(Peyton)

Autumn, who doesn’t like autumn? It is perfect weather for a coffee on the roadside in a warm and cosy coffee shop, the flavour of coffee in the air with light jazz playing in the background. Sitting and relaxing watching as the cars go by and sipping on a hot coffee. You couldn’t ask for better weather the sun occasionally peaks through the clouds lighting up my office cubicle. On a warm but cold morning. The chilly wind hits the window as I stare through it on the 15th floor of the highrise in a cubicle.

How I wish I would be in a coffee shop.

Sadly I have to get back to my work it is starting out like a usual boring day, Mike my boss doing his rounds on everyone or as I like to call it annoying us. Would come over and throw some bad jokes and show us how good he is at everything.

Mike is the kind of person who only thinks about himself, he would never deliver bad news since that would be something negative to associate with him. Of course, he loves delivering good news even if it is not even his department.

The way Mike carries himself is the definition of a sleazy businessman. Wearing a brown suit and pants with an almost neon blue blouse, no tie. He lifts his iconic but useless sunglasses indoors and says.

“So, what's crack-lacking Peytyy?” Insufferable.

If I need to sum him up in one word that would be it. He makes a sport out of nicknaming people like jacky, and Bobby. It’s as annoying as you might think and he refuses to stop using them.

Regardless I force out a smile and say “I told you to stop calling me Peyty.”

For some odd reason, he finds this funny and smirks lightly “Alright Peytyyyyy.” Uuuugh.

He adjusts his nonexistent tie and looks up at me “How are the quarterlies goin’?”

Mike stands sliming back at me with his single golden teeth. One of his upper teeth has been replaced by a golden tooth. He once explained to me that he lost his teeth in a fight, which I am almost 90% sure he just made up to impress his employees.

He is probably talking about the quarterly report, as insufferable as he may be he does his job surprisingly well. If he would dress less sleazy and try not to be as annoying as he always is. Most likely he would be a branch manager by now. But here we are.

“I’m still working on it there are still some small details I need to look over.” I say trying to get back to my work.

“Okey, just make sure they are on my desk by Thursday.” with that said Mike walks off and heads off to most likely annoy someone else. Back to work, it is.

After Mike’s grating presence is no longer blessing me I can focus on work and finish up the Quarterly.

He said Thursday. Yes?

It’s currently Monday with a slow and boring workday before me. I’m working a nine-to-five, I landed a job at an office hell where we work on analytics.

Regardless I would sign up for this without a second glance. All for my dear Sarah, it is really hard raising her as a single mother. My husband passed away about 4 years ago from cancer, it was one of the hardest periods for Sarah. Ohh how I miss dear Tom. It was hard on us and I’m glad we made it through together.

We don’t have any other family but each other with Sarah, we moved from Europe when Sarah was just 3 years old. All of our relatives are back home, I couldn’t really make any new connections since work is always eating up all of my time. All we have left is each other.

Thankfully she bounced back what I think helped was getting a cat we named Buttercup what a lovely animal I bet he is slouching on one of our couches at home, how I wish that could be me. Relaxing on a couch with a coffee and a blanket just enjoying doing nothing. What a dream.

I am glad Sarah managed to get accepted to University. She spends all of her time studying and making sure she can graduate successfully, oh how proud I am after all she went through. Hopefully, things quiet down now and she can have a fun University life.

Sarah is quite well-built and athletic, she inherited good genes from her father. She is about 180~190cm tall, quite taller than my measly 160 cm actually. She has long brown hair and a pair of striking blue eyes. She can be quite intimidated and intense with her looks. Which she doesn’t seem to realize.

Well enough daydreaming time to get back to work.

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.

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Tiredly I look around the cubicles of office hell and see my colleagues are starting to slow down wondering why I check my clock and see it’s around 12 PM. Looks like it is time for our lunch break.

Stretching I get up from my overused and uncomfortable office chair, instead of buying a company car for Mike they should really invest in better chairs for us. Done grumbling about office hell I make a b-lining for the break room.

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I will never get used to the surgical white lighting and that constant buzzing coming from who knows where the incessant chatter from other people either on the phone or chatting on the side about their daily lives.

The only thing I’m grateful for is getting a window-side cubicle, I would suffer if I couldn’t have a window. Finally, I get to the break room and spot Bob or as Mike would say, Bobby. He is currently trying to get the coffee maker to work, that piece of shit hasn’t been working properly for the last month. Another example of office hell.

I greet him “Hey, Bob.” He looks up at me.

“Hey Peyton, what’s up?”

“Mike was bothering me about the quarterly again.” I tiredly say.

“Again? I don’t know where he finds the time to bother everyone with that while also doing his work.” Exasperatedly remarks Bob.

“Work? You think he works?” We both lightly laugh at that.

“What’s up with the coffee maker this time?” I ask interested.

“The cabling is damaged, again..” Annoyed, Bob gets back to working on the coffee maker.

“Of course, Mike gets his own coffee maker in his office.” I say

Shocked Bob looks up at me “He has his own coffee maker!?”

Incredulously I look back at him “You didn’t know? He was bragging all about it yesterday.”

“Typical he gets his own while we have to share this broken piece of crap.” Angrily says Bob.

“It is Mike after all…” I quietly say.

Sighing Bob defeatedly says “You’re right..”

I could always get along with Bob, without any social outings it’s nice to have someone you can pass time with. If I had to say one friend I had it would be Bob. You can think of him as a Handyman he knows how to fix almost anything.

Though he can be quite dull when it comes to relationships he is single in his 20s. He tried to go on blind dates but it always ended badly for him. He likes to talk to me about those blind dates, I don’t know if he views me as a friend or is afraid of asking me out. Even though I’ve signalled to him that I wouldn’t mind he can be quite dull.

