Everleigh woke up in the middle of the night to a scream coming from a sweating, panting husband who looked as if he was drowned in despair.
"Harry? What's wrong?" Instead of getting frustrated because he woke her up, Everleigh lightly touched the side of Harold's face, his cheek.
All of a sudden, Harold was calmed down. Still breathing heavily, but tranquilly. He had his dear wife there to comfort him.
Through his heavy breathing, Harry managed to speak some words.
"N-Nothing. Just a nightmare. What a horrible dream."
"What did you dream, Harry?"
Harry took a few moments to catch his breath.
"Well- Well... Um- I dreamt-" He stuttered, but not because he was breathing heavily, his breathing had calmed down by now.
Then he said, "Wait, what was that dream about?"
"Daddy! I can't sleep! Can you get me a glass of water!"
"Okay son, I'll go to the kitchen with you to get it. Also, I just remembered, I saw something earlier during the day that I need to talk to you about. We'll talk when I get back from work today."
Harry got up out of bed. He turned is head both ways looking around the room, to establish perception of his surroundings so he can start walking. In doing this, he saw the pizza that he bought for Everly. It was completely uneaten. Like no one had touched it. Even though he vaguely remembers seeing an empty pizza box, for some reason. And for some other reason it was completely empty that he was seeing it now.
He thought about confronting Everleigh and asking why she hadn't eaten the pizza, but decided not to disturb her rest, and let her get back to trying to sleep.
He then went to grab his son a cup of water with ice, and placed it on the nightstand next it his bed before tucking him in and kissing him goodnight.
Now finished with his son's task, Harry forgets about everything and holds Everleigh until they both fall asleep.
During these late-night, early-morning events, Harry did not check the time even once.
Upon waking up, Harry remembered that none of his family is awake at the time he gets up for work. He goes to work very early in the morning, before the sun even rises. Every morning, he watches his steps very closely as he gets ready for work, because he does not want to awake Everleigh or Little Lucas.
The sun isn't up yet, so Harold doesn't bother to check the time. It's early enough to avoid being tardy anyways, so what's the point?
Eating breakfast, brushing his teeth, and getting in uniform for work he was, all while anticipating the great day he has ahead of him, just like every other morning.
Harry remembers that his son woke up late last night. He began to worry about his son, so he went to his room to check up on him. When he entered the room, he smiled a little at the sight of Little Lucas sleeping like an angel. Then, he turned his head a little and saw the cup of water he got Lucas last night. It was completely full, just like it was when he gave it to Little Lucas, except the ice was melted. He vaguely remembered seeing the cup empty, though, and got a strange feeling.
It was almost as if he had been through all of this before.
As he is ready to leave, he decides to check the time on his watch. He didn't do this "just in case" or "to make sure." He didn't even have a gut feeling that it was late, but he checked just because he felt like it.
Upon checking the time, Harold found out that he was late to work.
"Ring!" The house phone rang once.
Once is all it was able to ring because Harry bolted so fast toward it after he heard it ring only once that it almost seem like he teleported. It was loud, and he did not want to disturb the souls resting upstairs.
"Hello? Who is this?"
It was the familiar raspy voice of an old woman.
"Yes, this is Mary from Terra Mental Hospital. It is currently 7:05 A.M. so about five minutes later than you should have been here, Mr. Elmer."
"Yes, I'm sorry, Mary please forgive me, I'll be there immediately."
How could he possibly forget. Last night was the time change for daylight savings. No wonder the sun was still down at seven in the morning.
"Yeah Elmer, we would like you to attend immediately." She said, laughing a little at his panic voice.
Harry quickly hung up and got out of the house. He started walking to work.
He wondered why they called his house phone instead of his cell, so he reached in his pocket for his phone.
"Oh, that's right, I don't have a cell phone."
Finally arriving at work, the staff greeted him warmly.
"Our best surgeon here in the flesh!" The one who said that was Michael, the 60 something year old president of the institution. White thinning hair and wrinkles all over his face. He was considered the 'boss' of the hospital and had the most medical experience, but was retired and now only bossed around other doctors.
"You're fifteen minutes late." said Mary, the seemingly cranky old woman with a unique sense of humor. Most of the things she said would sound very serious if she didn't laugh after saying them. No one but her laughed.
"Harry! We missed you here!" That one was Pete, the assistant who always looked up to Harry.
"I'm fifteen minutes late and this is how you people react."
Smiling, Harry continued "Okay let's get to work."