Truly Lost

Sleuth Two

Sleuth 2
"Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too." - Will Smith

I woke up to an empty dorm. Little Warble had been in and out of surgery for a while now. Supposedly he was shot when I found him, the bullet lodged perfectly so he wouldn't bleed. They thought they had the entire bullet, but a fragment was left. The remnant migrated into his brain, causing a seizure which almost killed him. The little bird is full of life.
I went out to the kitchen and put the kettle on the stove. I started cooking some eggs and put bread into my toaster. It was a whole week before my first classes started, and I didn't have much to do except worry about my Little Warble.
The kettle whined and I took it off the stove. I grabbed a mug from my rack and poured the boiling water in. I grabbed a tea packet out of the drawer and stuck it in. Today I felt like vanilla chai. I got back to the eggs and they were done so I put them on my plate. The toast popped up from the toaster and I placed that on my plate too. I set the plate down and got the butter and spread it over the toast.
While eating I did a crossword puzzle and thought about Claudia who hadn't come out of her room at all yesterday or today. I was probably overthinking things though, I tend to do that. So to get my mind off Little Warble and Claudia, I called my aunt. "Auntie?"
"Hey, William. What's going on?"
"Not too much. I told you about my bird, right?"
"Uhm, yes I believe you did. Why?"
"He's back at the vets in surgery. A bullet fragment was left in and migrated into his brain. He ended up having a seizure. Almost died."
"Oh my, Will. How are you doing?"
"I'm ok, I just want Warble to be ok."
We talked on the phone a while, then she hung up to do some errands with my cousin. They had a birthday party for one of my cousin's friends, and typical of my aunt, they didn't get him a present. My cousin is probably about eleven now, because when he was born I was thirteen. He was born the day after my dad died.
I miss my dad quite often. Back in my house in South Dakota, I used to sit by the window and look down at the creek and think about all the times my dad, Sarah, and I used to play out there. Sarah died later that month too. It was a horrible month and now every august it haunts me. Every august I'm stuck with only memories.
I found myself thinking of Claudia again, so ultimately I decided I'd just go over and check on her. A sinking feeling fell to my stomach, and I ran over. I knocked frantically on the door because now anxiety rained over me. Andrea opened the door, "What do you want?"
"Is Claudia here?"
"No. She's at the hospital or something."
"What?"
"Are you deaf? I said she's at the hospital!"
"Which one?"
"I don't know, Clearwater?"
"Thanks."
"Yeah, whatever."
I ran down the stairs and out to my 1975 Chevrolet Chevelle. I sped all the way down to Clearwater, I thought I was going to get pulled over, but I didn't, So I pulled into Clearwater and walked in. I had to go up this very sketchy looking elevator to go up to the waiting room, in fact it was so sketchy I could've sworn I saw duct tape holding the buttons to the panel.
I pushed the button for floor one and awaited my arrival. The elevator went up and up and shook and creaked and with each sound it made my anxiety grew and grew. The doors open and people flooded in and out of the waiting room. I went up to the lady at the desk and greeted her, "Hi, I'm here to see Claudia Fox."
"Family?"
"I'm a friend."
"Only family can visit at this time."
"Her parents are dead, I'm all she has. Can I please go in to see her?"
"Alright," she wrote me a visitor's pass quickly and handed it to me, "room 409."
"Thank you, miss."
I went up the stairs this time, mainly because I didn't feel like becoming a headline today, and went up to floor four. I went around the halls for a while trying to find her room, but the hospital was like one of those corn mazes you get lost in at the fair. I went in circles and found myself and hallways I'd been in minutes earlier. The funny thing is, nobody was around. Not a doctor, and not any patients.
Eventually I grew tired, so I sat on a bench in the hall. A doctor came down the hallway about five minutes later and asked if I was lost, which I was, so I said, "Yeah, I'm looking for room 409. Do you know where that is?"
"It's on floor five, not four. Have a nice day." And then he walked away.
I went up the stairs to the next floor and walked around for a bit. Again, I was lost. Though this time there were bountiful doctors and one brought me to Claudia's room. I thanked the doctor then knocked on the door and opened it.
"Who is it?"
Claudia was laying on her left side facing the window, so she couldn't see me. I walked over and placed my hand on her shoulder, "It's me. Will."
"Will?" She tried to roll over, but she groaned and held her right side, which was bandaged up pretty good. So was her shoulder though, and the bandage around it was sort of red. I walked around to the window side of the room and sat down in the plastic shir next to her bed. "Will, how did you know I was here?"
"Your roommate told me. She was quite rude 'bout it though."
"I'm glad you're here."
"What happened?"
She closed her eyes and whined a bit, "Well, I was walking down Seymour Street and a homeless man attacked me. He held something sharp, which I found out was a knife, to my side, hence the bandage, and while a cop tried to shoot him off me, they got me in the process, hence my shoulder. I'm fine though, I'll be better for classes."
"I'm so sorry."
"Don't be, it was my fault. I sort of provoked him."
"What did you do that would make him want to attack you?"
"I insulted him."
"What did you say?
She shut her eyes and started to cry a bit, "I—uhm—I don't—"
"Claudia, what did you say?"