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Sue’s heart pounded as she stared at her phone.
“Come on, pick up. I’ve been calling all day.”
But no matter how many times she called, Reed didn’t answer.
“Well, I guess I can try Johnny.”
Of course, she’d prefer to have comfort from her husband.
But Johnny had a certain way of brightening her day. Sometimes. When he wasn’t being a pest.
And is it wrong to think he’d be there after all the times I’d been there for him?
Day turned to night.
Nobody called.
Nobody visited.
Well, at least my family doesn’t have to see me cry.
Sue was tired.
But despite her exhaustion, she just couldn’t sleep.
The hospital bed simply wasn’t comfortable.
At sunrise, Sue made up her mind.
She had to escape the hospital.
It wasn’t hard to sneak past without notice. After all, she could just turn invisible. And so, she did, until she was at the nearest bus stop. As she waited for a bus, rain clouds began filling the sky.
It wasn’t long before Sue realized that she was on the wrong bus. She was headed anywhere near her home. From her family.
As if they wanted to see me anyways.
Sue began to wonder what she had done to deserve being abandoned.
Did they get tired of me? Maybe I have been a bitch lately.
When the bus reached its final stop, Sue got off and began wandering the streets aimlessly. The clouds were getting heavier. It wasn’t long before she was caught in a torrential downpour.
Sue ran to take cover under an awning in front of a store. Sitting on the nearby bench, she finally allowed herself to cry.
Of course, it always has to rain when you’re sad.
Sue cried and cried until the sun came out.
Splish! Splash!
A little boy in rain boots skipped over, grinning and hopping through puddles.
“Hey, aren’t you one of the Fantastic Four?” he asked.
Sue sat up and quickly tried to wipe away her tears and snot.
“You’re the Invisible Woman!” he said.
Sue nodded, trying to look friendly.
“I am!”
The boy grinned.
“Do you want me to turn invisible?” Sue asked.
“That’s okay,” the boy said. “You don’t have to, if you don’t want to.”
“Well… okay,” Sue said.
“I heard you sad,” the boy said. “Is it because you miss your family?”
“How do you know that?”
She was started to become annoyed with this child.
“Because they’re in space, and you’re here on Earth.”
“They’re… what?”
Sue’s ears started ringing, and her heart was pounding again.
“Yeah, I saw it on the news.”
The boy paused and tilted his head before quickly changing the subject.
“So… is that, like, a new superhero suit or something?”
Sue looked down and blushed. She had been in her pajamas this whole time. Not only that, there was still an IV catheter in her arm.
“Something like that,” she said.
Well, at least they were the same shade of blue as her uniform.
Luckily for her, the boy’s mother was calling, and he ran away before he could ask any more questions.
Sue sighed. Her heart rate had gone back to normal, but her chest still hurt.
Her head was hurting, too.
Suddenly, it dawned on her.
Wait a minute, why was I in the hospital in the first place?
She put her hand on her forehead, wincing as she felt the tenderness of a bruise.
Oh, no. I must have hit my head! But when? And how?
“Maybe I should just go back to the hospital,” she muttered.