“Gugh.. What” I asked, slowly waking up. I reached down to check the time on my phone that was by my bed. Quickly grimacing at the time, which was about 2 in the morning, I started to fall back asleep.

“Wake up and get dressed quickly. Mom needs to go to the hospital.” My dad intoned, beginning to move around my previously dark room to turn on the lights. I woke up real fast after he said that.

“Wait, what?! Mom needs to go to the hospital?!” I asked, turning my head around to look out into the hall. Sure enough, my parent’s room’s lights were on full blast. “Uh…” I started, my eyes following my dad as he turned on my lights. “What do you mean? She seemed fine yesterday. Why does she need to go?” I asked, propping myself on my pillow.

“She woke me up and told me she was in a lot of pain, and she felt she might pass out.” He responded, walking out of my door frame.

“Oh.” was the only thing I said, the only thing I could say. Sure, I told myself, sure, this is has happened before, I said, mentally frowning. She’s been fine afterwards. But, I could hear my subconscious saying, But this could be the time when it really goes lopsided. Mentally shaking my head to get rid of that subconscious thought, I rolled over to start getting ready.

‘At least I’m not screaming in panic.’ I said inside my head. Picking out a plain grey shirt, I made sure to wear long pants, because I didn’t want to freeze, because that wouldn’t be much fun. Not bothering to brush my hair and grabbing my glasses in my hand, I went into the kitchen to see what dad was doing. “So, uh, how’s this gonna work?”

“Well, I need to help your mother to the car, and then we’ll drive to the hospital. Once we get there, I’ll ask for a wheelchair, and then I’ll bring her into the hospital in that wheelchair.” He said, writing something down in the notepad that is always by his little workspace.

“Ok.” I said, and started to head back towards my room, to get my phone.

“Katie.” he said, stopping me in my tracks. “You will need to help mom get her wool jacket on, and help her into the car.” I sighed.

“OK, when are you planning on doing th-.”
“Right now.” he said, and left the kitchen to go get mom.

“Uh, ok?” I questioned, jumping up the stairs to go to mom’s room. When I got there, dad already had mom sitting up.

“Go get the jacket. Please.” Nodding my head, I bounded down the steps and went to get the jacket from over the couch. Then I heard a scream. Quickly grabbing the jacket, I raced back up the steps, and almost ran into the room.

Looking towards mom, I could feel myself becoming numb again. Hey, that voice inside my head said, the most you could do is to try and help and not just stand there. Hey! I responded, scowling. Not my fault I can’t do anything. Dad got this. There is nothing I can do to help! Reaching out to hold mom up as dad put the jacket up, I realised with sarcasm that dad took my job gosh darn it. Once the jacket was on, I went wandering back to my room to grab my phone and a random manga by my bed, to keep me entertained.

Looking out from my room’s door frame, I saw dad helping mom get down the steps. Trailing hesitantly after the two, I grabbed my jacket, and turned towards the door. Wincing when I heard my mom whimper in pain, I realised that my subconscious blocked out the noise up until now. Wincing as I heard her again, I reached behind me to close the door. Don’t want anyone to rob us while we’re gone, eh? I thought humorlessly, turning once again to my parents’ silhouettes in the night. Guess we won’t be going in an amberlamp this time I thought in my head as I climbed in behind my parents after I shut my mom’s door.

Hearing my dad turn on the car, I felt a ball of nervousness just explode in my stomach. Looking down shakily, I noticed dimly that my hands were shaking. I could feel my breathing shorted, and my eyes blinked more than normal, and my vision got suspiciously more blurry. Haha, just like me to forget my glasses. I thought, touching the bridge of my nose, only to hit frames. Or not.

What if she doesn’t make it. What if she won’t be able to move anymore. What if this is the last time, only in a bad way. What if I don’t see her again. WHat iF sHe wON’t coMe bACk? I thought wildly, flashes of all the endings to this going through my brain. Wait, I thought, trying to halt the endless outcomes of this trip. She’s my mom. She’s gone through this before, and survived. She’ll make it. I thought, trying to stay positive. And if she doesn’t? Then we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Looking out my window, I noticed a big building, looming overhead. Watching the scenery pass by, I tried to clear my mind.  Which was much more harder than it might seem, let me tell you this. When I felt the car go up to the front of the building, I could tell that I was as calm as I could get. Getting out to open mom’s door, I saw people coming out of the revolving doors.

Waiting for my dad to get the wheelchair, I watched calmly as the revolving door calmly revolved around in the outline of the door-frame. Shivering as the cold began to settle, I lifted one half of my mouth in a bad attempt to smile, as I could see him come out with the wheelchair. Standing back as dad helped mom into the wheelchair, I began to walk behind the two as dad wheeled mom through the revolving door and up to the entrance desk. Standing by the entrance desk, I looked around at all the decorations dotting the interior of the building. In the vases around the circular room, I saw a coral colored rose, a flower that looked like a daisy, from what I could tell, a white chrysanthemum, a red poppy, a daisy with yellow petals and a black center, a five petaled pink flower, a hydrangea (something I recognized from playing a DS game as a kid), a peony (again, identified only ‘cause I played that stupid game), a flower with white petals with color rimming the edges, a small five pointed white flower, and a white flower with what looked to be even smaller flowers in its middle. Ignoring the pretty decorations for now, I followed my family to the big desk at the very back. Sliding up to dad, I clutched the manga that I had brought with me, and reached down to my pocket where my phone lay. Looking around while my dad checked in with the person sitting at the opening in the glass, I noticed people sitting on the couches that were around the room, and some looking at the TV that was in one corner of the room. Feeling myself being brought back to the conversation at hand, I realised that dad, mom, and that person from behind the desk were facing a door almost right next to the welcome desk. Considering almost getting lost in my thoughts again, the door opened and out walked a person who is assumed was a nurse. ‘Eh, at least this is calm compared to that one time when my dad and me had to hitch a ride in the amberlamp. Now that was different.’ I thought as I walked with my dad, following the lady who started pushing mom’s wheelchair through the door. Sitting down in the room that we were led to, I took a seat on one of the two chairs lining the wall. ‘Whelp, that was super exciting.’ I thought to myself, closing my eyes for a little bit, only opening them fully to receive a box of tissues. ‘Gotta leave my thoughts to flow, otherwise, EEK! Backlog.’ I thought as I finally took a break from my violently swirling thoughts., and let my mind fall into sleep. After all, it was 2:30 in the morning. Any sane person would have fallen asleep a while ago. Except I never claimed to be sane, now did I?

A sharp jabbing in my side awoke me. “GAHHhh!” I shouted, jumping up out of the chair.

“Katie, it’s time to go.” My dad said, grinning for the first time today. I grinned in response and jumped up out of the chair. Grabbing my manga out of dad’s hands, I began walking with dad. “Sooooo…… Where are we going?” I asked, looking around at the hall we were in.

“Well, I found out about an elevator near mom’s room. Thought you would like to ride that when we reach the level mom is at.”  He said, continuing to walk down the hallway. Turning the corner, the elevator was right in front of the...huge potted fern plant. ‘A fern plant? A fern plant?! Why? Why even is that a thing?! That thing is so big, how did they even get that in there?!’ Getting into the elevator, the last thing I saw was the fern plant, almost looking as if it raised it’s leaf in passing, as if it was wishing good luck as we went to see my mom, who hopefully would make it through the night...