Seizure
A short tale based off of true events
Written by A Humble Reader
Note: This isn't made up. I just got off of work, and I needed some way to clear my head. This helped a lot. There isn't exactly very much here concerning the Transformers, at least not till the end. But this is how I cope. Thank you for reading, and please enjoy.
She couldn't move at all. All of her thoughts ground to a screeching halt the moment the word "seizure" processed in her brain. She just stood there, staring at the man lying on the floor. All of his friends, family members, all of the bodies surrounding him were saying things, and she heard them, but she still couldn't move.
"Oh my- "
"Listen to me! Roll him over! Come on guys, he just had a seizure-"
"Alright, that's it, get him on his side now-"
"- Yes, my friend just had a seizure. We're at a Chinese restaurant. The address? I'll ask someone-"
His eyes had rolled back up into his head. She had seen it. He wasn't shaking or anything, rather just lying still on the ground. And his eyes rolled up, and she could see the whites, and then the veins...Then he was rolled over, they were doing something.
She still couldn't move.
Suddenly, her coworker ran off. She realized he was going to get the address. But her boss was coming around the back right now. She had a pitcher of water in her hand, someone's drink in the other. She set them down and suddenly seemed to see everything.
She still couldn't move.
Suddenly the woman was right next to her, looking half confused, half angry, but still mostly concerned.
"Ah! What happened?" The woman asked.
She didn't say anything. She was looking for her to say something, she realized. She opened her mouth. It was as dry as a desert. Nothing resembling words or coherent speech came out. Just a muffled noise, as though someone had shoved cotton down her throat.
She didn't have to answer. One of the customers, one of the men helping, turned around.
Her boss repeated the question.
"It's alright." He told her. "He just had a seizure."
He just had a seizure. It's alright. He just had a seizure.
The Chinese woman breathed the word "seizure" to herself quietly, bringing her hands to her face. She then moved them over her heart, and almost seemed to shake herself from a daze.
Her coworker that had left to get the address was back. He had given it to the man on his cellphone. Absently, she noticed it was red. Her eyes drifted back to the man on the floor. He was awake. He was trying to sit up, but they kept on pushing him back down.
"You need to sit down." They said. "You just had a seizure, you need to sit down."
It's alright. He just had a seizure.
"Do you know where you are?" He was standing now, but his eyes were glassy. He looked like he wasn't really there at all.
"You need to sit down. Come on George, let's sit him down."
She still couldn't move.
Suddenly her boss was talking to her again. In the background she heard the man on the cellphone say something, he said the word sir.
"Come on." Her boss whispered. "Backu to werk. You go."
She could move again. Her eyes were glued on the man for a few more seconds until she slowly, mechanically, turned herself around to the table she had been wiping before it happened. She finished it up slowly, and then walked by the group again to get back to the front of the restaurant.
Her coworker hadn't moved. He was still hovering behind them all as they tended to the man, as though waiting for something.
She walked up to him and tapped his shoulder.
"Get...back to work. Just...keep working."
He looked at her, and back to the group, and back to her, and nodded. He said something too, but it didn't register. She was already walking away, anyway.
It's alright. He just had a seizure. It's alright. It's alright. It's alright.
She got back to work. She kept glancing at the back, and she wondered if he was going to be okay. The other large group that had been sitting in the back as well left quickly. The father had tried to help them when it happened, she remembered. She guessed he didn't want to be in the way when the paramedics came.
There were two more booths in the back with customers sitting in them. They didn't do anything besides stare. Then they went back to eating.
No one in the front noticed. Even though there was only a half wall and some decorative glass between them.
She kept working. Wiped more tables, picked upo more plates, got more drinks.
One woman in a booth close to the front asked what happened. She was talking about all of the people standing in the back.
"A man had a seizure." She told her, trying to keep the waver out of her voice. "And he fell out of his chair." The woman nodded.
"A seizure...thank you."
She nodded and then kept working.
Not long after that the paramedics came in. She could see the bright neon green ambulance sitting in the parking lot. The lights flashed in silent warning.
Men came in with bags, in simple gray clothing. They looked around, unsure where they were supposed to go.
She saw them right away. They were close to her. She made a noise and pointed immediately in the direction of the man and his group.
They had him sitting in a chair now. She couldn't see very well, but he looked confused.
The paramedics nodded and went over to help him.
