Waiting Room Method Shifting Novels & Stories

Just open and let someone come out and tell me she is okay. They stay closed. I hear him before I see him. Not his voice, the waiting room is too big for that. But there is a shift in the air near the entrance, the particular disruption of someone moving through a space with total focus and no interest in anything that isn't their destination. I turn toward the entrance.

His steps were slow and uneven as he fought the urge to barge back into that room and look at who was there. Distant shouting made Landon’s brain snapped out of its trance. “Hello?” Landon leapt behind a large metal case as the lights flicked on. His steps had returned to being weightless and silent as he heard their quick approach. Landon looked around, but couldn’t see anything except rows and rows of metal shipping containers. He silently cursed himself for being so distracted and giving his position away. As Voices and footsteps neared, Landon darted from his safe position and flattened himself behind a large metal shipping container closer to the back of the facility. He attempted to le

“Good morning, ma’am. Do you have an appointment?” “Yes,” I answered softly, giving her my details. She checked her computer and smiled. “Please take a seat. You’ll be called shortly.” I sat down, my hands clasped tightly together. Around me, people walked back and forth. Nurses moved quickly through the hallways. Machines beeped faintly in distant rooms. Time moved slowly. Too slowly. Finally, my name was called. I stood up and followed the nurse into the ward, my heartbeat growing louder with every step.

Eyes on cargo are eyes not on the wall. I run the calculations. The shift change gap is eight minutes. I need twelve. The four minutes I've been trying to find for fourteen weeks have been the obstacle between a plan and an exit. I've been running every variable I have access to, trying to find them, but they weren't findable because I was looking in the wrong place. I've been trying to extend the gap itself, but the gap is fixed. The rotation is what it is and I can't change it. I've been trying to change the wrong variable.

Jennie I’ve been waiting patiently for Tyees' return. I hope the war meeting went well, and I hope Raiah is met with leniency. I like her very much and hope we can stay friends. While Tyee was in his meeting, I couldn’t sleep, so I wondered through the village and stopped to chat with some older ladies. They were all talking in their language, and some were weaving fabrics, while others were cooking. I approached them, and they all greeted me as Luna, but I can’t say it was welcoming. Still, I wanted to make the effort.

"Let's go sit in the waiting room." As if my body is on autopilot, I follow Kayla silently into the surgical waiting room. She keeps trying to make small talk while we wait for some answers but nothing that she says is registering in my mind. I can't think about anything else but Ward and the condition that he is in. "I heard you finally shifted," Kayla changes the subject for the thousandth time. Keeping my eyes focused on the double doors ahead of me, I simply nod my head in response.

The compound meets Iris one careful introduction at a time. Not all at once. I would not have allowed all at once even if anyone had suggested it, and nobody did, because the compound has learned, across the months and the people who have come through its gate, that significant arrivals deserve the specific pacing that lets each person have their own moment rather than a crowded, shared one. My mother comes first, on the morning we return, because my mother has been waiting in the operations room since dawn with the specific, contained anticipation of a woman who built parallel systems for twenty nine years and has never, in all that holding, held a grandchild.

Eli muttered, “That was not the plan.” Amara leaned closer. “It’s always the plan.” Noah watched them quietly. Eli could feel it. The way Noah was present, but slightly pulled back. The way his smile didn’t fully settle. When they reached the office, Amara turned to Eli. “Come with me?” she asked. Eli hesitated. Then Noah spoke smoothly. “I can wait out here,” Noah said. Eli’s chest tightened. “No,” Eli said quickly. “You don’t have to.”