“You’re calling out again, Amy?”
Amy cringed at the sound of Eric’s voice and nervously tucked a piece of her sandy brown hair behind her ear. Her co-workers were always surprised when she called off work and was eventually welcomed back with no repercussions. They didn’t realize that Richard had known her father and understood her health problems. It was a lucky break after several years of a tumultuous attempt at keeping a job. Nobody had ever been as understanding as Rich, even if he was a little bit eccentric.
“Yeah. I’m feeling really ill today,” she said, trying to keep her temper out of her voice. She was getting sick of having her sincerity called into question. She wasn’t just playing hooky. She would have done anything in her power to be able to work the same way other people did. It was unbelievably inconvenient to be unable to hold a job or maintain a predictable routine. And it had been like this since she’d hit puberty. Everything had begun to change at that point.
“Well, I hope you feel better soon,” Eric said. “When do you think you will be feeling better?”
He could scarcely hold back his sigh of irritation, and a spike of agitation nearly surfaced in Amy’s voice. But she couldn’t blame him. He was probably sick of having to work overtime. But Rich hadn’t hired anybody after Rachel had quit and now they were short-staffed. It wasn’t Eric’s fault he was cranky about it.
“I don’t know. Hopefully, soon,” Amy said.
“Yeah,” Eric said pointedly. “See you.”
He hung up before Amy could reply and she stared at her phone, ready to throw it against the wall. Her illness always made her short-tempered.
“Bye,” she muttered sarcastically.
She hung up and sank onto the couch with a heavy sigh. Everything in her body hurt. The doctors had no idea what was wrong with her. All of them agreed that they had never seen anything like it before. At one point, a test had found an abnormality in her blood, but they had admitted that the lab could have contaminated the sample. Its discovery hadn’t led to any sort of resolution. Only more unanswered questions. And she was getting tired of it. She was tired of being so damn tired.
The mysterious disease had run in her family. Her mother had been lucky and only had episodes rarely, maybe once every seven years or so. They were short-lived. But her grandmother had been just like Amy. Debilitated by the disease at times and nearly unable to make ends meet because of it. It was the single most obnoxious thing Amy had ever experienced, and her grandmother had disappeared before she was born and had someone who related to talk to about it. She was very much alone. Nobody else understood. Especially not her co-workers.
Amy sighed and turned the tv on irritably, trying to push thoughts away. She had been in college studying to be a doctor. It had always been her dream to be able to aid others in being healthy and strong and defeating their physical weaknesses. It would have made her unbelievably happy to be able to follow her passion and do what she truly felt called to do with her life. She was ridiculously intelligent. She had always been able to learn the terms and understand the way things worked. But she had been forced to drop out of college because of her illness. It had gotten worse the older she got, just as her grandmother’s had become progressively more malicious.
Now, all she could manage to do to support herself was to be a clerk at Rich’s grocery store. It was humiliating in a way, although the job was amazing, and she had an incredible boss who understood exactly what she was going through. He had known her since she was a child, and it was a huge stroke of luck that she had moved back to her home town and was offered the position. She hadn’t even applied. He simply went to visit her and, probably after hearing gossip about town about Amy having to drop out of college, offered her the job.
It was the most generous thing anyone had done for her, and she was lucky to be where she was, even if her co-workers were resentful every once in a while. She was safe and comfortable there. She had a stable income. When she was sick for weeks on end, she was paid in advance. She had an employee and family discount that stacked and made her groceries close to free. She was okay, even when anywhere else she wouldn’t be okay. Rich was like a father figure to her, especially now that her father was gone. They had been the best of friends, and even Amy’s mother had liked the guy. And she was hard to impress.
Amy sighed, willing her mind to stop turning the thoughts around in circles. She was tired. Very tired. What she needed to do was get some rest and worry about everything else in the morning. With any luck, it would be a short episode. That happened sometimes, and if so, she would be back to work before anyone really missed her. She could only hope.