Things started to blur together after that. She continued working. The people in the back filled out some information on a clipboard. She spoke a little to her coworkers, but none of it was about what happened. One of them left at one thirty, like he always did. He had been the one to get the address.
More paramedics came in. In and out. The man who had called 911 on his little red flip cellphone went outside. He came in again later. The paramedics had the seizure man hooked up to some machine, and it looked like they were taking his pulse.
She kept working.
He just had a seizure. It's alright.
Suddenly a lot of the paramedics left. She was heading towards a table near the group with Tina. The paramedics came back in with a stretcher.
She and Tina scattered.
They made sure not to get in the way. They wheeled the man out. Most of the customers were gone at this point, anyway.
It looked like the cellphone man went with him. She didn't really see.
She wanted to ask one of the paramedics, or someone in the group if he would be okay. But she couldn't seem to do it.
It's alright. He just had a seizure. It's alright.
She kept working.
Soon enough, the group sat down again and resumed eating. She could hear the laughter across the restaurant.
More customers trickled out.
She noticed that the cellphone man hadn't gone with his friend after all. Someone else must have, then.
More time passed. She kept working.
It was two o'clock. Work was over, the lunch buffet ended. Her boss told them that they were done; they could go and eat the leftovers on the buffet like usual.
She sat down at table one with Tina and Lauren. The talked a little. They mostly ate. The boss kept working. A few tables were still eating.
Finally, the big group in the back left.
Lauren left not long after. She waved and said goodbye.
She and Tina talked more.
Finally, she mentioned the man. She hoped he was okay.
"Yeah, he probably is. I mean, I've actually seen this before, someone having a seizure. But do you know what I can't believe? Nobody went with him! I mean, no one!"
"No one? But I thought..."
"Nope. It was only the paramedics and the stretcher. And then they didn't even leave! They just sat down and kept eating! I mean, seriously? At least take it to go, or something. I'd want someone to go with me. Imagine waking up alone in the hospital; with nobody there?"
She agreed. They talked about it a little more. She remembered the people laughing.
It's alright. He just had a seizure.
She left earlier than she normally would have. She called her younger brother and told him to leave the card store. He wanted to stay and finish his tournament. She said no, she didn't feel good, sorry. He conceded.
She sat in the car, with some kind of Japanese music her older brother had left there playing. She turned the air conditioning way up and sat there, staring at nothing.
She didn't really feel that sick. The medicine from that morning had helped her symptoms. But she wanted to get home. She felt a twisting feeling in her stomach, but she didn't feel like she was going to throw up.
Her brother got in the car, and she greeted him, and apologized again. He said it was fine, he was loosing anyway.
They didn't talk anymore, she just started driving home.
He cut the music off halfway through to answer a phone call. For some reason his voice bothered her. She kept the last line of the music on repeat in her head, to distract herself from it.
They got home. They went inside. Her mother told them to get their sheets so she could wash them. She waited until her brother left and then told them what happened.
Suddenly she was crying, a whole lot. Her face was probably getting red and puffy, and she struggled to talk normally.
She didn't get the comfort she wanted from them. No hugs or anything. They told her it was alright, tried to soothe her and assure her that the man was probably fine. They told her to lay down, rest, have a good cry.
She nodded and went upstairs.
She shut the door behind her softly and dropped her bag on the floor.
Her eyes drifted to a red and blue toy sitting on her bed. She scanned the yellow robot on the nightstand, and the blue jet set near it (but not too close), before her eyes rested on the red and blue one again.
With a choked sob, she let herself cry more like she wanted to with her parents. She stumbled over to the bed and snatched up the toy, crying and sniffling.
"It was so scary." She said weakly. "It was so scary, Optimus. He had a seizure, and I didn't know what to do...no one went with him..."
It's alright. He just had a seizure.
It's alright.
It's alright.
It's not alright.
"It was scary..." She clutched him more fiercely in her arms. She imagined what he would say. His deep, booming voice telling her that it would be alright, even if it didn't feel like it would. Someone was there helping him. It was okay that she didn't know what to do - no one expected her to.
Sometimes bad things happened.
There were people who did their best to help fix them when they did.
She cared, and that was something important - the fact that she was so upset about it spoke volumes. She could help silently just by being concerned over his wellbeing.
Life would go on.
It will be alright.