"Karin?"
My new headphones started to hurt in my ears as I listened to the same song for the third time.
"Karin? Hay, Karin!"
Strange how could I have missed that line. You'd think that after listening to the same song over and over you'd know it by heart. Shows what I know.
"Karin? Hello? Karin!"
It almost sounded like someone was calling my name. Couldn't be, I've never been to this side of town before. I just had to take care of a little ticket I got last month. I swear that sign came out of nowhere. I wouldn't have parked there if I knew it was permit only. And I had the perfect song for the occasion. A little CCR; Creedence Clearwater Revival, Down on the Corner. Oh yeah, it worked just fine for me. But did it work too well? Perhaps. I lost my car again. In fact, I'm totally lost in general. I could have sworn that I parked only a block away from the court house. So now why did I walk four blocks in the wrong direction and make a left? Maybe I'll just ask for directions in this building.
"Karin Yuri Kelley!"
That got my attention. I pulled one of the buds out of my ear and turned towards the person yelling at me. My face felt as though it was going to melt off my skull, my cheeks were so hot. Sara, my bestest buddy in the whole wide world was glaring at me from the other side of the street, her hands on her hips in that Karin-did-a-no-no stance.
"Hey," I called out to her, waving a hand in her general direction.
"Don't hey me, you have any idea where you were about to walk into?"
"Huh?" Looking behind me, my brain shut down and forgot to tell my body to breath. I caught my other hand on the door to a Dr. John's, the revealing lingerie in the window glaring at me on its blank stare mannequin. I could have sworn my face really did melt off my skull. Either that or was on fire as I quickly ripped my childish, immature hand away from the door and slowly backed away from it as though someone was going to jump out and drag me in. Knowing some of my friends, I wouldn't doubt it. Turning back to my buddy, I couldn't help but laugh at my own clueless stupidity. I'm betting the only directions they would give me are "north and south". Or with my looks, "out"; as in out of there.
Stepping up to the curb, I looked up and down the street before stepping off it. Safety first. Too bad the man coming the other way didn't get that lesson. Wait…
I looked back down the street and sure enough, there was a truck coming this way. Why people feel the need to chat on their phones and drive at the same time, I'll never know. The man didn't seem to notice the truck as he chatted away on his own phone. Shit! In times like these I really curse being too nice. But then again, as I ran and dove into the man, I wasn't so sure if it wasn't a curse. Apparently as I hit the man we were both hit by the truck and knocked clear to the other side of the street. Somehow I wound up on my side, the top of my head nestled into the bend of the curb. I must have hit it because the colors wouldn't stop meshing together.
With a groan, I tried to tell the trucker off. Or tried to imamate some primal mating call, I don't know. All I knew was I couldn't see a damn thing, but everything else seemed to be set to full blast, particularly sound. Why couldn't everything be set to mute with full visual? That would be too convenient, I guess. Sara's voice traveled through this darkness, clean and clear and straight into my brain as what I could only assume the man and her started and argument.
I tried to sit up but instead I was pushed back down and rolled onto my back. "It's ok, Karin. I'm here. You're going to be just fine."
Oh sure, easy for her to say. Her head didn't feel like the Hulk was trying to tear his way out of it.
"Sweetie, you hit the truck really hard and you might have a concussion. You really need to open your eyes. Come on, open your eyes."
Open my eyes? When did I close them? Trying to comply I found the dark so very thick. My eyes just didn't want to listen to me as the warm blanket of darkness pressed tighter around me. So comfortable.
"Karin? Karin!"
I couldn't hear her anymore; her voice grew so distant, drowned by another, soothing sound. A lullaby of a sound as the darkness gathered me in and swallowed me up. The last thought that flickered through my mind was I just wanted to pay my parking ticket.