Thursday, January 12, 2012

Heartbreaker


The receptionist sauntered into my edit suite late yesterday afternoon and started straightening the pillows on the sofa.  And in a completely nonchalant and unexcited fashion mentioned "That's so sad what happened to Derek today."  Derek is the other editor at the place I'm working these days.  I spun my chair around toward her and asked "What happened to Derek?"
"Oh you didn't hear?" she asked in a shocked tone.
"No, what happened?" I replied in a shocked tone.
"He's in a heart-attack induced coma."
I was floored.  "What?  When did this happen?"
I couldn't believe it.  I had just had a conversation with Derek that morning.  The strange thing was I didn't remember any commotion or stress like someone having a heart-attack at work.  I thought "Why isn't everybody here freaking out like I am?"

"It happened this afternoon." she told me.
"Wait, where was he?  At work?"
"No" she said "He must have been out at lunch and his son called and said he was in a coma because of a heart-attack."

I was in complete shock.  The idea that it could happen to me made me forget all about work and think about my family, my friends, and the fact that I should probably change my diet.  Eating those chocolate chip cookies they bring into edit suite every day can't be good for preventing cardiac arrest.

The receptionist probably didn't know what else to say, so she left the room.  I needed more info so I walked into the producer's office to see what I could find out.  
She was zoned out on her e-mail, but her long face confirmed what the receptionist said.
I asked "What's this that happened to Derek?"
The producer turned away from her computer and paused.  "Oh did you hear?"
"Yeah, he had a heart-attack?  He's in a coma?  When did this happen?"
"No, it was his dad!  Who told you it was Derek?"
"Diana told me."  I felt totally stupid, but she was laughing at me, which felt kind of morbid because somebody was still in a coma even though it wasn't Derek.
"Oh wow.  That's a relief" I said.  Still felt morbid to be relieved that it was somebody other than Derek in a coma.
I walked out of the producer's office and went back to the edit suite.  I was still a little shaken, but luckily there was a chocolate chip cookie there to calm my nerves.  Yum.