He’s wearing his usual white blouse with a blue tie, skinny jeans and sports shoes. along with his mellow green eyes. He is slightly chubby, but I would say it’s more of a dad bod. He gives off a feeling like he is your uncle showing you interesting things.

My phone rings. Odd, it’s an unknown number I show it to Bob asking if he knows who it might be. He shakes his head.

I pick it up and quickly navigate it to my ear. I look at Bob, wondering who it might be.

“Hello, this is Peyton Hills.” I say

“Hello Ms Peyton, this is Sophia Clark. Are you Sarah’s mother?”

“Yes, I am did anything happen?” Slightly curious, they’d never called me before.

“I have bad news your daughter Sarah fell unconscious and was taken to the Emergency Room.” A growing pit of worry grows in my stomach the longer I have to process what she said.

Is this really happening? I ask myself. Not again, first my husband and now my daughter? The more I think about the less I want to acknowledge what Sophia just told me. I rea-

“Ms Peyton are you there?” Asks the phone.

Thrown out of my thoughts I answer. “Ye- Yes! I mean yes. What happened?!” I ask anxiety growing in me thinking of all the ways things could have gone wrong.

“We don’t know, she was holding a class presentation and suddenly she collapsed we called the ambulance as fast as possible and she was taken to St. Louis.”

God, god, not again. Not again just as I was hop-

“The paramedics said they couldn’t see anything wrong with her.” That slightly makes it a bit better, the growing pit of worry doesn’t abate. I need to go to her now.

Gathering my wit I answer “Thank you I need to go.” I hurriedly put away the phone and burst out of the break room, my colleagues glance at me wondering what was happening.

Suddenly Mike pops out from around the corner I can already see the forming of a horrible joke “Hey Peytyy, Have yo-”

“Not now Mike I need to go!” Almost screaming I leave him behind and move to my cubicle. Picking up my coat and things I make it to the elevator. I get inside and navigate the buttons to the ground floor. Only now do I realize how infuriatingly slow can an elevator be.

In the elevator, all I have accompanying me are my thoughts of worry and anxiety about what happened to Sarah. I don’t even want to think about it. Fear gripping me for my daughter. Will the same hap-

Thankfully the doors open and I can start making my way to a taxi. Everything is a blur as I hail an iconic light blue taxi and ask the overweight man wearing a light blue taxi overall driving to take me to St. Louis hospital.

The drive shouldn’t take that long but it felt like ages to me all that I can think about is Sarah and making sure she is fine. The trip becomes a blur as all I can focus on is my phone and my thoughts, the wallpaper on my phone is a picture of Sarah and me. It doesn’t help my anxiety at all looking at her striking blue eyes and lovely face.

Finally arriving and paying the driver nearly launching myself out of the light blue taxi.

Surrounded by roads and walkways on all sides the hospital is on the left side of a park surrounded by a large black metal fence with a small pond, trees and grass covering I can spot a few people relaxing there. The traffic behind me is abysmal there are a few cars lazily driving behind me all with white on light blue number plates.

The hospital building itself is almost an 8-story tall building with plenty of windows on all levels. I can see a gathering of people near the left side of the building they all look like they are waiting for something.

I head to the entrance in front of me that has double sliding glass doors I spot the nurse at the desk wearing light red overalls I hurriedly approach her and ask where my girl might be she points me in the direction I successfully get there passing a few more nurses wearing light red overalls and patients wearing grey overalls as well a few doctors wearing darker red overalls.

Finally, I get to the door and open it. What immediately strikes me is Sarah laying on an all-white bed with a white blanket covering her up to the chest. I look around the room it’s spartan if anything it has one comfortable bed taken up by Sarah with 1 small table, and 2 chairs. There is medical equipment connected to Sarah monitoring her vitals. I can see a door leading to the bathroom next to the entrance inside the room.

I stare ahead and I can see the midday sun caressing the face of Sarah bouncing of her brown hair as she quietly sleeps. My worries lessen as I can finally see my daughter and see that she is sleeping. I step inside and see that there are 3 windows facing the door Sarah is sleeping under 2 of them. I head over to Sarah and gently grasp her hand and put the back of my hand on her forehead. She is comfortably warm I cannot see anything wrong with her.

Just as I start calming down somebody calls out behind me “Hello, I’m doctor Mckenzi. Are you one of her relatives?” slightly jumping I quickly turn to face the voice.

I see a doctor in Dark red overalls standing before me holding a pen and a notebook and staring at me. Waiting for me to answer. “Yes, I’m her mother.” He looks quite pleased with himself

“Right on point.” He says and starts to scribble something down on his notepad.

“What happened to Sarah?” I ask worriedly.

Nonchalantly he looks up from his notepad and answers “We don’t know.” He looks back down and keeps on scribbling something.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Angry I ask.

“All the tests we’ve run on her came back positive there is nothing wrong with her.” Mckenzie finishes up scribbling puts away his notpad and moves to Sarah to do some checks on her.

“I came here to check up on her if anything changed.” says Mckenzie.

I quietly stare at him letting him continue “We don’t know why she fell unconscious, we checked and did everything we can.”

Mckenzie finishes up his checks and turns to face me “We think she fell into a coma.”

That hits me like a ton of steel, I almost collapse on the spot the good doctor can see me about to break down and decides to extract himself saying “I am sorry.” He leaves the room closing the door behind him.

I look down at Sarah and start weeping, the memories of when my husband went away hit me like a truck. I don’t want that to happen again. I dedicate my life to my dear Sarah and now this happens. I take a seat next to Sarah and think over everything.

As the tears dry up I slowly look out the window realizing it’s nighttime now.

I slowly drift off to the land of sleep in the chair holding Sarah’s hand.