Yesterday I woke up to the alarm on my phone set for 7:45, from a dream where I was with a beautiful woman, what we were doing I cannot recall, the last thing I remember is gazing at her ravishing face, blonde hair draping over her bronze skin reflecting sunlight. I hit the snooze. Then proceeded to hit the snooze on the next three alarms, blacking out from being woken up and falling asleep rapidly. Until finally waking up at 9:00, cursing under my breath as I stared at scratched screen of my outdated phone, realizing there would be no time to make breakfast before my first class. Normally I would be able to with this much time even after showering, brushing, getting dressed, gathering stuff for class, hell even after I could make myself a plate of eggs and little sizzlers sausages. But yesterday I needed to print off some assignments on campus for class that were due, so I needed to get to campus a little bit earlier. My house more than nine blocks away and at a walking pace the hike is decently time consuming. figurative
As I left the house, I inserted a pair of headphones that penetrate the inner canals of ears, making for a more booming sound quality while listening to dub step, they are fucking great. The tedious trek to campus becoming projections of rugby, partying, scenes from stories and adventures that lurk in the back of my mind that likes to flood to the front whenever appropriate music is playing. But I was already feeling hungry on the walk to campus, the lower pits of my gut commencing that tightening feeling when there is nothing to absorb.
Arriving on campus, I walked to the building, which my class was located in, actually the building that ALL of my classes are in. And to my good fortune there is a computer lab and printer as well, my daily round on campus conveniently contained to one building. Ascending the staircase that leads to the computer lab, I wrapped my blue Ipod nano into the white chords of my headphones, the buds at the end snapping together with a magnetic clack, faintly echoing up and down the hollow staircase, bouncing around the walls, running through the hallways on each floor. The sound being eerily louder than the many times I’ve done the same exact thing before.
Approaching the doorway to the computer lab there were a few students dotted along the hallway, tediously waiting for class to begin. Walking through the doorway turned right and walked to the computers located closer to the printer, walking a far ways to retrieve paper from a printer is uncomfortably awkward to me, I don’t know why it just is. I guess it’s the fact that in your peripherals, depending how good they are, you can catch people glancing at you as you pass, sometimes being ignorant enough to turn their head as you pass. It’s not even the fact of people staring; more of what are they thinking? I have no idea. And I’ll never know. Could be good thing, could be a bad thing. But you know it is something or else they wouldn’t stare, even for a second they do it for a reason!
Getting back on track. Setting my backpack on the counter I fell into the roller chair resting in front of the computer located closest to the printer, my hands gingerly slapping my thighs near my pockets. As they did so my heart dived off the edge of a rib located midway in my chest, plummeting to my stomach like a rock that has been tossed into a lake, sinking to the bottom until resting into a cloud of mucky dust. My pockets were empty besides my Ipod. My wallet not located in either of the two pockets I usually put it in every morning. No wallet means no student ID. And no ID means no assignments being printed, and no assignments printed means Andrew is decently fucked. With a bit of hurry I started to rummage through the contents of my backpack, tossing each object aside, reaching and grasping, poking and prodding, hoping to feel the smooth outside of leather wallet.
Hope fleeting, my fingers started to graze the bottom of my bag until my pinky felt it. Felt flat, even sweet black rawhide. Heart launching itself to my chest, relief releasing panic’s firm grasp on my lungs. I was so uplifted that breathing felt five times easier, oxygen filling my lungs as I took deep breaths of sweet respite. Flipping open my wallet I started flipping through the plastics located in the various pockets holding them. Visa, triple A, drivers license, useless business card that’s been there for an unnecessary amount of months, reading them off in my head as I fingered through them.
Instead of plunging to the depths of my body, my heart seemed to depart from my body by slithering out in a deep exhale of despair. Now I had truly lost. My wallet found, yet useless for the very situation I needed to find it. The ID was gone. All hope was lost.
