Theresa Lewis

One would have to say that I was very lucky this past winter. Most of the folks here got that nasty flu that seemed to make everyone so sick. In many cases, their misery lasted a good few weeks.  I, thank God, escaped all that. However, I felt sick in a different way. Perhaps it was the lack of fresh air, or lack of daylight, but I became extremely lethargic. I had lots of things to do, but I didn’t have the energy to do anything. Every time I made my list of chores, I accomplished nothing on my list.

 

I thought that perhaps the move to my new apartment in the end of September had been harder on me than I realized. I know that by the time I got here, I no longer had the wherewithal to think my way out of a paper bag. I was physically, emotionally and mentally drained.

 

In conversation with my sister one day, I told her how miserable I was feeling.  She’s older than I am by a couple of years, yet she seems to have boundless energy. She told me that she takes a dietary supplement called “Total Energy”. Judging by her energy level, I thought, it must be some magical elixir and I wanted some too.

 

I got some and that very day, I took my first capsule. I guess I had set my expectations too high because I didn’t notice much difference for the first three weeks that I took a daily dose. One thing I did notice was that my memory became much sharper after the second week. By the end of week three, I noticed that I felt a tad jittery and somehow, all the tasks on my list of chores were getting done.

 

By the end of week four, I noticed that being a bit jittery caused me to get easily startled by someone’s sudden movements, or a sudden loud noise. I seemed to be doing a lot of knee-jerk reactions to situations which is not my usual behavior.

 

One morning in March, I had slept in a bit late. I felt very good when I got up around eleven o’clock. Before I had a chance to shower and get dressed, my niece popped in for a brief visit. As soon as she left, I headed to the washroom to answer the call of nature and to shower.

 

Not meaning to gross anyone out, but just as I started to do “my thing”, I heard the apartment building’s fire alarm go off. It was one very loud, long ring. Panic raced through my being. I couldn’t stop what I was doing. I had to finish. Even if I could stop, I couldn’t run out of the apartment in my birthday suit. Thank God, I had laid my clothes out for the day when I got up. I just prayed that I had enough time to finish “my thing” and get dressed before being incinerated. I was in a state of panic.

 

Suddenly, another loud long ring went off then a series of three rings immediately followed. My already jittery heart was pounding out of my chest. Three rings to me is a serious distress call, like an SOS signal.

 

Once I was done in the washroom, I scurried to the bedroom and tossed the socks and underwear aside and jumped into a sweatshirt and slacks.

I shoved my feet back into my slippers, snatched up my keys and fled my apartment. I headed towards the back exit door that was just a mere few feet from my apartment. I met two other residents there. One lady looked about as bad as I did and the other had on a winter jacket, boots and was carrying her purse. I never even thought to take my purse or a jacket and I only had slippers on my feet. It was awfully cold outside and there was still a lot of snow on the ground.

 

Out of nowhere a young man appeared and startled me with his presence. He calmly stated that there was no need to panic because there was no fire. It was his job to check the system and make sure it was functioning efficiently. My heart was still whacking out of control. I felt like punching him in the face.

 

I told him that this was a building full of seniors. He should have given us a heads up before scaring the crap out of us.

 

Any one of us could have had a heart attack. He did apologize and I felt bad for ripping a strip off him. I knew how bad I looked being only half dressed and my hair not even combed, but at that moment, I really didn’t care.

 

I went back to my apartment and peeled off my clothes so I could take a shower. No sooner did I start the water running when I heard someone’s smoke detector go off. I paused for a moment then I heard another smoke detector. On, no! There was a fire, I thought, because the smoke detector sounded for a long time. I turned off the shower and quickly got dressed again. Then I heard another alarm go off, and another, and another.

 

In my fragile state of mind, I envisioned the scenario of the hallway filling with smoke and triggering each alarm as it progressed down the hall. I quickly dressed as before, snatched up my keys and took a moment to jump into my boots and to grab my winter jacket. This time I was better prepared.

 

As I ripped open my apartment door, I almost ran into another young man right outside my door. He came in and announced that he was now checking the apartment’s smoke detector, just to make sure they were functioning normally. Once again, there was no fire.

 

I don’t know why I felt the need to ruin that young man’s day by giving him the last piece of my now demented mind, but I did. Just like the other fellow, he apologized profusely. Once he assured me that all was fine, I resumed my task of showering and dressing.

 

I was still shaking and felt like I was tightly wound up. The warm shower did nothing to calm me down. I decided to play a few games on the computer, just to relax myself.  Suddenly, I heard a noise that sounded like beeping. It seemed to be coming from the kitchen. I had no idea where the noise was coming from. Could it be from the stove, or the fridge, or maybe it was from the television? I felt frazzled until I found that it was the telephone. It beeps to alert me that the battery needs charging. Phew! That was easy enough to fix.

 

With my jangled nerves somewhat soothed, but too much energy to expend inside my two rooms, I decided to do my laundry. In this building, we’re provided with a washer and dryer that are free for the tenants. I did one load of wash without a hitch. When I went to change the washing over to the dryer, one lady came rushing towards me. She ran up to me too fast and too close. I could see that she wasn’t going to put the brakes on so in an automatic reaction, I raised my hands because I thought she was going to crash into me. She grabbed all of my fingers on both hands. It frightened me. I tried to rip my hands free, but she held on tight… too tight, as she parked her towering presence on my bottom lip to talk to me.

 

No, I didn’t know this woman. I had seen her once and let’s say that I was somewhat relieved that she lived at the opposite end of the corridor. She is not overly heavy, but she is big and close to six feet tall. She actually scared the crap out of me.

 

I wrestled my two trembling hands free so I could fold my clothes. You have no idea how difficult it is to fold clothes when you’re trembling like a leaf.

 

That woman was so close to me that as I bent over to take articles from the dryer, she bent over the top of my head to rattle on about something that I couldn’t make any sense of. A few times I bumped into her as I straightened up.

 

As she rattled on, I thought about how lucky she was that I didn’t do a Judo self-defense move on her. Mentally, I did it. Scenario after scenario played itself out in my mind. Images of me being arrested for defending myself raced through my brain. I saw myself going to jail then being evicted from my apartment and all my possessions being dumped outside on the ground. And the headlines in the newspapers, oh Lord, I was finished here.

 

My “Total Energy” pills were working on me overtime. When I got back to my apartment, I mentally re-played the events of the day. It was scary. I decided to stop taking the “Total Energy” pills that very night.

 

Old people should not have that kind of energy especially when they live in a two room apartment. I firmly believe that running up the walls and across the ceiling to expend energy are only meant for the young.

 

I told my sister about my day and said that I simply am not cut out to deal with that kind of energy. She said that she doesn’t take them every day, just once in a while when she has a busy day ahead of her. Yeah, right, well she didn’t tell me that in the beginning. The bottle says to take three a day, but I only took one a day and look what it did to me.

 

Now, I am back to my old fuzzy-brain self with just enough energy to handle living in two rooms. It’s safer this way. I will never again complain about feeling lethargic. I’m supposed to feel like this. I’m old.

 

THE END