Rude Awakening (Moe)

He awoke slowly, eyes straining against the bright light that was pouring through the open window. Rising slowly out of the bed he glanced at the clock on the far wall. “12:15? That can’ t be right he thought. That would mean I have only been sleeping for twenty minutes.” As he was beginning to wonder how he could sleep for such a short time and feel rested like he’d slept for days, the phone began to ring. “Who could that be?” , he thought, “I’ve only been off shift for an hour!” He began moving towards the desk to answer when a sharp pain exploded from the base of his skull encompassing his entire body. His head began to swoon and lights began popping in front of his eyes. He felt himself falling but could do nothing. Then all went black.

He awoke to a salty taste in his mouth, and his head throbbing. Pushing himself off the floor he saw a small puddle of blood. He reached up to his mouth and then realized the salty taste was from his own blood. “Must have hit my jaw when I fell. Wait…I must have passed out…..I have never passed out.” He remembered the pain then. Reaching around to the back of his head he began to rub his neck when the phone began ringing again. Standing up he grabbed the phone off the desk and looked at the caller ID. STATION was flashing on the display. “What can they want? I have only been gone a couple of hours?” But as he glanced at the clock he saw it was now 15:27. “Well I must have really hit my head good” , he thought. “Hello” he said answering the phone.
“Moe where the hell are you? The Cap is furious, you are really in for it this time”
“ What are you talking about? I have only been off shift for a few hours, does he want me to pull a double?”
“Man your shift started almost five hours ago we had to hold Pagnelli over to cover for you. Get you butt down here ASAP before the old man catches wind of this. You are going to have a hard enough time dealing with Cap, you don’t want to get the Chief in on……”

He heard the bell in the back ground start to wail. “Man we got a run, it would be best if you were here when we get back.. bye” Moe stood there confused. “ I just got off. I couldn’t have hit my head that hard, could I?” He looked at his phone. “22 Missed calls? 15 new Voice Messages?”, he pulled up the calendar, “Wait a second…. I have lost a whole day!”

He rushed to the bathroom, grabbing his previous days uniform, or rather his three day old uniform , off the chair as he went. Looking at himself in the mirror he saw a huge bruise beginning to form on his left temple. Dried blood pooled in the corners of his mouth. “Well don’t you look great?” He frowned, “That is gong to leave a……wait a second… that looks fresh! .” He then realized that he had not been unconscious for the whole previous day, he had slept it away. This injury was far to recent to have been caused over 24 hours ago. But why had he not heard the phone ringing 22 times? Why had his alarms not woke him. There were questions he wanted answered, but for now he had to get to work.