed the thought. Though he felt so tired, an irrepressible feeling of guilt kept him from going to bed, for about two minutes, and then as fickle as most of his other resolutions also were, his fatigue won over his guilt.

As he got into bed, he remembered all the things he was supposed to have done before the day ended but had not gotten himself to do. By now it was clear to him that he usually took a lot into his hands than he could possibly manage, and just like most of his colleagues, when there was so much to do, he did nothing. “Terry,” he whispered. Terry was a second year pharmacy student he had met during a talk that the university administration had organized on the ‘Administrative Positions in Health Care Student Medics Should Think About.’ Had he met Terry somewhere else he wouldn’t have been thinking of her as he had had all through the weekend. He had wanted to sit next to her but she had gotten up to leave immediately Anthony seated himself beside her. She went out to pick a call. When she came, she chose to seat in another section of the room that had relatively few people. Anthony had not seen her come in, neither did he ever see her again. If he had, may be he would have asked her to be his girlfriend.