Radiology and What About Bob?!

I was in a deep slumber this afternoon; it was well deserved after a hard day's work. The alarm had sounded once, but I had delayed it for another half hour. I knew that I should get up; after all, I didn't wanna spend my college days sleeping my afternoons away. My phone rang with a symphonic melody that startled me from my dazed state. I grunted at the thought of having to talk to someone I didn't want to, but when I looked at the caller ID, to my surprise, a name of my friend from the sister dorm, Jessica, glowed on the screen.

"Hello?" I answered wondering why she was calling me. I didn't mind at all, but we usually shoot texts back and forth during the day.

"Hey, Andrew," she said. "Are you doing anything right now?" I immediately found some motivation to get out of bed. I threw the comforter off of my body and slid down the side of the bed, resting my feet on my roommate’s bed frame, then gently grounding myself.

"No, I'm not doing anything," I replied taking a seat atop the edge of his bunk.

"Umm..." she was hesitant, "can you take Lauren to the emergency room? She got some blood work done, and they said for her to go the ER."

My heart began to race. I immediately began imagining the worse—what happened to me two years ago. I've never experienced a friend becoming ill, and I began to silently pray that this wouldn't be the case. "Yeah, I'll be right over to come pick you up."

"Thank you so much, Andrew. I'll see you in a bit."

I quickly moved to my dresser and slipped on a pair of TOMS shoes, grabbed my keys and wallet, and power walked out the doorway and down the stairs to my car. I started up the 1993 Honda Accord Wagon and began to drive toward the sister dorm where I saw Jessica standing outside in a Liberty University jacket, jeans, and sandals. She sat in the car and thanked me once again for helping out. Apparently, Jessica had been calling numerous friends for an extended amount of time, but none were able to help.

I put Nevertheless into the CD player and drove to the clinic that was across the street from Chick-fil-A. It was a tight squeeze pulling in to the parking lot because a Ford Expedition didn't know that it wasn't proper to be in the middle of a lane. After slowly pulling through the slim space, I spied Lauren sitting on the curb alone holding her cell phone, and the fold of her arm was bandaged.

"Hey, Lauren," we greeted. She handed me a piece of paper with directions to the hospital, but I already known the way because I've been there twice already.

Upon arriving at the hospital, I pulled into the emergency parking. We trotted into the waiting room and found it packed with citizens with emergencies. Lauren stopped as Jessica and I proceeded to the check-in counter. We sensed Lauren come to a halt.

"What's wrong?" I asked. We stepped back to her.

"I have to go to radiology..." There was a silence. "Where is that?"

"I don't know," Jessica replied. "Why don't we ask?" We went up to the desk and asked how to get to radiology. She gave us specific directions, and we followed them to our destination. After Lauren checked in with radiology, we were brought back into a small, dark waiting room. This is where it happens...

As soon as we came within the line of sight we hear:

"Why hello there!" a middle aged man sitting along the opposite wall brightly said. "You ladies can come sit over here." Lauren and Jessica sat in two neighboring sears by the doorway, and I sat near the man. His wife and daughter sat across from him, and they seemed unassociated, awkward, distant. I grabbed a family magazine sitting on the end table and began to flip through the pages trying to make some kind of noise in this silent chamber. "So..." the man began, "you Liberty students?"

"Umm... yeah," Jessica responded. I couldn't help but feel like "DUH, she's wearing a Liberty jacket," but I would never say such a thing to someone older than me.

More silence.

"Yeah, my daughter goes to Liberty." He pointed to his daughter across the way. She waved and greeted herself politely. "Do you stay on main campus or where do you stay?"

Lauren spoke first. "I stay in the circle."

"We stay on east," she said looking at me. She glanced down at her phone.

"OH, FANTASTIC!" he exclaimed. "That's where my daughter stays."

"Really?" Jessica asked. She addressed the daughter, "Where?"

She seemed slightly timid, "11."

...

Time passed with some more weird questions and talk about his daughter doing volleyball, and all the while the wife barely spoke. But then a question grabbed my attention quickly.

The man asked, "Have you heard of the movie What About Bob?

"I LOVE THAT MOVIE!" we all replied with smiles stretching across our faces.

He began, "You heard of Lake ________?" (I don't remember the name of the lake). We nodded our heads. "Well that's where they filmed the scenes for the vacation. It's about forty minutes north of here."

"That's so cool," I said.

For the next few minutes we began to talk about the movie, sharing quotes and favorite parts and what-not. By this time, Lauren had already gone and come back from her visit to the radiologist. The man and his family finally were called out for the results of his daughter's testing.

"Ok, Lauren," Jessica began as she held her phone in her hand, "your mom is like freaking out and she keeps texting me asking about you. You know she's been doing this since we picked you up." Her phone vibrated obnoxiously. "It's your mom; you answer it."

Lauren let out a sigh, "Fine. Hello? ... Yes it's Lauren! Don't you know you're own daughter's voice? ... Yes, I'm fine. We're waiting for the results of the testing... No, mom, you don't need to come down... I'm serious.... Ok, I'll call you later… Love you, too." She handed the cell phone back. "Gah! She's like freaking out. I could tell that she started to cry when I hung up." She dug her face in her hands.

"It's just because she cares about you."

"Yeah, I know."

Another vibration. "It's Pete. He says that he feels bad that he dropped you off and left you. He's coming here. My phone's gonna die."

"WHAT!? Why is Pete coming?" Lauren had that look of ::ugh! why me:: written in sharpie across her face.

More time passed as we waited for the doctor to open the door with the results. We sat there, and we sat there… and we sat there.... and we sat there...... and we sat there.................... AND WE SAT THERE!!!!! But FINALLY, the door opened.

A younger adult with dark skin and dark hair entered the waiting chamber. He wore an iron-pressed button up shirt, khaki pants, and nice shoes. I thought he was the doctor.

"Pete, what are you doing here!!?" asked Lauren rather loudly.

So this is Pete. I've been told that Pete was hilarious, but I guess that only applied to Jessica because whenever there was an awkward silence, she would burst in laughter claiming that it was Pete's face that made her laugh (even though there was nothing funny about his face). I couldn't tell you how many times she laughed, maybe 5... or 50... or 500... or maybe 5000. 5,000,000! Who knows, but it was a lot.

The real doctor came and all was well with Lauren, and we were free to leave. What a happy ending, don't cha know!

Note:
The events that make up this story are just a relative overview of what really happened in an elapsed 3 hours. The man was really creepy, and What About Bob did actually occur in conversation.