A/N:

I know there's another story (a completed one) with the same title out there (minus the A) but I'm using it here because it's really the best title for this story as you will soon see.

Okay, Let me know if you want me to continue this or leave it like it is. Enjoy!

Ana

I leave the house in my red Audi with all my errands mapped out. Teddy has been cranky and not eating all afternoon and I'm hoping a change of scenery will do the trick. "Sh-sh, baby, we're almost there," I tell him as I drive into Kroger's parking lot, hoping to find a spot close to the entrance. Driving around usually calms him down but not today. He's been crying non-stop for the last ten minutes; I'm aching to hold him and give him comfort. But the parking lot is full and I let out a huff of frustration as I'm forced to drive around in circles. At last, I spot a lady a two kids walking toward a white Toyota Sienna. They're leaving! YES! I inch forward and promptly put on my left turn blinker. It takes forever for the woman to buckle up her kids and start the car. While I wait for her to back out of her spot, I turn around facing Teddy. He's sitting in the backseat in a forward facing car seat. I grab his little foot and start singing Hush little baby, but nothing seems to be working, my baby's wails keep getting louder and louder.

I'm beside myself. There's no doubt in my mind that Teddy's cries signal he's in pain. I look for that spare binky that I keep in the glove compartment. It's not there. I keep looking. I look inside every compartment in the diaper bag beside me on the passenger seat. Darn it! Where could it be?

Next thing I know, the car behind me, a Lexus Rx350 honks at me. Apparently, while I was looking for the pacifier, a Toyota Corolla-parked to the left of the Sienna- somehow managed to pull out of its spot even with the Audi directly in front of it. I lock eyes with the woman in the Lexus through my rear-view mirror. She points to the empty space.

I motion back, indicating that I'm waiting for the Sienna to pull out. A few seconds later, I realize that from the other woman's perspective, it was selfish of me to keep waiting for the Sienna when I could have just as easily taken the Corolla's parking spot. Oh, no! I can't believe it! Another car, driving in from the opposite direction, swiftly steals the parking spot in question.

I bite my lip and glance at my rear-view mirror. The woman is shaking her fist at me and giving me the middle finger. I decide to ignore her, I have a bigger fish to fry. Without giving it a second thought, I pull quickly into the spot, and grab the diaper bag. "Oh, my poor baby," I coo as I come around to the backseat. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of the Lexus driving off in a huff but it barely registers. Alarm bells start ringing as soon as I touch my baby's skin. He's running a fever! Oh, no! At once, unbuckle him from the car seat and I kiss the top of his head and hold his warm little body against my chest. He's really sweaty from all the crying I image but the weather is cold and windy so I wrap a blankie around his body and lock up the car. Oh, my God, it's my baby's first fever!

I fly past the aisles and rush to the pharmacy department. Luckily, there's no one in line and the pharmacist can see me right away. I put Teddy over my shoulders, rub his back soothingly and bounce him up and down while I talk to the pharmacist, a middle aged man I immediately picture as somebody's grandfather.

"Please help me, my baby has a fever. I need Ibuprofen for infants."

"What's his temperature?"

I have a thermometer-brand new, in its box- at home. "I don't know."

"Is he your firstborn?" He asks and I nod. "How old is he?"

"Six months. He's never been sick before...maybe I should call his pediatrician?"

"Depends on the symptoms." The pharmacist says noncommittally.

"He refused his mid-morning bottle AND only had a third of his early afternoon bottle," I tell him, bouncing Teddy in my arms. He's still crying but his cry is less piercing.

"Cough? Runny nose? Vomiting? Diarrhea?"

"No, no." I shake my head four times nearly making myself dizzy.

"Sounds like it's the start of a cold."

"But what if it isn't? What if it's something more serious?" I start panicking because that's what I do best. Imagining the worst has always brought great comfort to me. If there's turbulence, then the plane is about to crash. If there's a lump, then it's a tumor.

By thinking this way I protect myself against disappointment. And, as an added bonus, if anything other than the worst case scenario unfolds, then I'm pleasantly surprised! Yep, this is how I live my life. The downside is that I don't have control over my gift-my great imagination, that is-it controls me rather than the other way around.

