Escaping the Past

Chapter 4 - The Egg Festival

Tw trauma and abuse mention, blood (not related to the trauma thing), anxiety and a drunken panic attack

Annette had been working on her farm constantly for a week and a half though she did force herself to go into town most days to try and meet everyone to get it over with
I've almost everyone I think I'm only missing the are the kids and their teacher as well as the town doctor
She'd even met his assistant who told her the clinic hour so she could stop by to get in touch with the doctor
I am really not looking forward to that every doctor alway asks a bunch of questions and gives those looks of pity when they've read through my history
She sighed knowing it would come up eventually but she definitely was going to put it off as long as possible. She finished up watering her crops and and grabbed a jacket before heading the library. The librarian had talked her into coming down when the kids were is school to meet them
Once she reached the library she opened the door and was immediately greeted by Gunther
"Ah,Annette, come on in the kids are about to wrap up a lesson with Penny"
As if on cue a young woman and two children came around the corner into view
"Oh, hello. You must be Annette. I'm Penny" Penny extended a hand
Annette took her hand and shook it. She seems sweet
"And this is Vincent" she continued referring to a small pink hair boy "and this is Jas" nudging a shy dark hair girl forward
Annette knelt down in front of them. They are so cute "Hi nice to meet you!" kids were the one thing she always loved they always have fun spunky attitudes, she almost envied them for having so much innocence and joy and being with kids reminded her of a simpler time before everything went to hell in her own life let's not think about that right now I came here to play with these kids
"Ms. Annette will be supervising your recess today and spending some time with you be sure to listen to what she says"
"Yes Ms. Penny" both children chimes
Annette led them outside and started getting to know each one as they played together after about an hour Penny came outside to get them
"Alright kiddos school's over let's get you guys home"
Penny helped them pick up and thanked Annette for the help before leading the children home Annette walked with them for a little bit but wished them off once she reached the Saloon
"Bye Ms. Annette we'll see you at the egg fest tomorrow!" Vincent called to hed
"I'll see you there" Annette called back
Annette turned and entered the Saloon and made her way toward the bar where Emily was working and sat down
She and I chatted for a bit
"So have you managed to meet everyone in town yet?" Emily asked
"Just about I met Penny and the kids today"
"Have you met Harvey yet he was here yesterday wondering if you were ever going to come into the clinic"
Damn he's waiting for me still "No not yet I'm really the biggest fan of doctor offices so I've put it off a bit"
"Harvey is really sweet. I promise he wouldn't hurt a fly, once you meet him you'll feel better about it."
"Yeah" she said unconvinced
I took a sip of my water right as someone say next to me
"Two beers please" Shane requested
Emily grabbed the glasses and filled them up for him "Tough day?"
"Isn't everyday" he laughed dryly taking a sip "but one of them isn't for me
Emily raised an eyebrow and Shane slid a beer to me
What Annette looked at it perplexed before Shane explained
"You gave me pizza last week I buy you a drink" he shrugged "Drunkard's etiquette"
"Fair enough" just one beer worn hurt will it he already ordered it for me Annette took a drink and shuddered at the familiar burning sensation
Emily looked a little surprised at Annette
Fair enough I've come here several times to hang with Em and never once had a drink
Willy then called out to Emily to order so she rushed over to help him leaving the two alone
"Buh life" he took another drink "Do you ever feel like... no matter what you do, you're gonna fail" he sighed "like you're stuck in some miserable abyss and you're so deep you can't even see the light of day"
Annette took another drink
"I just feel like no matter how hard I try... I'm not strong enough to climb out of that hole"
Annette couldn't take it anymore and just chugged down the rest of her drink
"Fats drinker huh, Women after my own heart. Just don't make it a habit... you've got a future ahead of you still."
Too late for that Annette hoped to feel at least a small buzz from it soon doubtful that wasn't nearly enough to do anything to you
Shane then finished of the rest of his drink in one quick swallow "Welp... my liver is begging me to stop, better call it a night" he stood and moved the register to settle his tab before turning to head out "See you around Annette" he called back as he left the Saloon
Annette stood soon after and paid for her dinner before leave you could have grabbed another beer for the road Annette shook her head No it was just one drink only because someone else bought it for me
Annette made her way back to the farm she felt a small effect for the beer but nothing that would really impede her.
The next morning she did a little work on the farm making sure her crops were healthy and watered before heading into town for the festival
Annette made hee way around greeting everyone Lewis stopped her
"Did you plan on participating in the egg hunt today"
Annette shook her head "Nah I don't want to take away any fun from the kids"
Lewis gave her a nod before moving onto the next person to ask
She makes her way to the food table and grabbed a glass of punch. She heard Pam snicker a little as she walked off with it
Weird why's she laughing Annette then took a drink of her punch Pretty good got little funky aftertaste she continued to dip on it as she made her way around the festival talking to various people It's so much easier now that I'm actually acquainted with everyone She decided to refil her punch a few times throughout the morning each time Pam seemed more and more drunk Weird I didn't see and alcohol anywhere she must've brought her own
