Standing By

Great Bathroom Flood of 2016

(Tim)

"Wake up, Tim, please.  Wake up, man," someone pleaded with me, as my head pounded and blood pulsated through my temples.  Oh.  My.  God.  My head was killing me.

    "I will," someone whose voice I vaguely recognized said.

    I started to open my eyes, but the light scorched my retinas, so I snapped them shut.  Oh God.  Pain.  I just lay there for a moment, trying to get my wits about me as people—familiar voices and not-so-familiar voices—jabbered frantically over me.  Adam.  That one's Rob... there's Chance—is Austin crying?  I heard a female sobbing desperately next to me and my heart immediately fell, my mind immediately thinking of my new wife, Jenika. OK, never mind the blinding light.  I pulled my eyes open, my pounding head protesting the whole way.

    "Tim!" Rob shrieked.  "Tim!"

    "Tim!" Austin yelled, his own eyes shiny.

    "He's awake!" Adam screamed. "Thank the good Lord, he's awake!"

    "Jen-Jenika?" I mumbled, squinting at the girl.  Damn, I must have really done a number to my head.  I could barely make her out of the fuzzy haze that was my vision.

    "What?" she asked confusedly.  "What'd he say?"

    "He called you Jenika," Austin explained.  "His wife is Jenika."

    Nope, not Jenika, not her at all.  OK. Thank God.  The thought of Jenika sobbing made my heart hurt.

    "I'm—I'm all right," I mumbled, kicking a stupid laundry basked out of the way.  I started touching at my eyes, trying to figure out what exactly was wrong with my vision.

    "What's wrong?" Austin asked concernedly as Rob pushed a water bottle in my hand, ordering me to drink.

    I took a small sip.  "My vision is fucked up."

    "Oh no," Kevin muttered as Chance asked, "Seriously?"

    I nodded, rubbing frantically at my eyes.  Work, damn it, work!  I felt panic start to crawl in again.

    "I got paramedics on the way," a tall blonde—Scott, I remembered—said.  "Avi, you'll need to unlock the door for them."

    Avi nodded.  "I'll keep an eye open for them."

    "Do you wear contacts?" Mitch asked sensibly.

    I stared at him.  Contacts.  Duhhh.  I blinked a few more times, then rolled a fingertip over my closed eyelids.  Yep, missing.  I smiled sheepishly at him.  "Yes... but I've lost them."

    "Ta-dah!" Mitch said happily, spreading his arms out.  "There's your problem!"

    "Yep."  I nodded my pounding head, panic dissipating.  Avi twisted the doorknob and let some EMTs in.  I halfway felt like waving them away—I did't want anyone fussing over me.  But my head.... my poor head...

    "My head hurts something fierce, but that's my only issue," I told them.

    One nodded, holding up a hand.  "How many fingers?"

    "Three, I think, but I lost my contacts," I told him, as Kirstie, Adam, Austin, and Rob all dropped to all fours trying to find them.

    He shone a light in my eyes, then asked if I knew who I was, where I was, and the date.  My answers seemed to satisfy him.

    "Here is one!" Kirstie announced, sticking a finger to the floor and picking up a dirty contact.  Austin went to rinse it off for me.

    The EMTs were mainly concerned with my pounding head.  Once Austin came back with my contact, I popped it in my left eye.  Ahh. Clear vision.