Rachel checked her phone and saw that she had three missed calls, and three urgent voicemails, all left within the last 20 minutes. She worked overnight in a residential treatment center, so she typically wasn’t able to check her phone every time it buzzed in her pocket. It was almost 2AM, so she decided to go ahead and take her first break to figure out what was going on. She started listening to her messages as she walked down the hall to the employee lounge area.
“Mrs. Hall, this is Deputy Williams, please call me back as soon as possible.”
“Mrs. Hall, there’s been an accident. If you get this message within the next few minutes, please call me back. If not, someone else will be giving you a call shortly.”
All the blood drained from Rachel’s face, but she let the next message play through as she gripped the back of a chair.
“Hi, Mrs. Hall. My name is Linda, and I’m a social worker in the ER, over here at Regional Medical Center. Your husband was just brought in by ambulance. Please give me a call as soon as possible, or come down if you can. We need to get some information from you…”
Rachel didn’t hear the rest of the message. She had already started to convince herself that they had the wrong person. It was the middle of the night, if an accident happened recently, it couldn’t have been Jacob. He had no reason to leave the house at this time of night. She had spoken to him a little after midnight, and he had been exhausted and headed to bed. She just needed to call these people back so that they could contact the correct person. There must have been some kind of mix-up.
Rachel started to call her husband, then stopped. She was sure that he was sleeping, and this was a mistake. She called the numbers back of the people that were trying to reach her, but they did not pick up. Her certainty was wavering. She wanted to wait it out and just call back later, but she was starting to get a terrible, sinking feeling in her gut. Rachel walked back over to her work station, gathered her things and told her coworkers that there was a family emergency. All the while, trying to convince herself that there wasn’t.
By the time Rachel made it to the car, she was in tears. She replayed the messages over and over. They had not said “Jacob” was in an accident. They only said, “Your husband.” She knew she was grasping at straws, but it was all she had as she made her way onto the highway. Fifteen minutes later, she was filled with dread as she walked into the ER.
It only took a few minutes at the front desk for them to determine that Rachel was indeed in the right place. Jacob had been in an accident around 1 o’ clock in the morning, and initially it looked much worse than it turned out to be, but as of right now he was in stable condition. She was allowed to go into his room, but was asked not to try and wake him. She was headed towards Jacob’s room when Linda, the social worker, caught up to her. She introduced herself, and gave Rachel a plastic bag that held Jacob’s wallet, cell phone, and clothing.
When Rachel was finally able to sit down beside Jacob, she breathed a sigh of relief. He looked a little banged up, and she hated to see him that way, but it didn’t appear to be too serious. “I was so afraid…Where were you going?” she whispered to him as she watched him sleep. She felt his cell phone vibrating as soon as the question left her lips. She pulled it out intending to turn it off or put it on silent, because she knew from experience that notifications from his email and different apps would buzz all night if she didn’t. Only, these notifications were from missed calls, not from any of his apps.
Seven missed calls to be exact. And a slew of text messages, all starting around 1:30AM. All from someone named Jessica:
What’s taking you so long babe?
I’ve already been waiting all day to see you…
You should have been here by now…
Everything ok? I’ve been calling you…
Are you not coming? At least let me know. I’m starting to get worried.
What happened? Did she get off early?
Rachel’s head snapped back up and over to Jacob. She couldn’t believe what she reading. Who was this woman? How long had this been going on? She wouldn’t get any of those answers tonight…he had erased however many previous texts there were.
She sat the phone down and sank back into the chair. It was all just too much. She was completely drained from all the emotions that had raced through her body in the past hour. She didn’t have the energy to deal with this new information. Tears streamed down her face as she stared blankly across the room.
Rachel felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see a nurse staring down at her with concern. “He’s going to be okay, sweetie,” the nurse whispered and rubbed her shoulder. That was all it took for her to breakdown. She sobbed for several minutes, letting the nurse rub her back and reassure her. Just as she was starting to compose herself, Jacob’s phone started vibrating again.
Rachel took a deep breath, and reached for the phone to turn it off. She reluctantly glanced at the screen, already knowing who it was. But to her surprise, Debra was flashing across the screen.
To be continued…
Written By: SM Grady
© 2018 SM Grady
