Last night, I got a ride to the metro, and crashed in DC. This morning my friend Dana was going to pick me up at the Metro station in New Carrolton, and we were going to go in to work together.
I sent Dana a text before I got on the Metro, but my phone wasn't sending texts last night, so I wasn't sure she got it. Once the train got closer to New Carrolton and emerged from the tunnels, I gave her a call. She assured me that she would come get me.
The ride took less time than I thought, and I was waiting in front of the station a couple of minutes after eight. I sent Dana another text, and she texted back that she would be there about 8:30.
8:30 rolled around, and no Dana. I wasn't really concerned. At 8:40 I thought, oh man, we might be late. At 8:45 I knew we were going to be late. I called our Director of Marketing (whom Dana and I both report to), just to give him a heads up. At 8:50, I called Dana, assuming that traffic had been bad, and she would be rolling in an any moment. A dude answered the phone.
I double-checked the phone number, and I had dialed Dana's number. And that's when I knew something was terribly wrong.
The guy told me that he was a fireman, and there had been a bad accident. He told me that Dana was hurt, and was on the way to the hospital. He asked if she had allergies or a history of seizures.
That is a lot to try to process in the span of a couple of seconds. I couldn't think of Dana's parents name on the spot, so I gave the fireman her boyfriends name, and implored him to call the boyfriend.
He said he would, so I hung up and tried calling the Baysox. The office wasn't officially open yet, so when I dialed our main line, I got our wicked long automated response. I hung up. I called another girl from work to get our GM's extension, so I could call him directly. Then I dialed a wrong number. Then I dialed the right number, but got our GM's voicemail. I called our director of marketing back, and told him what the fireman had told me. Then I called the fireman back to find out what hospital Dana was heading to, and then I called my boss back to let him know.
My boss had to come get me, and the accident pretty much closed down the only road to me. I was left stranded in front of the metro for about an hour. With no idea how Dana was doing.
Dana and I are tight. She's one of the best friends I've made in my travels, and is by far my best friend in Maryland (no offense to anyone else, I have met a lot of
great people out here). We have a similar passion for baseball, we have similar frustrations at work, we're mutually quirky.
And she got into an accident on her way to pick me up.
About a half hour after I got into work, my phone rang. It was Dana. I raced for a door as I answered it, assuming it was the fireman again.
It wasn't.
It was Dana.
Before I could utter a word she was asking if I was alright, if someone had been able to pick me up. I couldn't believe it.
I told her she shouldn't be worrying about me, and that I wanted to know how SHE was doing. She said she had a nasty cut above her eye, and a really bad headache, but that was it. I asked if anything was broken, and she said no.
I told her how relieved I was (although, in honesty, my relief couldn't be expressed in words) and that I was going to visit her after work. I asked if she wanted me to bring her anything, and she said "No, thank you."
I told my boss and the GM about the call, went back to work and kept myself as busy as possible. Most of the people in the office had no idea. I went to lunch with a bunch of people from the office because I was having trouble focusing, and no one knew. They knew that Dana was gone, and there was clearly something bothering me. I couldn't tell them...for one, it was hard to think about without getting emotional, and two,it just didn't feel right. So I stewed. Just before we left, I slipped into the GM's office, and asked him if most of the office knew, and he said he didn't know. He sent out an office-wide e-mail while we were at lunch.
After a meeting in the afternoon, I was at least able to talk to people about it, and that helped a bit. After work, my friend Janna and I went to Safeway and got Dana a balloon, a couple of candy bars and some magazines. Then we went to the hospital.
Her mother was there, her dad and brother had gone to pick her boyfriend up at the airport. (quick side note, major props to the Baysox for picking up the plane ticket to fly the guy out here) It was the first time I had met Dana's mother, and as I introduced myself she said, "Oh, you're the one she was going to pick up?"
Dana was in good spirits. She told us what she remembered, and we looked at the police report (and the $280 ticket a cop left with Dana at the hospital). We left when she had to have a couple of tests done, but there were a couple of priceless moments before they wheeled her away.
They had to transfer her from her bed to a gurney. The nurse asked what our relations were (it was Janna, myself and Dana's mother) and asked Dana if she wanted us to leave because her backside would be exposed. As I was excusing myself, Dana said "Oh, they can stay" and went on to explain to the nurse that she had a very nice heinie. Janna and I were waiting in the hallway as they wheeled her out the door, and she saw a flier on the wall...
"Look Tom, a house for rent!" (I was recently informed that I was not going to have the option of renewing my lease at my house).
If everything went well, she would go to surgery tonight for the cut abover her eye and could be released tomorrow.
Keep your fingers crossed, please.
