Don't Take the Pill

            My mom, sister, and I were sitting in what appeared to be a poorly lit waiting room. My sister began nodding off as she sat there.

            “The pill is beginning to have its effect on her,” I exclaimed to my mom. “We better sign the paperwork before we take our pills.”

            The medical assistant came from behind the counter and explained that although my mom and I could stay at this mental hospital, my sister would have to be transferred to the mental hospital in Minnesota.

            I didn’t want this to happen. I wanted us to stay together. I was worried my sister wouldn’t know what to say to get the right care if she were transferred away from us.

            I shook my sister, “Theresa! You have to focus!” She opened her eyes and nodded her head. She seemed lucid. “When you arrive in Minnesota, if you need anything, you have to tell them that Mom will pay for it. Don’t worry about money. Mom can just give her credit card information over the phone.”

            Theresa affirmed she understood with another nod. She didn’t seem panicked that she was being separated from us. I thought it must be whatever drug they had given her. It helped her calm down and relax, no matter what.

            My mom and I were given our medication and we took it without a thought. I wanted to feel as calm and relaxed as my sister. However, as soon as I took my pill, I realized my mom had not paid for Theresa’s accommodations at the Minnesota mental hospital.

            “Mom, you better give your credit card to this guy, now, before the pill begins to take effect,” I said as I turned to face my mom. I saw that it was too late. She was already dozing off. I shook my mom. She slowly lifted her eyes.

            I felt exasperated. I knew it was only a matter of time before I would be in the same state. I had to make sure my sister was taken care of before it was too late. I yanked my mom’s purse from her and took out her credit card and handed it to the medical assistant behind the counter. He ran my mom’s card and gave her the receipt to sign. I looked at the receipt and saw that she had to write the amount in.

            “It’s $250, Mom,” I tried to explain patiently. “All you have to do is right $250 and sign your name. You can do it.” My mom just laughed absent-mindedly and wrote down $158. I sighed frustrated.

            “She wrote the wrong amount,” I showed the medical assistant the receipt.

            “It’s OK,” he reassured me. He corrected the amount and I finally began to feel calm. Although, the medication was beginning to work its magic, I couldn’t disregard the uneasy feeling of the upcoming separation from my sister. At the same time, I was relieved that I didn’t have to go to Minnesota.

            I thought, “Good thing this is the second time Mom and I checked ourselves in to this mental hospital.”

            I remembered that first time. I was dressed in a rabbit costume, the kind that covered your entire body and head, only my face was showing. It was hot in the rabbit suit and I was angry. As I was recalling this event, I was confused by the fact that I remembered myself with blonde hair and completely different facial features.

            I remembered the first time I had come to check myself in; I was pushing the other patients in the waiting room out of my way. When one male patient tried to talk to me, I took a swing at him. Needless to say, I was admitted without question. I couldn’t remember why my mom admitted herself, maybe she wanted to keep an eye on me.

            Soon the memory of my first visit to the mental hospital began to fade away. In fact, every thought that flitted through my mind felt blurry and heavy. I was warm all over and my limbs felt completely relaxed. I felt peaceful and carefree and oh-so-tired. I thought to myself, “I’m going to enjoy this sleep.”

The Mud Run that Led to the Strangest Stranger

            Melinda, my cousin, Christina, and I had just participated in a mud run. We had so much fun going through the obstacles and the mud. I was proud of myself, because I ran the whole course. Among the many other mud runners, Christina came in first. Melinda was second and I was third.

            My adrenaline had me on a high and Melinda and I were laughing and joking around as we cleaned up from the mud. Suddenly, we heard there was a prize for the first place winner. We exchanged shocked looks, because we thought it was just a “for fun” run.

            I looked over for my cousin to see if she had heard the news. She was warming down from the run and smiling as people came up to congratulate her. I thought to myself, “How great for Christina!” Then, we heard that the prize money was $100,000. As happy as I was for my cousin, my adrenaline high began to fade and I couldn’t help but feel bummed out. I began to think to myself, “Well, if we had known the mud run was for money, maybe I would have tried harder.”

            I looked over at Melinda and I could tell she was thinking the same thing. We made eye contact and laughed at ourselves. We packed up our stuff and started to head to the parking lot.

We saw some mutual friends. They asked us how we did. We told them how Christina won and Melinda had come in second. Before we had the chance to tell them I came in third, they said, “If Melinda came in third, Jeanne must have come in 6^th.” I was indignant.

Before I could defend myself, we saw Christina in the parking lot. I hugged her congratulating her.

            “$100,000! I can’t believe you won $100,000!” I exclaimed to her, trying my best to be happy for her.

            She chuckled, “No, Cousin. It’s just $5,000.”

            “Oh, well, you can still do a lot with $5,000.” I said as I thought of all I could do with $5,000.

            We parted ways and Melinda and I headed to our next destination together. We were headed to a building where friends of ours were having a procedure done. Once we arrived, we found our way to the waiting room. Our friends were just being called in and they beckoned us to follow them.

            We listened as the doctor explained the procedure. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I knew my friends wanted to have a baby and were having trouble getting pregnant, but I couldn’t believe it was possible to go about it this way. The doctor was explaining how they would impregnate the husband!

            The rest of the appointment was a blur. I think I was in shock from what I had heard. We got in the car and were driving down the street. (Interesting thing was that it was a street leading to where my parents actually live.) We saw a strange guy standing out on the sidewalk. My friends pulled over and got out of the car. Melinda and I looked at each other confused. We took the opportunity to whisper to each other our mutual disbelief over what was going on.

