Background first…
In 1995 I got a very serious sinus infection that put me in bed for a week. Subsequently I catch every sinus cold that goes around and have had three other sinus infections since then. As a result, I don’t hear as well as I should.
Going even further back…
I have four brothers and three sisters, so loading us all into the car was quite a task for my Mom. One day, when I was five, I got left behind in Tempo’s (a local drug store like Rite Aid). Mom loaded up the car with 87.5% of her children, called it good and drove away.
I remember a little old lady was holding my hand and patiently taking me up and down each aisle asking me, “Is she your mom?” and I cried, “Nooo!”
Mom realized I was missing not quite a block away when she was going down the list asking each of her children what they wanted at McDonald's. “Maaike, what do you want? … Maaike… Maaike?” She came back to Tempo’s and got me…and was so flustered that the trip to McDonald's got canceled much to the chagrin of my brothers and sisters.
Now, the story…
My friend Daniel talks quietly. And, as I mentioned before, I’m a wee bit lacking in the hearing department.
We were going to a concert on campus and I didn’t have my Vandal card. Which was fine because I can still get in. Well a girl at the door was shouting, “If you have your Vandal card go to the other entrance to get a wrist band.”
Now, I thought I heard Daniel say, “We’ll just go in here.” So, I entered, walked a few steps, turned around and Daniel had completely disappeared into thin air. I waited thinking that we had just gotten separated by a few steps. I waited. He was gone. I took a few more steps into the building and then panic struck. Where was my friend? I seriously was going to cry.
In my panic, I saw a familiar face, “Joe!” (Hilary’s boyfriend) I told him that I’d lost my friend and, truthfully, I was going to cry.
“Do you want me to hang out with you, until he comes back?”
“Yes, please.”
It wasn’t too long after that that I spotted Daniel coming from the other side.
“There he is!”
“The guy in the black hoodie?” asked Joe.
“Yes, that’s him. Thanks for hanging out with me.”
(A note here to Joe: Thanks you really were a help to me! A note to Hilary: Joe’s great, don’t let him go!)
When Daniel came up to me I got mad at him (I’ve known him for over a year and this is the first time I’ve gotten mad at him) it was panic induced anger, however, and I can’t really be blamed for not being able to hold it in.
“Where did you go?” I asked, angrily.
“I was talking to my professor.”
I don’t remember what I said because mostly I was in a five-year-old’s state of panic of being left behind in an unfamiliar place. Daniel explained that what he had said to me earlier was to the effect that I was to go in this door and he was going to go through the other door to get a wristband.
My panic slowly ebbed. The concert was great and I thoroughly enjoyed it. On the way out, though, I kept a hold of Daniel so that I wouldn’t be left behind again.
People don’t believe me when I say I’m shy. But put me in an unfamiliar place and surround me with strangers and you’ll see me start crying like a five-year-old left in Tempo’s!
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