A Headache

A Headache

As I approach the open doors of the elevator, I see a tall woman in pink overalls and short blond hair holding one child in her left arm and the hand of a second child with her right. Their screams are bouncing around the inside of my head like a pinball machine. Each change of direction feeling like a kick. I stop, take a step back, before they enter and watch the elevator close. I wait in the middle of a grouping of three elevators for the next one.

"Excuse me, sir, do you have the time?" A very short brown haired man approaches from my left.

"Don't you have a cell phone?" I am purposely not looking down at him.

"Well, I do, I mean, I did. Well, it's complicated. I'm running late, can you just give me the time?"

I let go of a deep sigh while I dig into my pocket for my phone.

"It's 10:42." I purposely don't bother adding the PM to see if he's dense enough to ask.

"Tha-"

The elevator door chimes and I immediately enter and press the button for the twelfth floor. The quick movement causes another explosion of pain in my head, but I manage to keep my balance.

My room is the fourth one on the right from these elevators. As soon as the doors open I hear the faded sound of a baby crying. As I approach my room, it gets louder.

"Shit," I think. "Someone with a baby had to check in next to me."

Key card works no problem. The bathroom light I left on now seems brighter. Squinting, I walk to the table by the TV that has all my meds, grab my prescription strength Tylenol and down two pills - no water. Slowly I sit down, than lay down on the bed, grateful the kid has stopped screaming. I've spent all day acting in what will likely only be five minutes of usable film and need my sleep.

Moving hurts, thinking hurts. In fact, I'm amazed I've been able to get back. I try to let go of the pain and just focus on my breath. Everything slows down. Each pulse of pain seems to take minutes to pass.

"WAAAA" my eyes jut open as another sharp pain stabs the inside of my brain.

I lay there, hoping either the kid will stop or I'll pass out. I really don't care which one - I just want it to happen soon.

We all do stupid things in life. This is one of mine. I muster all my energy, get back up, walk next door and knock. While it might have taken five minutes, it felt like five hours.

The lady in the pink overalls opens the door, baby still in her left arm screaming.

"Listen ma'am, I hate to bother you, but I really need my sleep tonight and I can't if your kid keeps screa - "

"Like I don't know! You think I want this? This wasn't how I planned any of it, you selfish bastard. You want to sleep? Guess what, so do I - and I haven't for over a month." She says before slamming the door on my face. The loud noise sends more pain surfing down my nervous system as I grab on the door frame to keep from falling down.

I look at the door to my room and it seems a mile away with each small step towards it sending3 thousands of little electric pains jolting through my body.

The elevator dings and the same dwarf from earlier bounds out towards me.

"Hey, aren't you the nice man who gave me the time?"

"Yes I have a headache and all I want to do is sleep now and those damn kids won't stop screaming." My words come out slow and measured.

"Listen mister, I'll help you with your problem."

"What - what can you do?"

"Don't worry about that, I'll take care of it. I'm good at taking care of problems. Now get back to your room. All will be good soon enough."

So I inch to my room as this dwarf disappears down the hall behind me. I have no clue what he is going to do and I don't really care. I only care about sleep.

I'm not sure how much later it is when I notice how quiet my room is. Once I laid back down I must have passed out despite the kids screaming. Now, I am left alone to my pounding headache. But more sleep will cure that.

The next morning I'm up bright and early and feeling great. I even sing a little to myself as I shower and prepare for another day of filming. This time, though, before I exit I grab my bottle of Tylenol.

In the hallway there are a bunch of policemen. The doorway to the lady in pink overall's room is covered in police tape. Before I'm allowed to leave, an officer questions me if I saw or heard anything weird or strange last night. I say no and explained I slept the night away with a bad headache.

I stand in the middle of three elevators and wait for the chime of one arriving when I see the head of the dwarf pop out of a room and give me a wink before slipping back into the room.