The next morning I woke up to my alarm beeping loudly and my daughter yelling from across the house to turn my darn alarm off already. Looking at the clock, it had been going off for a good 15 minutes now and I was in no way feeling up to getting out of bed just yet. I felt as if maybe I had come down with something. Knowing that either way, I still had to get up and make breakfast for Kristen and take her to school, I rolled out of bed and headed for the shower.
I don’t know how long I stood under the hot water of the shower, letting the water run down my body, but the next thing I knew the water was cold and Kristen was at the door yelling that I better hurry or she was going to be late to school. I hurriedly toweled off and used my towel to wipe some of the steam off the mirror so that I could at least see enough to brush my hair. That’s when I noticed the 2 small puncture wounds at the side of my neck, which immediately started to burn once I saw them. I started dazedly at them wondering what the heck? Trying to think back to what happened to give me these wounds. Kristen started pounding on the door yelling, “I have 10 minutes to get to school and I can’t be late today, I have a test.” I quickly threw on a t-shirt and pants and rushed out the front door with Kristen trailing right behind me. Luckily her school was only 5 minutes away and I already knew that I would be calling in sick to work that day.
Just the rush to get out of the house and the short drive to Kristen’s school had really taken a toll on me. I felt as if my limbs were jelly as I walked up to the front door. As I attempted to put my key in the lock to open the door, the keys fell to the ground. I sighed and rested my head against the door and looked down at the ground where my keys lay. At that moment, I was willing my keys to magically float up and back into my hands, because I didn’t think I would be able to make it back up if I bent down to pick them up. I’m not sure how long I stood there, but I finally heaved a big breath and bent down slowly to pick them up, while bracing myself against the door. The way down wasn’t so bad, but coming back up took so much energy. I clasped my keys in my hand a tightly as I was able and slowly slid the key into the lock and turned it. Hauling myself through the door, I dropped everything on the floor right next to the door and trudged my way down the never ending hallway towards my bed. I could almost hear it beckoning me to it soft lush pillows. As I threw myself across the bed, I barely had enough forethought to place a call to my boss letting her know that I wouldn’t be in for the day, that I was very ill. I knew she wouldn’t be happy, but I really didn’t care. There was no way I could make it to work in the condition I was in.
Hours later, I awoke to the phone ringing beside me. Who could be calling to bug me, it felt as if I had just laid my head onto the pillows and fallen to sleep. As my daughter’s aggravated voice came across the line, I immediately sprang awake. “Mom, where are you? I’ve been waiting 15 minutes already!” I quickly replied that I would be right there and ran out to the living room almost glad that I had thrown everything down next to the door, meaning that I didn’t need to go searching for my purse, keys or shoes.
I made my way quickly to Kristen’s school, again thankful that we lived so close. She was unmistakably upset as she got in the door, threw her stuff in the back seat and slammed the car door. She started in on me right off the bat, “Mom, I can’t believe you were late to pick me up again! All of my friend’s parents came to pick them up and a couple of them even asked if I needed a ride. It was so embarrassing! I told them that you were already on your way and must have gotten stuck in traffic. What’s wrong with you? Why do you do this to me?” Right now, I felt like the worst parent in the world, not to mention, that I still felt sick and barely able to concentrate on what I was doing. I calmly replied, “Kristen, how many times have I been late to pick you up? How often do I give your friends rides home when their parents can’t make it? Honestly can you count on more than one hand the number of times I’ve let you down? No, you can’t.” To which she smartly replied back to me, “Well I can count 2 times in the last 2 days. You’re wracking them up pretty quickly aren’t you?”
I didn’t feel up to fighting with her right now about it. I sighed and said, “Kristen, I’m sick, I feel like crap and my head is pounding like someone is doing construction on my skull. I am sorry that I have been late twice to pick you up. Please accept my deepest apologies. I will make it up to you. What do you want for dinner? You pick anywhere you want to eat and we’ll go pick it up.” I didn’t add it was more for my benefit because I was ready to crawl back into bed as soon as we got back home, but I think she already knew that. She of course picked one of the more expensive places to eat, called ahead and ordered her food. I handed her my debit card and she went in to pick up her food.
The drive home seemed to last forever. As soon as we reached the house, I gave her the keys and told her to go unlock the door; I didn’t want a repeat of the morning’s episode with dropping my keys again. As I walked into the house, I tried to seem normal. I asked her how her day went, to which she replied, “It was great, until you forgot to pick me up.” I didn’t feel up to have this argument and was dead tired. I replied, “Again, I am sorry. I am sick and I’m going to go lie down in my bed. Come get me if you need anything. I love you.” I shuffled my way down the hallway to my bedroom and collapsed onto it, only to fall into an immediate dead sleep.
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