in a Dark Purple

Five

12:30 PM.

San runs home in such a rush. She wants to make sure that Oli won't wait too long for her. She expects to see him standing in front of the building, waiting for her to open the apartment building. No. Oli isn't there. San checks the surroundings. She walks a circle around the building, trying to find Oli. Negative. She goes to check at the bus stop by their place, too. Still nothing. She can't find him anywhere around their area. Maybe Oli is still on the way, San calms herself down, walking back to the apartment building. Baby Alex starts to cry too, he must be starving. He hasn't had any lunch yet. He had nothing since they left the house a couple of hours earlier. San totally forgot to bring him some snacks. She left in such a rush this morning.

***

2:30 PM.

Oli is still not home. San calls her friend, MG for advice. "The person in the hospital said that he left since noon, but he's still not here," San tells her friend. "You need to call the hospital again," MG advises, "as you already went to the hospital and they have provided you with the information of his release," she explains, "you can tell them that he's still not home and it is now almost three hours after the release."

San hangs up and dials the hospital's number again.

"Oh, your husband just left," the person on the phone says. San is confused, "I went there at noon, and you said that he'd left already." She can't hold her anguish anymore. How can there be a false record of his presence in the emergency room of the hospital? She has no patience left. Baby Alex keeps crying, too, though he has already eaten and drank his milk. He shouts loudly, crying even harder. San tries everything to soothe him, but he's not convinced, he picks up on her bad energy. But San has nothing to offer him. She feels exhausted and fraught with fear.

"Oh, yeah, sorry for that, we might have made confusion with another name," the lady on the phone replies. The tone is kind of croaky, but the way she talks sounds unconcerned. Empathy isn't her territory. She says it more like an oops.

And who are we? She and the hospital, or she and the previous person on the phone? Does it matter to understand? Probably not. The sorry doesn't have any meaning anyway. Nobody will die because of that. Not possible. And she is really really extremely busy. How many minutes has she been working without a cigarette break? An hour or two? Or maybe since thirty minutes ago? It is incredibly long.

"We get so many patients here, so things like this happen," she says, an interesting statement to end an excuse. And did she just say 'we' again?

***

3:30 PM.

Oli is still not home. She calls MG, asking for a piece of advice from her good friend one more time. MG carries a soft and warm heart. MG is her best friend, and she's a little older than San's mom. San always likes to be friends with older people. She finds it nice to be surrounded by them. Plus, they have stories to tell due to their long time living. They also give good advice, always. They have more experience. MG never minds being called anytime, either to be asked for help or simply to talk to. She used to be a nurse before she retired a few years back. Infirmière is how they call a nurse in French. Such a hard word to pronounce, San always thinks. The specific French r is still homework for San to polish.

"Oli is still not home, MG," San tells her friend.

"You need to tell the hospital that you are going to call the police," MG firms, "you need to say that, okay?" MG says, her voice is bold. She wants to make sure that San wouldn't forget that part. "You tell them you are going to call the police, okay?"

San replies, "I will."

San knows the number of the emergency service by heart now. She dials with such confidence, she doesn't need to check her notes anymore. She will tell them about calling the police. Wouldn't that be a little threat to them? They will take her call more seriously. Maybe.
"Oh, you again, Madame." It sounds like the same lady, San tells herself. The lady on the phone continues, "you don't need to be worried, Madame," she says, speaking with such a hefty tone, grating," your husband is recovered, and there isn't a high risk of illness if the hospital granted him the discharge."