Nanoprep 2016 Day 1: Patience
By Robin de Voh on 2016-10-11
Ron threw the remote control on the sofa and walked towards the hallway.
"Are you almost done?" He shouted up the stairs.
"Yes! Just 10 more minutes!" Jess shouted back.
"That's what you said 15 minutes ago!"
"And it's still 10 minutes! Just be patient, we're not going to be late!"
"It's your sister's wedding, so we'd better not be!"
"We won't!"
They were both annoyed. Jess because Ron had no patience to speak of but anger management issues instead, and Ron because Jess had no sense of urgency and never took anything seriously. Of course, Jess never had to wait for Ron this way, and Ron never had to keep someone waiting this way, but they were both pretty convinced they weren't in the wrong on this one.
"Fine! But if you're not done in 10 minutes I'm leaving without you!"
"I'd like to see you try!"
Ron wanted to shout something back, but he realized it would just be to get the last word, so he dropped it. He walked back into the living room and sat down on the couch. He couldn't focus on what was playing on the TV so he just flipped channels. He settled on a nature documentary. The beautiful images calmed him down a bit.
10 minutes passed. Anger started to form again. He decided to be patient. 15 minutes passed. He willed his anger away and took a deep breath. His patience was nearly up.
Upstairs, Jess looked at the pregnancy test and cracked a little smile. She knew it. She had felt it.
She went into the hallway and down the stairs.
When she walked into the living room, Ron looked up at her, obviously annoyed.
"Why the hell do you always do that?" he spat out.
"What?"
"Taking your damn sweet time and leaving me hanging for over half an hour?"
He was getting really angry now.
"Sweetheart," she said calmly, "Look at this."
With a big smile, she walked up to him and showed him the test. His eyes turned from anger to confusion and then to joy.
"This is amazing!" He said while picking her up and hugging her.
"It is, and I can't wait to tell my sister," Jess said.
"After the wedding, though."
"Of course. Let's go, before we actually are late!"
They bounded out the door, happier than either expected to be at that time.
In an alternate timeline, however, Ron did not wait 15 minutes. He did not calm himself down. He went upstairs to vent his anger and did so in a bad way.
And in that alternate timeline, Jess ended up having to explain to the police how, in self-defense, Ron ended up on the bathroom floor with his skull smashed in.