 As we were talking, however, our friends approached the car with the stranger. We stopped talking abruptly as we took notice of the stranger. He was an older man who looked like he needed to get his grey unruly hair cut desperately. He had a sweatband around his head and was unshaven. He was wearing a white tight tank top, yellow basketball shorts, with knee high socks and high top tennis shoes. Only, what was most unusual about him was not his clothing.

His stomach protruded out like a very firm beer belly. His tank top was cut in a circle, so that his bare stomach was exposed. His stomach, however, was not covered by skin. It was covered by kernels of corn.

Melinda and I were speechless. All we could do was listen to the conversation going on outside the car.

“It will work. I swear,” the stranger urged the wife. Her husband was standing a short distance away with his back to us.

“I just don’t know if it’s a good idea, “she replied hesitantly. “We already have an appointment with our doctor.”

“Can your doctor do it for the price I’m asking?” the stranger challenged.

She shook her head and looked toward her husband. I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. I didn’t want my friends near this corn stomach stranger.

The stranger took her silence as confirmation and walked toward her husband. He was chatting and it seemed like he was rubbing his stomach. He returned quickly to tell our friend that it already worked. I heard him say, “His cervix is already dilated.”

All I could think was, “Men don’t have a cervix!”

Suddenly a white van came screeching around the corner. It was the doctor’s office. They were furious my friends had allowed this stranger to impregnate the husband. My friends jumped in the car and drove away in a hurry. The stranger ran from van.

The van was following us. Somehow we knew they wouldn’t allow the husband to have this baby. They had just wanted to impregnate him, so they could experiment on a pregnant man. My heart was pounding. I couldn’t believe I got mixed up in this and I couldn’t erase the image of the corn stomach stranger from my mind.

The Party, the Gun, and the Spider

We were at my grandparents’ cabin in the mountains, only it didn’t look anything like their cabin. Damian, my cousin, was planning a surprise birthday party for Mike, my cousin-in-law. There were family and friends helping to set up the party and some people were keeping Mike occupied somewhere else.

I was helping Damian set up the bar for the party – a very important job. He was telling me about how excited he was to throw this party and how great it was going to be a blast for Mike. I was just smiling thinking about how we were all going to have such a good time hanging out together. Damian went off to organize the rest of the party and left me with my job at the bar.

During this time, a group of friends approached me and handed me my gun. They gathered around me and in hushed voices explained, “Now’s the time. We have to go over and shoot the neighbor.”

I tried to keep a calm composure, but I was panicked! I didn’t want to shoot anyone. I knew I couldn’t get out of it. They wouldn’t take no for an answer. I looked around to try to find Damian to help me get out of there.

I found Lupe, Damian’s mom, and asked her where I could find him. She directed me to him and I tried to explain to him that I had to go and I needed his help. He was so busy organizing everyone for the surprise, all he told me was that I couldn’t leave when the party was just about to get started.

I went sulking away not knowing what to do. I decided to hide my gun, which was pink, by the way. I tried to remain inconspicuous. However, when Mike arrived, he was so thrilled and pumped to party that he was cheering and hugging each person there, drawing plenty of attention to anyone around him. I couldn’t escape him, plus I felt bad to sneak away without wishing him a happy birthday.

He hugged me saying, “Thank you so much for coming! This means so much to me. Are you ready to party?”

I politely nodded and squirmed out of his arms to blend in with the background, but as I was trying to avoid my friends, I walked right into their plotting again. This time they didn’t see me. I just overheard them discussing the plan to use the trees and bushes for cover to sneak over to the neighbor’s house and the noise from the party to cover up the sound of the gunshot. They were waiting for me.

I knew I needed Damian’s help. I saw him from across the room and tried to discreetly get his attention, but he never looked my way. As I tried to make my way over to him, people just kept getting in my way. I was bumping into everyone and being forced to go around groups that by the time I searched for his face again, he was gone from sight. I felt so upset and desperate. I didn’t know how to get myself out of this situation.

I went outside to get some fresh air and quiet. I saw a spider spinning its web. I did a double take, because I had never seen a spider so huge. It looked like a tarantula with fury legs, only larger. I’d say it was about the size of a small dog. I was so mesmerized by the size of the spider that I didn’t notice it moving closer to me. Once I realized it was getting closer to me, I just assumed it was spinning its web and it wouldn’t pay any attention to me.

I was wrong.

The spider shot its web at my arm. The web wrapped around my forearm. I pulled and clawed at the web, trying to free myself, but I couldn’t break loose. I ran against the pull of the spider and its web. I could feel the web burning the skin on my arm. The spider was getting closer and closer to me, but I just kept running with all my might. I finally broke loose and I ran back inside the cabin.

I could feel tears forming in my eyes as I looked down and saw the red mark across my arm. Again, I searched for Damian to show him my injury and warn him about the monster spider lurking around outside. I couldn’t find him anywhere. I felt so sad and frustrated. I just knew if I could only find him, he could help me with all the problems I was having.

That’s when I woke up. I woke up still feeling so upset. I felt shaken from the dream I had had. My sister came into my room and I was telling her about my dream and how Damian couldn’t help me. She responded, “What a jerk. He should have helped you.”

I looked at her confused and tried to explain, “No, Theresa. It was a dream. He didn’t do anything on purpose.” As I finished my statement, I looked down at my arm and saw the red mark on my arm. I looked back at my sister and that’s when I realized I was still dreaming.

I don’t remember the rest. I just remember feeling panicked, like I still had to get away from these “friends” who were plotting to shoot the neighbor. I woke up feeling so upset and confused by all that went on in my dream that I felt nauseous.