Page 46 of Letters to Lily

“I left a message because it went straight to voicemail.”

“Oh, wait, weren’t they traveling for a game tonight?”

“Yeah, he is on the road. I guess I’ll have to wait until he turns his phone back on to find out anything.”

“In the meantime, do you want me to call your mom to let her know, or to be here with you?”

“No, actually, I think I’m just going to go to class. I can’t sit here all day with nothing to distract me. It will literally drive me crazy.” She was shaking her head as if that was a bad idea. “What? Please, just drive me back to school. I left my car in the student lot anyway. I can’t sit here. Seriously, I need to be able to focus on something else right now. If I stay here, I’ll just cry some more, and I’m so tired of shedding tears over this big suck fest that is my life. Besides, I really don’t want to keep seeing the image of the two of them together on repeat in my mind.”

“Okay, I’ll drive you, but you have to leave your phone on so I can check in on you. Put it on vibrate for class.”

Oct. 30

Since Brad hadn’t returned my call yet, I decided that school would have to be another distraction from life. It had worked well enough the day before. “Are you sure you want to go to school today?”

“Honestly, I’ll be fine. Besides, I may end up missing classes at the end of the semester if Lily decides to give me hell or show up early. I really need to be there for all the classes I can log right now.”

“Fine,” Kristin heaved out. “I’m just worried about you. I don’t even know how you’re functioning right now. I can barely focus on anything, and I’m removed from the situation, you know?”

“Believe me, I know.”

Two hours later as I made my way out of class I could have sworn that I saw the waitress heading into the student union, so I went that way too. Once I got there, I couldn’t find her but decided my extra waddling steps shouldn’t be wasted, so I grabbed a muffin from the coffee counter while lamenting the fact that I couldn’t also get a coffee. After practically inhaling my muffin, I started to head back down the stairs. There were a bunch of people in costume all around, clearly ready to start the Halloween celebration, as was customary on campus. The problem with that scenario, was that one of the costumed people bumped into me and knocked me down, which still would have been okay had I not hit my head on the railing, and slid down the last four steps to the bottom.

I immediately clutched my stomach as I heard a chorus of gasps, and people were yelling things about calling 911 and getting help. I didn’t think it was that bad until I touched my head and came away with a handful of blood. Within minutes, the ambulance arrived and the emergency medical personnel that showed up began asking me a bunch of questions, starting with how far along my pregnancy was. “Almost 34 weeks,” I answered.

“Are you in any pain?” One of them asked.

“My head hurts, and my tailbone got a little battered on the way down the steps, but I think everything else is fine.”

“That’s good. Can you tell me what day it is?”

“October 30,” I responded as they finished assessing my initial injuries.

“Okay, well, since you’re pregnant I want to put you on the gurney to take you to the ambulance. I don’t need you trying to walk, and that head injury suddenly making you pass out, okay?” I nodded my head. “All right, Ben’s going to help you move over and then we’ll throw the rails up and get you moving.”

“Please, make sure my bag is with me. I need to call my mom.”

“Sure thing, I’ve got it right here. Once you’re on the gurney, I’ll put it down by your feet, so it stays with you.”

“Okay.” I kept my head ducked down somewhat because there was a huge crowd gathered round, and I could still hear the group of people who had bumped into me talking.

“I didn’t see her. This stupid costume,” one of the guys was saying.

“She’s going to be fine, they just said so.”

“What if her kid dies though? That will be my fault.” I sucked in a pained breath with his words, and Ben, the EMT helping me onto the gurney, shot the guy a dirty look.

“Shit,” the guy said as he realized I could hear them. Campus security finished getting his name and information from him for their report as Ben and Gary, I kid you not those were their names, wheeled me to the ambulance.

“So, you guys get ice cream jokes a lot while working together?”

Ben smirked at me as Gary climbed into the driver’s side. “It’s a good day if our patients are joking about our names, so we don’t mind that much.”

“Yeah, I guess it is, but honestly I think your employer set you two up together for that very reason. Speaking of, I could totally go for some Chunky Monkey right now. I’ve had a really shitty week, and this fun little ride to hospital hell is just the ice cream on the top.”

Ben burst out laughing then, “I think you’re going to be just fine if you can sling some fun ice cream puns around like that. We’ll just get you to the ER and let them make sure you’re both one hundred percent to be safe though.”

He reached down and dug in my messenger bag. “You needed your phone, right?”

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