+As he sat in the cramped waiting area he tried to count the small black diamond shaped tiles that formed the wedges between the white square tiles.  It was something to do, something to keep his mind on as he sat and waited for one of the nurses to call his name.  When you had to visit the same place every few weeks you got familiar with it's small idiosyncracies.  Ninety-six and a half.  There were ninety six and a half black diamond shaped tiles on the floor.  Jackson knew that, had known that for years, but it didn't stop him from counting them each and every time he came in.+

"Mr. Howard."

+When the nurse came through the swinging door and into the lobby you could feel the rooms attention turn towards her.  Sixteen heads moving in her direction only for fifteen of them to look away again as their names weren't called.  A free city AIDs clinic, in New Orleans, they were lucky to only have sixteen waiting in the small barely air conditioned room.  As Jackson moved in his chair the sole of his shoe scuffed lightly against the tiles beneath him and he saw a boy sitting a few chairs down flinch at the sound when it broke the stark desperate stillness of the room.+

+Licking his lips Jackson could feel the dryness on his throat threatening again as he cleared his throat and unscrewed the lid on his bottle of water.  Taking a few slow sips he didn't rush.  The recent upper respiratory infection that he'd been fighting made it harder to breath sometimes and he knew that though the water seemed benign enough he would end up choking on it if he tried to drink it down too quickly.  Roughly clearing his throat again he twisted the lid back on his water and set it on the chair beside him.+

"Mrs. Perkins."

+Fifteen sets of eyes looked this time then fourteen drifted away as a woman in her late sixties rose shakily from her seat to follow the nurse to the back.  In the next ten minutes two more people had come into the lobby to replace those who had left, one a volunteer and the other a patient.  Jackson could spot the volunteer from a mile away, it was all about the skin.  That healthy glow.  Not to mention that the watch on the womans wrist was too expensive to belong to someone who needed this place.  Hands carefully arranged and rearranged the hoodie draped over his lap.  Even in the summertime he carried it in case he got cold.+

+Haunted eyes moved back to the black tiles in front of him, counting now from tile twenty-seven.  A sound interrupted him and he looked up again at the young man who had nearly jumped out of his skin when Jacksons shoe had scuffed the floor.  The boy was crying almost silently in his seat making only the smallest snuffling sounds as he sat there, hands in his lap as though he were too defeated to even disguise his emotions.  In the seat behind the boy a large burly man got up and moved further away, turning his body to the side when he found a new seat so he wouldn't even have to look at the young man.+

+Lips twitched from side to side as though he were a bunny rabbit and then Jackson gripped his sweater in his hand, water bottle tucked in the crook of his elbow, and he stood from his own seat.  As he moved he didn't hang his head but his eyes did a continual up and down sweep in front of him.  A nervous habit, perhaps psychological, checking a rechecking the path in front of him just in case.  Walking over to the desk he smiled gently at the nurse there.  Her name was Rosalinda and she had three kids, a dog named Sue, and a very pretty smile.+

"Rosie, can I have some of those Kleenex back there?"

+Pointing towards the box of Puffs she kept behind the desk he waited as she lifted the box and handed it to him.  When Jackson smiled something shone from his soft hazel eyes, a spark of life in a face that looked drained and pale.  Thanking her he moved back towards where the boy was sitting and offered him the box of Kleenex.  Jackson lowered himself into the seat just one over from the young man who was staring at the offered box of Kleenex like it might try to bite him.+

"Hi.  I'm Jackson.  It looked like you could use some of these."