I opened my eyes, looked around, and stretched out my arms. I felt so refreshed. That was the best night’s sleep I’d had in what felt like forever. I am pretty sure I have insomnia, it seems like I can never get to sleep until I’m utterly exhausted. I reached for my phone to see what time it was. I always place it in my nightstand’s top drawer. It wasn’t there. I peered over the edge of my bed to see if I had dropped it on the floor last night. Wasn’t there either. I felt around under the covers to see if I had dropped it in my bed. Still nowhere to be found.
“Great, I must have lost it last night!” I raved to myself.
I knew that was another two hundred dollars lost down the drain. I was always losing cellphones, dropping them, or somehow they managed to get stolen, which has happened twice now. This time I was sure that I had just lost it when I was out with my friends. I stood up and slipped my extremely soft and fuzzy slippers on. I walked out of my room and checked the time on the clock, it was only nine in the morning. Although I was feeling well, I got a sharp pain in my head, like a migraine, luckily it didn’t last very long.
I figured that I should probably clean up, considering my apartment was comparable to the aftermath of a vicious hurricane. I didn’t remember much from the night before but I did remember that some friends and I had hung out here before we went out. I assumed that that was the reason why my apartment was so messy. My apartment building has a laundromat inside it for the apartments without a washer and dryer. I dragged my dirty clothes along in a basket and made my way towards the elevator.
As I walking in the elevator my neighbor was walking out, “Good Morning Mrs. Johnson,” I called after her.
She didn’t answer me. “That’s unusual, she’s usually the cheery one,” I thought to myself.
Once I was downstairs in the laundromat, I started putting my clothes in a washing machine. I added detergent and then put quarters in so the machine would start. I decided to wait there for my clothes. The room smelled like a mixture of different laundry detergents. It felt like a prison due to the white walls, white washers and dryers, and cheap chairs to sit in while you wait. While waiting, one of the guys that lived on my floor came in to do his own laundry. He was younger, a freshman in college. He always tried flirting with me but today he didn’t seem to even notice me.
“Hello,” I gushed at the first sight of him.
He didn’t respond. He was grumbling to himself about something. I assumed it was pretty important. I was going to ask him if he was alright but he seemed to be content and I didn’t want to further upset him. I put my clothes in a dryer and headed back up to my apartment. They took about an hour to dry so I had time to go back upstairs.
I finished cleaning up the mess in my apartment and rode the elevator back down stairs to get my laundry. There is nothing exciting about the boring elevators, that don't even play music, but I was excited because my boyfriend would soon be home on his lunch break. I hadn’t been up this morning when he left for work and I wasn’t home last night when he got out of work. I went back upstairs and waited around for him. I busied myself by watching lousy low-budget tv shows about renovating houses. It was eleven forty-five and he still wasn’t home. I couldn’t call him either, on account of my lost phone, to see if he had decided to stop somewhere for take-out. If he were going to get take-out he would probably stop at the chinese restaurant close to his work. He only ate out on rare occasions but I assumed he wasn’t coming home for lunch because he thought I would still be in bed due to being out so late last night. I tried not to worry.
“Where could he be? He’s probably just getting some take-out today. He probably didn’t want to bother me,” I tried to rationalize with myself.
I wondered if he knew that my phone was lost. He probably assumed that it was whenever I didn’t answer him right away. Since I didn’t have anything else to do, I had finished cleaning and had the week off from work, I decided to take a walk in the park near our apartment building. I tried to recollect what had happened last night but I just couldn’t remember. Anyway, trying to remember last night brought back that sharp pain in my head.
There were lots of people walking, running, playing, or picnicking in the park. I walked along the path past lots of people. There was a woman with a large golden retriever resting on a bench with another woman, presumably her friend. As I walked by her the dog started to growl and bark at me like I was a threat. The woman yelled at her dog and told it to calm down.
“Why are you barking? There’s nothing to bark at! Stop it!” the woman demanded.
I tried to reassure her, “Oh it’s fine, I don’t mind. He’s just protective of you.”
“Stupid dog, stop barking!” she shouted without paying any attention to me.
I got home and saw a note on the counter. It was from my boyfriend.
It read, “I already left for the hospital. Room 243. Sorry, I’m in a rush.”
I could feel my heart sink in my chest as I asked myself, “Why did he need to go to the hospital? Why didn’t he call me? Oh wait my phone is lost. Why didn't he explain himself better? Should I wait here or go there?”
Ultimately I decided to go to the hospital to meet him there. I jogged down the hall to the elevator. There was no one there so I was able to go straight to the main floor, “Thank goodness”, I thought to myself. Once on the main floor, I continued to jog to the building’s parking garage. It wasn’t very big but it still had a few floors. Instead of taking the elevator I quickly ran up the stairs and to my car. I got in and that same sharp pain in my head from earlier came back. It was impossible to speed out of the parking garage and through traffic but I eventually got to the hospital. I parked my car relatively close to the building and started to walk towards it. By then the sharp pain was gone but it came back as soon as I walked through the hospital doors.
I hadn't been in the hospital many times, actually only to visit friends who had just given birth but it seemed like there was a lot of people in there. I quickly walked over to the front desk where there was a nurse talking on the phone. She didn’t acknowledge me.
“Is this ignore Elizabeth day?” I grumbled to myself.
I stood there for several minutes wondering when she was going to finally ask me if I needed help. She didn't seem to notice that I was kind of in a rush. Having been very frustrated as this was the fourth person that day to ignore me, I tried my best to politely interrupt her conversation. After all, she was having a personal conversation while at work.
“Excuse me ma'am? Miss? Um… Hello?” I tried to calmly say.
She continued to ignore me but I caught the attention of another nurse. She walked over to me rather quickly and grabbed my arm pulling me off into one of the nearby hallways. I must have looked extremely confused and nervous.
“Don’t worry, we just need to talk,” she reassured me.
“Talk? About what?” I questioned her.
All I could think about was finding my boyfriend and figuring out what was going on. Again, she pulled me along into an elevator where we were alone. She explained to me what had happened. It didn’t make sense but at the same time it did. I didn't think that it was possible but it still explained why my day was so different than usual. I became inconsolable. I just couldn’t believe her. The elevator ride seemed to be taking an eternity. All I wanted was to rewind the past two days and get my normal life back. The nurse remained calm while I cried hysterically. I demanded proof because I did not believe her. She was apprehensive at first but because I was so hysterical she agreed. Right then, the elevator doors opened. We walked out and down the hall. It was very plain and there was too much artificial lighting. She abruptly stopped at a room and pointed inside. I walked inside and saw my boyfriend and family surrounding the bed. On the bed. I could just barely see a girl. I walked in further, right next to my family members and saw who it was. It was me.