Time was not on my side today, the day seemed simple enough. I walked through the warehouse where I work and reached my station. It seemed to have been tampered with… My tape gun was on the right side rather than on the left with my zebra printer. Though it was strange, I did not want to make a big deal out of something that could literally be nothing. Maybe my coworker had to use it to tape a broken box, I mean it happens, I’ve even done it. The only thing that kept the idea stuck in my mind was that my station is in the middle of the other stations why would someone use my tape gun instead of the last station’s tape gun… it’s closer to the bins and would be the better option if a box from the bins needed to be taped. I started scanning with my coworkers and everyone seemed to be rushing to get everything off the floor… Why didn’t I feel the pressure on my chest as well… when we get the product from FedEx, I always, and I mean always feel pressured to finish scanning everything we get. I couldn’t help but look around the department, our manager was missing, he was MIA, and he is NEVER ever just gone.

I placed my AirPod in my right ear and started shuffle playing all of Justin Bieber’s songs, this seemed like the only normal thing happening. I finished scanning my second box and then I was bombarded with multiple voices right next to me. Our manager had just told one of my coworkers to call last box as it was already time to go home… where had time gone? What had I been doing? I decided to check the page where all the work done is cataloged and when I pulled the web page up it said that I had actually done amazing work, it said I did 15 boxes in an hour and that I scanned 600 pieces. I only had memory of doing two boxes… did my mind go blank on me when I was mid scan? My thoughts were interrupted by Monica, my other coworker “you did well today, but you always do well so that’s expected.” she was right… I always make exceptional results with minimal effort. I went to my phone to check the time and the first thing that caught my eye was my reminder that told me I had a meeting with my best friend In half an hour. I ran to clock myself out and made my way to the parking lot, my car broke down two days ago and I knew that… why was I on my way to the parking lot? I ran home in the now pouring rain, my hair was dripping wet my make–up felt like it was getting washed off my face. I went inside my house and checked the time again, I had 18 minutes to get there now and I felt like I couldn’t even breathe. I picked a random outfit and slid into it, when I looked in the mirror my hair was dry again… it was soaked less than 7 minutes ago and now it was dry? I took it as a blessing and skidded outside with my purple and pink umbrella in my left hand, I had the feeling to check my pockets for my wallet but whenever I went out prior I always had it in my pocket, so I decided not to check this time. I arrived out of breath basically on my knees, with my heart pounding in my chest. I looked at the time… I was LATE, I arrived at 6:43 instead of 6:30. I guess being unactive doesn’t help my situation, I tried to compose myself before I went inside but I don’t believe it helped too much as the host gave me an awful look. I dreaded going inside and seeing her face of disappointment, I’ve never even been late in my life and now I was super late and everything felt like a disaster. After I walked in, the host took me to an empty table and left me with a menu. I scanned the room but to my surprise she was nowhere to be seen.

I pulled out my phone and texted her, my data was being slow, and it did not want to send my message. My right foot started shaking in anticipation as the blue line flooded to the right side of my screen. The words “message failure” then appeared and I found myself flabbergasted by this, my phone was hardly ever slow and now my messages wouldn’t even send? The host then came back, “are you ready to order yet ma’am?” I assume my face spoke for itself as he just turned back around before I could even answer. I looked forward and I was met with the center piece of the table. There were multiple fortune cookies but only one was unbroken, I grabbed it and cracked it open. I stuck a piece of the cookie in my mouth and pulled out the strip of paper from the half cookie left in the plastic. “Your world is falling apart because you are not the main character anymore.” I gulped loudly in confusion and the fortune cookie I was trying to eat got stuck in my throat, I tried to clear my throat but I failed miserably. The air in my lungs started deteriorating and I felt my vision starting to fail as I fell on the floor, while I was floating in and out of consciousness, I heard a muffled voice in front of me. “I need to do the Heimlich maneuver!” my vision came back for a few seconds with multiple black spots and a familiar face came into view, it was my best friend with a spotlight hitting her from above. Like I said before, time was not  on my side today.