The Boogeyman

My wife was scheduled on a Thursday to have labor induced. Of course, we were very excited. We were admitted and my wife was hooked up to many different monitors.  The nurse reviewed all the info and told my wife that she was already in labor so no drugs were given to induce. Labor continued thru the night. It progressed rather slowly throughout the day on Friday. After numerous hours of labor and pushing,  her MD decided that a C-section was in order. (This was after manually breaking her water during which I'm almost certain she passed her liver.)  We had not planned on a C-section and I'll admit I was more than a bit alarmed.  She was rolled into the OR and I accompanied her in a snazzy surgical gown, gloves, footies, etc.  I was up by my wife's upper body with a curtain from about her chest down. I remember her MD working feverishly to remove Eli. The whole time there are tubes under my feet for suctioning blood, waste product, etc.  Finally, Eli was here.  We were estatic but emotionally if not physically drained. After accompaning our pediatrician to another room to evaluate Eli, I was able to visit w/ my inlaws.

As it was a nice summer night, I went outside to call my family and friends and give them the goods news. I start to return inside but notice a sign that these particular doors are locked after 9 PM. You can guess--it was after nine. I had to drive around the other side of the hospital and enter thru the ER. I had never visited this ER and wasn't really sure where to park or where to enter. After several hours of labor and welcoming a new child, I was rather brain dead not to mention frazzeled, disheveled and probably sweaty and could not have possibly noticed the big sign that flashed ENTER.  I park in a lower parking lot and see a nurse walking to her car. I approach her and ask where exactly I should enter. She gives me directions and I'm off once again to see my boy.

Since my wife had a C-section and staph infection, her stay was extended a few days. We got to know the nursing staff pretty well. One nurse and I talked about what we like to read. I told her that I was big into Stephen King and she was telling me about this murder fiction book she was reading. She said it was very good but it was so scary. She stated that she hated walking to her car in the parking lot. She expressed that after reading a particularly haunting chapter she had to walk to her car in the parking lot the other night. This scary man came up to her and asked for directions to the ER. She exclaimed to me that she almost ran to her car and drove away. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I was the boogeyman.