"I have a daughter about your age," the pharmacist tell me, smiling for the first time. "You remind me of her. Her first time-mom jitters kicked in big time when my grandson got his first cold. But relax, it's gonna be okay. Give him some Tylenol," he puts a tiny box of Tylenol for infants. It comes in a bottle with a dropper. "If the fever doesn't come down in two hours, call your pediatrician or the nurse hotline." He pauses, thinking. "...what's your baby's name?"

"Teddy, his name is Teddy."

"Okay. Well, did Teddy have his shots in the last three days by any chance?"

I shake my head no. "Is there something else I can give him to help him feel better?"

"I don't think it's a good idea to over-medicate a baby this young."

"Okay, but can you at least help me give him the Tylenol?" I say. "Here," I say, pressing closer to the counter for support so I can easily retrieve my wallet out of the diaper bag. I pull out a $20 bill and place it on the counter.

"Sorry, m'am. I'm just a pharmacist. I'm not allowed to treat medical conditions. Just follow the instructions on the box, they're very clear." At this point, I'm practically in tears and he immediately reconsiders. "Okay, is he of average weight and height for his age?"

"Yes. He's six months, 17.8 pounds."

"Just pull the dropper into the bottle and fill it to 0.5 ML and put it in his mouth. Repeat every four hours. But first, you need to take his temperature and make a record of it."

"Thanks so much," I say and ask him while he gets an ear thermometer and places it on the counter. In my current state of mind I must seem I'm slow. I'm not. It's just that when I'm nervous and stressed out, I can't think well. I'm sure there is a name for people like me, who need to make double sure they never, EVER make a mistake.

After paying for the thermometer, I sit down in a plastic chair nearby and I fumble with the instructions. Thank goodness it already comes with batteries so all I have to do is stick it in my baby's ear. It reads 101.2. Grandpa pharmacist is now busy with another customer. I read the directions on the back of the Tylenol box but I don't want to make a mistake and wait for confirmation from the pharmacist that this is indeed the right dosage for my baby. Getting Teddy to swallow the medicine is not an easy task, he keeps turning his head away and when I finally do manage to get the dropper in his mouth, then most of the liquid dribbles down his chin. But then, at last I get him to swallow. Hurray! I congratulate myself when I find his binky buried at the bottom of the diaper bag. Fifteen minutes later Teddy's fever has dropped down to normal and I leave the store holding my drowsy son's head over my shoulder.

I head back to the car feeling victorious. I can do this. See? I've got to stop panicking over nothing. I start the engine and scan my phone for messages. I read a couple of emails and when I look back, I realize Teddy has fallen already asleep with the pacifier in his mouth. Aw, he's the cutest little guy. I breathe a sigh of relief and in the next breath, I dial Christian's number. Yesterday, he told me he was going to be tied up all day with court cases so I need to make this brief.

"Hello. Ana?" The sound of his voice is like a sweet melody to me.

"Hi, honey. Can you talk?"

"I'm in a meeting right now. Can I call you in an hour?"

"Yes, yes. Teddy has a fever though." I quickly say. "I'm calling the pediatrician and making an appointment with the urgent care clinic tonight in case his fever comes back." I look at the clock on my dashboard. It's a little after four, it will be dark in an hour.

I hear Christian let out a small gasp of surprise and the sound of a door closing behind him. "What was his temperature?"

"One hundred and one. I talked to the pharmacist and gave him Tylenol and it went down."

"Ana! Why didn't you call me right away?"

"I didn't know he had a fever when I left the house. And then, I wanted him to take the medicine right away when I got to the store. He's been cranky all afternoon but I thought it was because he needed a long nap."

"Ana, I stepped away from the meeting but I need to go back. Please! Text me as soon as you get home and then again when you take his temperature, okay?"

"Okay."

"I'm going to try to cut this meeting short and come straight home."

"Oh, yes, Christian!" I sigh. I feel like the luckiest girl on the face of the earth.

"I gotta go. Everything is gonna be okay, baby. Okay? Love you."

