From the moment I woke up, I was moving with a headache. A headache that only grew worse as the hours slowly ticked by.

Hours you ask?

Yes, hours. You see, I woke up around four thirty in the morning, one whole hour before my usual wake-up time. Now, come to think of it, this headache is what woke me up, and I wish it would go away!

Now it’s ten thirty, and I am sitting at my desk at work. It was my day to come into the office, so here I am, tapping away at my computer. The glamorous world of a transcriber! Well, to be fair, I don’t recall hearing anyone saying this job was glamorous. I just said it in the spur of the moment. Forgive me.

Now, back on track. If you are thinking you should have taken an Advil or something instead of suffering for hours, well, I did. I’ve taken four pills so far, two after I got up and two more before I left for work, and instead of getting better, it grew worse.

I do not suffer from migraines; well, that’s according to my conclusion after consulting with Google. I slowly pushed forward the white cordless computer keyboard in front of me and rested my head on the desk with my arm under it. Within a few minutes, I was asleep.

About forty-five minutes later, I ate noodle chicken soup in the cafeteria. I was asleep for about thirty minutes before a coworker woke me and asked if I was okay. When I explained my headache, he suggested I have an early lunch, and I agreed.

To my surprise, the soup was helping. Usually, when I have to go into the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays every two weeks, I bring my lunch with me, but not today. Today was too painful for me to even think about eating, much less walking with something to eat. However, soup was the day’s special meal at the cafeteria, and although I still did not want to eat anything, I eventually decided to order it.

Small waves of relief washed over me with every spoonful of soup I took. The headache, my tormenter, was gone, and I smiled as my body felt a lot lighter. I returned to the office, free of pain.

At the end of the workday, after returning home, I stared at my cell phone, encased in a yellow case, lying on the table. I sighed and picked it up, and saw what I expected to see. I saw several text messages and missed calls. Then my phone vibrated in my hand.

“Hi, Mom,” I said, answering it.

My mom and I talked for several minutes, and when we were finished, I put the phone down on the dark grey upholstered chair I’d walked to as we spoke.

I sighed and took a deep breath, and as I let it out, my shoulders shook, and the tears finally came. I cried and cried and cried because my best friend’s funeral was today, hundreds of miles away from where I was, and her family did not televise it, and I couldn’t get a plane ticket to take me there in time for the funeral.

Au revoir, my friend, au revoir, I said silently as my tears continued.

The End