A Promise Kept

I've always hated it here.  Everyone does but somehow I feel like for me it's, I don't know, more valid, more visceral, real.  It's so many things.  The echo of my shoes as I walk down the hall.  The cracked doors, each with its own little tragedy just beyond its threshold.  It's all the sounds that scream you're not safe.  No one is safe!  For me, worst of all is the smell.  The sharp sterile smell of...  There is nothing like it.  No other place on earth you will find it.  I hate it.

Nervously, reflexively, I reach into my pocket again.  I feel the letter that was once torn and crumpled but is now taped and folded.

    "James,

    Look, this isn't any easier for me than it is for you.  You made a promise.  It's time to keep it.
    

    John."

The one line seemed to take up the whole page.  That promise was made in a different time, hell in a different world.  After all that had happened since my promise held no weight.  

I owe you nothing!  Not a second of thought.  

Never mind that you have invaded my thoughts every day for the last 25 years.

Damn! This God-dammed echo, I should fucking take off my shoes!

Room 1114... breath.

My hand reaches up to knock on the door.  My third attempt.  Failed again.

A gentle tap on my shoulder reminds me how long I have been standing here.

"I am sorry sir, I need to get by."

The door opens.  There he sits.  He looks up at me.  His eyes swollen and red, they turn to steel.  He stands up and pastes on a smile.  

In a moment we are face to face.  After all these years all I want to do is find out how far I can push my fist into it.

"I, I guess I'll wait outside.  His gaze drops and he slips by."

A sudden calamity yanks me back into reality as the nurse pulls back the curtains to let some sunlight into the tomb of a room.

I see her face, pale, bald, resting.  I thought I would gaze into those eyes for the rest of my life.

As if she heard my thoughts her eyes open.  Locked to mine tears well up.