The Macaron Order

June 2023- Astral Travel And Broken Bones

It was 4 am and Dalilah had just gone to bed an hour ago. She was an insomniac, but one who loved her late night hours when she was all by herself. When everyone was either sleeping or in their room, she could finally enjoy some me time. Although she sometimes found herself putting dishes in the dishwasher or mopping the floor. She had just made herself comfortable in her bed and was dozing off when she felt a pressure on her bladder. Oh no, she thought, she needed to get out of bed and go to the ensuite bathroom to relieve herself. The only problem was that she was half asleep already. She dragged herself out of bed and walked to the bathroom quietly so as not to wake up her ailing husband who was sleeping soundly in the bed next to hers. She sat on the toilet and as she often did when she was there in the middle of the night, she closed her eyes and slept a little. A few minutes had passed when she woke up with a jerk and a feeling of dread in her heart. Something felt wrong but she didn't know what. She had difficulty opening her eyes and almost felt drugged. With some effort and after using the attached bidet to clean herself, she stood up slowly, trying hard to open her eyes in order to make her way back to her bed. That is when the unfathomable happened. Dalilah felt two hands grasp her shoulders and violently throw her to the ground. Her eyes suddenly flew wide open and she desperately scrambled to keep her balance by trying to launch herself towards the vanity. She tried to use it to keep her balance but her body was taken completely by surprise and she started falling towards the floor, slamming her arm hard against the vanity countertop. That stopped her fall but she felt a pain in her arm so sharp that she let out an involuntary scream, waking her husband in total panic. Adam came as fast as he could to her rescue. With Parkinson's slowing him down and making every movement a workout, he was not able to be there as fast as he wanted and was terrified that something horrible had happened. Adam had lost his first wife to a heart attack, and had a persistent, unconscious fear that he might lose his current wife and relive the same nightmare of loss and mourning all over again. "Are you okay? Are you okay?" He kept asking her with a panicked tone. Dalilah was still struggling to process what had just happened. She was trembling with pain and fear, tears streaming down her face. Ever since her husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's 8 years ago, she knew she had to be strong, emotionally stable, and basically manage the household. Even now, after hurting herself in the bathroom and with dread still gripping her heart, she had to reassure Adam that she had just tripped because she was trying to go back to bed half asleep. She only screamed because of the pain, she said. But in her mind, Dalilah was very clear about what she just went through: Someone, two hands, had just thrown her to the ground at 4am in her bathroom. Yet there was no one but her in there and there was absolutely no stranger in their condo. She spent the night in pain, waiting impatiently for the sun to rise so she could go get her arm checked. The day after, Dalilah's daughter, Jasmine, drove her to the hospital and had a confirmation of a fracture. She came back home with a cast in her right arm. That was going to force her to relinquish some of her workload. Dalilah was wondering if that was a lesson from the universe as she tended to accumulate responsibilities and forget to delegate. Other than that, she was wondering if she should be terrified by what had happened the night before.