Artificial Tears

Chapter 5

The fear and shock of what I just witnessed has woken me up.

I'm covered in cold sweat and accidentally scare Misty, who jumps off my bed and runs away.

I turn on the lights in my room.

Shakingly I decide to look around to make sure no one but me is in my room.

When I've checked under my bed and in my closet I start to feel a bit embarrassed. I'm twenty-one for god's sake! Not five.

Looking at my alarm, I see that I still have quite some hours to go before I need to get ready. So I decide to watch something on my phone.

When the movie I am watching starts to bore me, I decide to try sleeping again.

My alarm goes off way louder than I had hoped, I turn it off and get ready for work.

Like always, I take the train, it seems to feel a bit different from normal. Though I am not sure why, maybe it's because of the rain? Perhaps it only feels darker.

When I arrive at the office, I greet everyone and go further with my work.

Suddenly I find myself unable to concentrate and then a thought emerges in my mind: Where is Suzy? She is always here on this day of the week.

About two hours later she arrives, looking not so good.

I walk up to her: "Hey Suzy, are you okay?"

She clenches her fist and doesn't seem willingly to look at me: "Please, just leave me alone for today."

"Alright, sorry for bothering you." I respect her wishes and leave her alone, but with a strong feeling of guilt lingering in my body. Couldn't I have responded better?

During lunch I eat with Myla again in the office cafeteria.

When I look outside the window I can see the raindrops slide down the glass, it's going pretty fast.

Carefully I ask the question that has been in my mind since this morning:

"Hey Myla, do you know what happened to Suzy?"

Myla knows almost everything around here, so she might also know what is going on.

"Yes I do." Her answer is much shorter than expected, normally she can talk for hours. But today seems to be a day that she doesn't. Suzy and Myla are not the only ones who seem to feel off and I start to wonder why everyone is so gloomy today, what could have happened to ruin the day for so many people?

Myla doesn't seem like she will be giving me an answer, so I don't pressure her.

After lunch we return to the office, there aren't many people, most of them seem to have left earlier.

I decide to go to David, but when I arrive at his desk he too seems rather gloomy.

"Hey David, is there something I can do for you?"

He looks up at me: "Ah sorry Edith." He shakes his head seemingly with his head elsewhere: "Could you repeat that again please?"

Now the worry is reall setting in my mind: "Is there something I could help you with? Everyone seems to feel a bit out of it today."

He smiles at me, happy, but sad. He seems glad I asked to help, but sad about something else.

"If you really want to, many have called in sick today, so if you could do some of theirs... that would be nice... But don't overwork yourself."

I nod and take the pile of paper he gives me.

Before I leave I decide to ask my question anyway: "You don't have to answer my question, but why does everyone seem so sad today?"