Flipped

1.18

"It's the simple solution," Mike was saying. "We go in, create a distraction, grab his file, take a picture of it with the address - which would hopefully be where he lives right now - and leave."

We had met a few blocks away from the school that same day in one of those small side parks that's basically a glorified sidewalk.

Taylor paused and thought for a second, "You know - honestly, I think that works... I'm in."

Ava shook her head, "It won't work that easy, everything is digital now. So how would we get the address from it?"

"That's what I was thinking," I said. "But there were tons of files along the back wall behind the reception desk. I bet we can find some patients files back there."

Ava thought about it a second, then nodded. "Okay, that's a good plan."

"Okay, we should go as soon as we can right? Who knows when my dad is going to get those prints developed." I paused and asked, "Can we go tonight?"

Taylor groaned. "I can't tonight. My mom made me promise to help her clean this evening."

Mike laughed. "What glorious lives we lead. Well, I guess you can clean while we go break into the hospital. If we go to jail, you can be our one call to get us out! It's perfect!"

We all smiled a little at the idea as Ava shook her head again. "There's no way we're not going in all together. We need lookouts and more than one person inside. We need to wait.  Would tomorrow night work Taylor?"  She nodded. 

 "Okay, let's do it tomorrow."

"Okay, but that means we can scope it out beforehand. Maybe not all of us, to not arouse suspicions." I said, and then hesitated before adding, "I would want to go if that's okay with everyone. Maybe me and someone else?"

"Me," said Taylor.

"I guess we go tomorrow morning then." In spite of myself I rolled my eyes and sighed, "Whatever.  I'll come to your house and we'll bike from there. It's on the way anyways."

It was mid-morning by the time I rolled up to Taylor's house. The brown bungalow was had a big yard around it, setting the house a little askew from the others down her very long street. I knocked on the door and Taylor answered. "Hi," was all she managed to get out, before her big brown Labrador retriever Coco almost bowled her over trying to reach me.

I started, just a bit. The truth is that I don't really like big dogs but I didn't want to let it show. Taylor smiled at me, noticing and apologized. She shimmied out the door trying to keep inside and finally shut the door and got her bike. We rode to the end of her street before breaking off to a bike trail that would take us a little more into the city towards the hospital.

We biked past the residential homes that all looked sort of similar to each other, yet had distinctive flairs here and there - an oddly-shaped tree, a window showing a man reading a book with a coffee on his couch, past those little take-one-give-one library boxes on the side of the road, past a McDonalds, a group of kids gossiping as they walked out. Past all these normal, natural

"Can we just go to the McD's and forget all this? " I called over as a joke to Taylor as we stopped to wait at a crosswalk.

"Hey, you got it," she said. "I'd take a this shit any day, Chris."

In spite of myself, I blushed. I'd asked her out, and she had said no, hadn't she?

We parked our bikes at the entrance to the hospital and started walking around to the entrance and I put the thought out of my mind. "Okay," Taylor said. "We're looking for cameras, I guess." 

We started casually glancing around. My heart was palpitating audibly despite doing nothing wrong. "Are we actually going to break in? Damage the building?" Taylor asked.

I considered, "No. I think we should do this without damaging it. I don't want to be taking away their money for repairs and I cannot afford to get charged for vandalism."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking," Taylor said.

I nodded and we walked through the big glass sliding doors. I was again struck by how pretty the place was for a hospital. "This way?" I asked Taylor, she nodded and we went straight up to the fountain. "Let's just chill here while we take a look."

"Sure," Taylor said. I was hoping that by admiring the fountain, we would seem less conspicuous than us hiding in a corner glancing around.

It was very busy. I guess hospitals never get quiet, but today seemed particularly packed. Saturday was the day to visit family, I guess.

I realized while looking around that while very pretty, it was also a very cold and uninviting space. It made me shiver.

The unknown can do that to you. Usually, when you go into a hospital, you don't know what the future holds. and unknown. That's understandable, I guess. But you have to be weary of that fear, because it can cause you to be cruel in ways you wouldn't expect. In the effort to distance yourself from your fears, you can turn mean and harsh in unexpected way. Like not calling your grandma, who has cancer. You scoff and look down on your friends who leave school. You critique those who take riskier life paths. You mock those who travel or explore. You push people down without realizing it.

WHAM.

"Hey, watch it!" A young woman ran right into me and shirked back. She looked right at me as Her eyes went wide and she screamed.

"Oh, sorry," I said, catching my breath from the shock.

There was a sudden hush over the whole area. Conversations at the Starbucks outlet stopped mid-sentence. Nurses who were hustling back and forth from their stations paused mid-stride. Waiting visitors looked up from their phones and novels.

Thirty or more sets of eyes set on her, her eyes wide with terror as she held her breath. It was like time stopped as I held my breath. Taylor just stared directly at her, in a way it seemed like she was avoiding looking at me. Instinct, I guess.

The woman turned almost as beet-red as me. Her eyes were scanning everywhere in my direction but not locking onto anything. She backed away slowly, as if I were a monster, and turned to walk away towards the Starbucks.

Now, a normally I would have berated myself for an awkward moment and carried on. But I was getting used to this game. I knew better. There was now no one immediately around us.  A respectful distance around madness.

Because, of course, all they saw was someone backing up and screaming. They hadn't seen me.

I was invisible.