Panic and Writing by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

Do you want to hear a panic-inducing story?

I have a sister-in-law who lives across town from me. Said sister-in-law, Shirley, has major health issues, sometimes has seizures, and has been known to fall out of bed or just plain fall down, injuring herself.

As I am geographically her closest family who can drive, I am her emergency contact.

Cue Tuesday morning the day after Memorial Day:

I was getting ready for work when my phone rings. It’s Shirley’s caregiver because she isn’t answering her door buzzer or phone. “Is she with you?”

The young lady had been informed by her boss that Shirley was going camping with her sister over the holiday weekend.

Let me point out, SISTER not sister-in-law.

Yes, I live the closest. Yes, I help her all I can. And yes, I am her emergency contact, but I am not her sister, even if she says I am.

My husband had three sisters. Shirley is the youngest, but they are all still alive, and the oldest and her husband did take Shirley camping over the weekend.

And the last I spoke to Shirley on Monday evening, they were on the road, heading here to Pocatello.

I tried calling Shirley. It went straight to voicemail. (Which honestly should have been a clue. When Shirley is just not answering, it rings a few times.)

I tried calling her big sister, Vera-Ellen. It also went straight to voicemail, but now I’m in such a panic it doesn’t dawn on me they could still be together and in the same place. It just didn’t occur to me. I didn’t even consider it at that time.

No, in my panic I called my boss and told her I have a small family emergency and I may be a little late for work, then I hightail it across town and let myself into Shirley’s apartment, worried sick that I might have to call the ambulance.

She wasn’t even there!

I finally call the oldest of Tom’s younger brothers, Cliff, who was also with Vera-Ellen, her husband, and Shirley at Bear Lake over the weekend.

He knew that Vera-Ellen and her husband were planning to go to Scout Mountain Monday night.

Great. There is no service at Scout Mountain.

DUH! Their phones are going straight to voicemail. Cliff hadn’t heard that Shirley was going with them to Scout Mountain, but they were last known to be together.

Adding all that together means Shirley is at Scout Mountain, and I might just wring some necks when I get ahold of them.

Shirley finally called me just after five p.m. yesterday.

Yeah, she’s fine. Just after my last phone conversation with Shirley, Vera-Ellen and Dave decided they didn’t have time to take Shirley home and get up that mountain before dark, so they dragged her along with them! Without letting anyone know!

I mean, Shirley tried, but again, no phone service up there.

Had Shirley called me back right after she learned of their decision to take her with them, she would have informed me, but she didn’t even try to call until after they were up there.

Come on! It wasn’t like Shirley was driving, she can’t. She could have called before they got out of range. Shirley called while they stopped at a store. She could have called me back while they heading out of that parking lot.

She didn’t.

Shirley has Early-onset Alzheimer’s she could have forgotten until she got to Scout Mountain, and clearly forgot there is no service up there, but why didn’t Vera-Ellen and her husband consider it earlier?

As far as I know, there isn’t anything wrong with their memory.

And it isn’t like they’ve never been up there before. I’ve been up there with them. In fact, Konnie has been up there with them. We all know there is no service up there.

But I can tell you, I now know how it feels to panic like that.

Now I just need a story idea to write it in.

By the way, do any of you ever use things that really happened to you in your stories?

I have. Though I changed a few important details so while the feelings were the same, the backstory and events were totally different.

I know Konnie has too.

And that’s still funny.

The first time I read a certain scene Konnie wrote, I went, “Oh, man! Poor Jerry!”

I just knew Konnie had done that to her poor husband.

However, someone in Konnie’s critique group around that time, told Konnie the scene was unrealistic and would never happen in real life. She insisted Konnie needed to delete.

Clearly, she’s never met Jerry!

Anyway, happy writing everyone!