"Okay, I love you too," I smile as I hang up the phone and toss it on the passenger seat (the diaper bag is now in the backseat next to Teddy). In the next moment pull out of the parking lot and start driving home in a relaxed frame of mind. I steal a glance at Teddy through the rear-view mirror. He looks like an angel sleeping with his head to one side; he's so his daddy all over again, the thought pulls at my heartstrings. Oh, how I love that little dimple he flashes when he's awake and smiling.

The minute I turn onto 4th street, the same black Lexus from the Kroger's parking lot pulls right behind me. Oh, God! My heart starts thumping, I have a very bad feeling about this. In the next moment, my fears are confirmed when I glance at the woman through the rear-view mirror and see her anger, FEEL her anger. I can feel it growing and growing as the Lexus inches closer and closer to my bumper.

I got to think fast. Maybe if I turn off the main road, the other woman will give up the chase. I make a turn so quickly that I don't give a signal. With that, the woman swerves in behind me, tailgating me once again. I continue to drive with 'the maniac' behind me. Naturally, I try to get away by driving faster; there's no doubt in my mind this 'psychopath' has a malicious focus on my car.

When I get to the next street, I turn right, and she follows. I make an U-turn at the next intersection to get back to the main road, and then, all of a sudden, the other driver cuts me off without any warning or signal, forcing me to stop behind her at a curved embankment. To make matters worse, she leaps out of her car and walks toward me menacingly. I don't know if I have the right words to express the degree of shock I'm experiencing at the moment. But life is like that, isn't it? One moment everything is fine and dandy and the next, you're living your worst nightmare. My inner goddess, freaked out of her mind, still notes her appearance: she's blonde, tall, and her age is freaking hard to guess.

I shake my head, sorting through my thoughts, I'm a jumbled mess. Clearly this woman wanted a confrontation with me. But why? Why?

What if she has a gun? I look for my phone but it's now missing. Suddenly I remember Christian's hunting knife in the glove compartment and I fumble for it. I can't let this madwoman come any closer to my car and kill me and my baby. I struggle to keep a clear head. At that moment, I realize there's enough room to pull around her. So I throw the knife onto the passenger seat, gun the Audi and screech easily past the Lexus.

I push hard on the gas pedal and zoom ahead, my hands stuck to wheel like crazy glue. I need to call 911. Once again, I quickly scan the area around the passenger seat, for my phone but it's nowhere in sight. God, help me! Who's this monster? Sick answers fill my head and I imagine all sorts of scenarios. Focus, Ana! FOCUS! I need to protect myself and Teddy. I'm sweating like crazy, this is a desperate situation. It's as if suddenly, I'm in one of those horror stories you hear about in the CBS Nightly News; like a person getting killed for cutting someone else off on the freeway. Some people kill for no reason at all or kill because they're angry. They're angry at everyone and everything. It's freaking scary how these red faced strangers think nothing of destroying lives in the blink of an eye, anything can set them off. Maybe they wake up one morning pissed at other drivers for driving wrong-colored cars. Maybe there is a list on the internet of colors too flashy and offensive for some members of the human race. And I bet one of those colors is red.

I shift the car to overdrive and then come to a red light. Oh, no! I can still see the Lexus in hot pursuit of me through the rear-view mirror. Confident there are no cars and pedestrians in sight, I drive through the red light, the wheels screeching across the roadway. I make a turn and then, most unexpectedly, I watch the Lexus make a U turn and drive off in a different direction.

Thank God, I sigh. It looks like she's giving up. Suddenly, I hear a laugh, a horrifying laugh like the soundtrack of a horror movie except the laughter is coming from me. I mentally slap my self, realizing I had forgotten to take down the license plate number and now the skank is free to go on terrorizing other people. Or come after me once again.

But I can't think about that right now. I glance at Teddy through the rear-view mirror. Thank goodness my sweet little darling slept through this entire ordeal. I pull over and park in a parking lot next to a 7 eleven. My hands and legs are shaking but I must find my phone. Right then, the darn phone rings as if summoned by an angel. It had slid underneath the passenger seat. I breathe a deep sigh of profound relief at the lovely sound of my beloved husband's voice.