I have an appointment with Dr Schneider. I'm groggy from all the sleeping pills. I arrive at Dr Schneider but I don't remember driving. He comes into the waiting room, and sees me half-alive.
"How did you get here?" he asks.
"I drove."
Sobel arrives. I must have called him. He drives me to the house, with the receptionist following in my car. I pack some clothes and they drive me to the hospital.
I'm sobbing. I can't stop. It feels better than not sobbing.
"It's okay," Sobel says. "Don't cry."
The nurse says the same thing. Maybe only one of them says it. Sobel's gone and I'm alone in the hospital bed.
They haven't taken my sleeping pills away from me. I take some. I feel infinite pain. I take some more. Nothing works.
I ask the nurse to give me something. She tells me I've already been overdosing. I tell her I need something. She is busy. I beg her. She won't give me a moment. She says she'll get to me. I go back to the bed. I roll around.
An eternity of infinitely painful moments later, Greg Gelb arrives, with brownies made by Leeanne, his wife. He also has some series for me. I watch The New Girl for the first time. I hate every moment of it, as much as every moment of anything else.
I take more sleeping pills. I roll around. This is not the worst day of my life.
YOU ARE READING
The Truth
Short StoryA young black woman in a psychiatric ward struggles with depression. Brought up speaking only English, never able to fit in with black or white people, she is forced to confront her shaky identity. During the process, she meets patients far crazier...
