Night Shift

Chapter 4

I can't go to the hospital.

Allison can't stay inside today. If she did, it would mean that she would be alone with the silence, and with silence means having her own thoughts for company, and today was not the day to have something like that.

Five years, she thinks as she closes the door behind her. Five years today...

She walks absent-mindedly around the streets, slowly progressing her way into the heart of the city. Today is a grey day. Of course it is! It is absolutely cliché that today would be grey and gloomy. Wasn't it predicted that the week was going to be nothing but sunny, clear skies? It was expected that there would only be tops of 25 degrees at the very highest, with lows of roughly 15 degrees at night.

Allison wants to take this as a sign. Maybe it's Mother Nature? She knew that today wasn't going to be a good day for Allison, and this is just Mother Nature's way of showing sympathy for her. How many other people is she grieving for today? But if she were capable of showing grievance by making the day gloomy, then wouldn't everyday be just as depressing? Why only today and not every day?

She is an hour into her walk when she realises that she didn't bring her water bottle with her. She curses and uses her phone to help navigate her to a nearby convenient store.

She finds one five minutes from her usual route. Before she could walk in, some teens practically threw themselves out, laughing boisterously while chugging down their energy drinks and talking about whose place they should go to. It was almost heart-warming for Allison to see a group of friends be so insistent on staying together – talking about where to hang out, where to continue enjoying each other's company. They didn't want to say goodbye to each other and the happy moments that will turn to memories that they will look back on over the next few years. Maybe even the rest of their lives?

She walks into the store, a beep pervading the air. She grabs a water bottle from the fridge and walks her way over to the counter. Her mouth is starting to feel dry. What perfect timing.

The young boy behind the counter scans the water bottle almost urgently, like he wants to get Allison out as soon as he possibly could. Not even so much as a "Hello". Who allowed him to work at a job like this?

"Anything else?" the boy asks, bored.

Allison stares at the cigarette cabinet, the doors kept close, keeping in the toxicity. She could almost see the opaque clouds of smoke bleeding out from the cracks between the doors.

Five years she thinks.

"Ma'am?"

Allison shakes her head softly, not looking at the boy in front of her. "Just the water, thanks."

She grabs the bottle and continues with her walk to the city.

She decides that it's better that the day is grey. She's glad that there is potentially something empathising with her. She knows that there isn't anyone else that she could share the burden with.

She is alone.