Wendy walked down the sidewalk on her way to her appointment. She forgot her headphones at home. She was running late because the radio host told her not to set the alarm. Wendy overslept. She had to walk without music. She passed by the coffee shop. Coffee smelled good yesterday. Today it
smells like spoiled milk. She hurried past the shop and continued to work. She came up to a stop light and waited in the crowd. She could hear murmuring and whispers behind her. She was sure they were talking about her. The walk sign lit up and the crowd crossed the street. She walked by a television store and stopped. It was the news. The news anchor looked at Wendy and told her that she should have stayed home today. Forgetting her headphones was a bad sign. The weatherman said ‘they’ were after her. Wendy looked over her shoulder and saw a group of people with cameras walking towards her. She pulled her hoodie over her head and cut across the street. She could hear a man yelling at her from the other side of the road to jump in front of a car. Telling her to end it all; that she was a burden. Wendy looked over at the man and he was sitting at a bus stop reading a newspaper. She picked up the pace. Two more blocks to go. Wendy put her hands over her ears to drown out the sounds. She kept repeating in her head to not forget her headphones next time. The more she said those words, the more it turned into the not leave the house. Wendy made it to building for her appointment. She always took the stairs because the music in the elevator would sing to Wendy that the cables were going to snap and she would fall to her death. She walked through the big wooden double doors and sat down in the chair. The doctor turned around in
his seat and greeted Wendy. “Good morning. Are you doing OK today?” Wendy shook her head and told the doctor what happened on her way to the doctor’s office. The doctor looked at her and asked, “Wendy, did you take your medicine yesterday?” She looked down and shook her head. The doctor exhaled and explained, “You know Wendy, you have to take your meds on a daily basis to make the voices stop. You can’t skip a dose with your type of Schizophrenia. You’ll regress.”