Soon it was time for the egg hunt she watched as the contestant ran around look for eggs and at the last second she saw Vincent trip trying to get one last egg right in front of Annette
Annette kneeled down noticing his scraped knee as a few other came over to help
Vincent started crying and grabbed the nearest person to him,
Annette was startled by him suddenly clinging to her she quickly snapped back to it and held him
"Hey it's ok, will you let me look at it please" she requested Vincent buried his face into her chest but let her look
Shit it tore the skin Blood was slowly trickling down his leg
Someone knelt down next to them
"I've got a first aid kit let me clean it up" He said
Annette didn't recognize him which made her heart sink This must be Doctor Harvey the only person in town I haven't met yet
He reached out touched Vincent's shoulder "Hey buddy this may stick a bit but I promise I'll be quick"
Vincent nodded and tried to hold still while Harvey cleaned up to blood and disinfected his knee before putting on a couple bandaid to cover it up
It's a little odd watching a doctor patch someone else up instead of me
"Good job buddy you did great" Harvey ruffled Vincent's hair as he came out from hiding in my chest
Harvey pulled out a lollipop from his bag and offered it him "For being so brave and letting me take care of it"
Vinciet sniffed a little before accepting "Thank you Dr. Harvey" he then turned to me "Thank you Ms. Annette"
Jodi stepped forward and took Vinciet from me "Thank you both for helping him" she smiled sweetly "Let's get you home and we'll have some chocolates" she then took Vincent and started towards her home
He definitely did better with getting hurt than I did at his age it probably didn't help that usually when she got hurt it wasn't an accident though
The Doctor stoop and offered her a hand to help her stand
Annette pretended not to see it and just stood on her own as the crowd cleared nout and the town square emptied
He shyly put his hand behind his head instead "I'm Dr. Harvey nice to finally meet you Annette"
Well I knew I'd have to meet him eventually no point in trying to avoid it now She plastered a false smile on her face "My apologies Doctor I've just been busy and by the time I get a chance your clinic is already closed"
"Ah that makes sense, if you need I can stay open a late one day so you can come in"
Please no "Don't worry I'll make some time for it soon"
"Hopefully soon enough your face is kind of flush, do you have a fever" Harvey reached his hand to her forehead and felt it
His hand felt cool on her forehead making Annette notice just how warm she was why do I feel so warm it's not even hot out her head was also swimming and she felt a little nauseous am I sick? Did I eat anything weird Annette tried to think but all she could remember having was some punch
Pam piped in "Oh that's just because she had some one my special punch Doctor she'll be alright she only had a couple cups"
It all made sense now She spiked the punch that's why it tasted odd and why I feel like this I'm buzzed
"The punch was spiked?" Annette asked stumbling towards Pam as it really started to hit her how much of that did I have holy shit I can barely stand
"I made it a bit stronger than normal on accident this year but I only saw her get like 2 cups so she may not feel great tomorrow but she'll be fine
I definitely had more than that shit how much did I have "I thought that was normal punch I had like 6 cups" the world spin fast or was it 7, Yoba I fucked up how did drink that much
The last thing she saw was Pam's face fall before she stumbled to the ground. She wasn't quite unconscious but she definitely wasn't all there
"Pam how much alcohol was in that punch" she heard Harvey ask as he felt her pulse
"Enough that even I stopped after 2 and a half, how did she not taste it, shit was strong" Shane interjected she could feel two people picking her up but couldn't open her eyes to see who had her
"Damn I'm glad I didn't have any this year" Harvey said right next her
Should have know the doctor would be one of the people helping please just take me home and put me in bed I'll sleep it off
"Let's get her into the clinic Harvey" came from Shane on her other side "Pam don't think your off the hook for this you've been at that punch bowl all morning you should've told her it spiked"
Annette could feel herself being dragged as her consciousness started to slip away. She tried to struggle out of their grasp I just want to go home please don't take me to the clinic. She managed to squirm out of their grasp but ended up falling directly into someone else
"Shit she is strong" Shane said
"I've got her Harvey get that door open" Lewis said
Lewis is old I can fight against him She did just that freeing himself from his grasp but she barely made it two step before tumbling back to the ground
"Shit Annette what is up with you, we just want to help" Shane grabbed her arm and pulled her back up holding her to him I'm too far gone I can't keep fighting she realized and started to cry into Shane's chest please don't make me go on there
Despite her struggle they did manage to get her inside the clinic and into a bed
"Shane could you grab some restraints from that cabinet I don't think she's gonna stay until she calms down"
"Please don't I'll stay just don't trap me" Annette didn't even realize she said that out load she though she'd only thought it
"Let's give her chance to stay and if you need them I'll put them on the side table" Shane compromised as he rummaged through the cabinet
Relief washed over Annette as she finally stopped fighting back against Harvey
"Shane, would you mind running to get Maru for me I'll need her help caring for her and if can find out exactly how much alcohol was in that punch"
"Sure thing doc" She heard Shane leave the room
Please don't leave alone in this place She could feel the tear running down her face as she finally lost consciousness