I woke up the next morning, not even remembering how I fell asleep that night. I got up out of my bed, groaning from the fact that I had to go to school.

I walked into the kitchen and looked at the stove clock, 5:00 am. Great. I was awake early…

I turned on the light to the kitchen and started to grab ingredients for pancakes. I normally never wake up early enough to make them, so this was my opportunity. Sizzling could be heard from the cast iron griddle, the Pam spray settling into the heat of the pan as it melted. The smell of butter surrounded the house.

It was around 6:00 am, the time I would normally awaken from my slumber… of which I wanted forever. I turned the knobs of the stove off and put my pancakes on a fresh plate. I placed the pan in the sink, which yet again made another sizzling noise as the cold water hit the burning pan.

“Two…” I whispered to myself looking into the water, still holding the pan. I remember my dad making pancakes like this. Washing the pan before letting it cool down. Though, that was years ago, I don’t know how I could remember it, but I could. I was three.

When I was three, I could speak, but only Spanish. My mom taught me English when I was six. My dad left when I was three. Him making the pancakes was his last day at home… he moved to Guatemala the following day.

Soon, my mom and I would be one. I was moving soon. High school was almost done for me; school ended in five months, and I would turn 18 in three.

“One.” I said looking at the pan as I dropped it into the sink, turning off the faucet. I held the edge of the sink rims, looking down for a quick second and then walked into the living room with my pancakes.

I realized how my mom wasn’t awake yet, and it worried me. She was always awake by six. She has work everyday, so I couldn’t imagine why she wasn't up. This had worried me, this was a first since my dad left 15 years ago. I walked to my moms room, flinching my hand when I knocked on the freezing wooden door.

“Mama?” I opened the door and saw her sleeping. “What?” I walked over to my mom, placing my hand on her cheek… it was ice cold. I held my hand back. It was fall, but not cold enough to make her freeze. She twisted to her side, making a groaning noise and the frozen-hot breath that you could see come out of her mouth. I would only assume that these were terrible conditions. I called into the ambulance, I didn’t have the strength to pick her up off of the bed, but as I waited, I sat on the bed, calling the schools office.

“Hi, my name is Nira Coblina.” I looked at my mom, she wasn’t doing so well, her face was sick and her smile didn’t show up. “I’m calling in for a family emergency.” I looked back at the dark wall and hung up.

I heard a knock on the door and I immediately ran up to get it. As expected, it was the ambulance. All dressed in their little uniforms. I walked aside, they came in looking through every room to find her. I watched as few of them went out to the truck, and I heard two men talking from her room. Though, it was muffled.

“Alejandra Coblina, can you hear me?” He asked in a stern voice. I didn’t realize how professional these guys actually were, until today. I looked to the door and saw the few men coming back in with the stretcher.

I went in the back of the truck with my mom and few other paramedics. Holding her hand was difficult. I never thought that she’d be going to the hospital… not today… all my thoughts were scrambled and fuzzy, and I couldn’t explain why. Why my mom was in freezing in her warm bedroom. It just didn’t add up.

“Nira?” I heard a shaky and hesitant voice appear from the sounds of the truck’s engine. I lowered my head down to look at my mom. I didn’t have any words to say. I would try, but they came out as mumbles or some sort of gibberish, that of course, no one would understand. Hot tears streamed down my face, leaving a liquidy-pink trail behind them. I left my head down the rest of the drive to the hospital, rubbing the palm of my mom’s hand with my thumb.

We had made it to the hospital, and was almost immediately held in an emergency room. I sat on a waiting chair. I didn’t want to see my mom… not… now.

My heart raced, like a herd of elephants passing through my veins. The intensity was too real for me, and the sound shifted from normal and quiet into loud a fuzz and shakiness.

“Miss Coblina-” I heard a voice take away the intense noise. I turn my face to the woman holding a clipboard. “You can come in now.” Her calm voice was too calm for a situation like this. Though, I stood up and followed her into the room. My head turned when I saw her.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked, putting one hand on the chair and slowly bending down to sit.

“We are not quite sure what happened. But we are trying to figure it out.” Still calm. I can-NOT believe her voice. No stutter. No hesitation. No yelling. It’s all calm! But… I still didn’t have any words to say.

I watched my mom on the… bed. I never really liked hospitals. They seem to have this vibe about them that makes me… I don’t know… shake. I haven’t been at a real hospital before, just those little clinics that are all the popularity these days. This was just something out of the blue.

“Hernando...?” Dad? She whispered dad’s name. Which, confuses me. Why did she whisper dad’s name?

“Mama?”

“Mija…” My heart shot out of my chest. I got up off the chair and walked towards my mom.

“Mama,” I said holding her hand, “a-are you okay?” I stuttered. I thought she was in the past. She has Never said his name once since he left, and now she’s just… BOOM Hernando where you be?

My mom reached over left hand to hold mine.

“I’m okay, Mija.” She had a cough come out after her sentence, “What… happened?”

“I don’t know…” I responded, moving her left hand back to her left side. “Just… sleep… okay” My mom nodded in response, and it didn’t take long for her to go back to sleep. I just am hoping that she is okay.

I woke up the next morning. But yet again… not remembering how I fell asleep. Something just doesn’t feel normal anymore. I’m not remembering how I fall asleep, and my mom gets to below freezing temperatures in a warm bedroom and comforter.

I shook off the curiosity, but the more I tried to shake it off, the more and more I thought of it. The fuzz and shakiness in my ear came back, but stopped to a voice. Not a real voice. But a voice in my head.

My head shook, and I woke up… Again. I couldn’t understand what was going on. But now, I have another added problem to my mind. These things are all happening at once, but I could be just paranoid. My mind is everywhere, and I haven’t had the time to figure out what was going on.

“Nira.” I felt shaking. Someone was shaking me. I shot up from the couch, my pancakes falling to the floor. The plate broke into thousands of pieces. “Are you awake yet?”

“Mama, you were just in the hospital,” speaking a hundred words per second, I slowed down. “How are we… here?” I asked. Her face went worried to confused.

“Mija, you and I have been here the whole time.” She held my shoulders. “Are you alright?” Patting my face, she walked away to grab more pancakes from the kitchen.

It was all a dream?