Surrender 01 - Surrender

stopped fanning the air and laid the newspaper out on the table, running her thumb along the creases to make it lie flat so she could search through the ads again. She must have missed something. There was a job out there for her — there had to be. She just wasn’t trying hard enough to find it.
    A three-hour search and twenty-five calls later, Ari flopped back on the couch and the tears started. At first, they were just a slender trickle, but it didn’t take long for them to flow down her cheeks and drip off her chin.
    It seemed so hopeless.
    What was she going to do?
    After allowing herself half an hour of falling apart, Ari had just brushed away the last of her tears when the phone rang. Her head spun around as she gazed at the contraption as if it were a lifeline to save her in the middle of an ocean where sharks were slowly circling closer and closer.
    “Hello.” Ari’s voice was full of hope. It had to be someone calling her back about one of the hundreds of jobs she’d applied, someone saying the company needed her to start immediately. It was either that or one of the many bill collectors seeking money she didn’t have to give them.
    “Is Ms. Harlow available?”
    “This is she.” It’s a prospective employer, she thought positively.
    “This is the Clover Care Facility. Your mother has been transported over to San Francisco General Hospital. Can you go there immediately?”
    “Is everything OK with my mom?”
    “Ms. Harlow, it would be better if you could leave now and arrive quickly. They will answer all your questions when you get there.”
    Ari sat silently for a moment as she forced herself to take a quick breath. Something was wrong with her mom. Selfishly, she didn’t want to know. After the day she’d had, she couldn’t take any further bad news.
    “Yes, of course,” she automatically replied before hanging up.
    With sagging shoulders, she gathered her purse and left the apartment. Her mom had always told her never to leave that till tomorrow which she could do today. It was a sentiment dear to Benjamin Franklin’s heart, and he happened to be one of her heroes. That proverb went with the good and the bad. Even with terrible news, she might as well get it over with.
    She climbed into her car and made the thirty-minute journey to the hospital , mustering as much courage as possible for the moments that would follow her arrival . Was she going to walk in only to find that her mother had given up and passed away? She knew they planned on sending her to a state facility, and if that happened, she’d never get the treatment she needed. Ari just didn’t know any of it anymore. She didn’t know whether she could handle whatever they had to say.
    As Ari stepped from her car, she heard chanting voices and wondered what was happening. As she approached the front doors of the hospital, there was a crowd of protesters lining the walk. She had to get through, but hated to pass by them as they waved their signs angrily.
    “Don’t support their greed. Find another hospital!” they chanted as she neared. With her head down she passed by, feeling something hit her arm. She didn’t dare look up, afraid that if she made eye contact, they might attack her outright. “Traitor!” was the last thing she heard before she reached the safety of the hospital lobby.
    “Ms. Harlow, thank you for coming down so quickly. I apologize for the disturbance at the entrance. The hospital has had cutbacks, and I’m afraid there are several previous staff members who are upset. Again, I’m sorry that you had to endure that, but there’s news of your mother and we needed you to come right away. She’s awake.”
    It took a few moments for the nurse’s words to register. Her mother was awake. She was out of the coma. Ari felt blackness trying to overtake her vision as she gazed in shock at the woman in front of her. There was no way she could pass out. She fought it with all she had.
    She was so exhausted both physically and mentally, the unexpected news was almost too much for her to handle. She wouldn’t believe them until she actually saw her mom; more than anything else, Ari needed to hear that beloved voice. No one else could comfort her like her mother — she needed the woman who’d always been there through the good and the bad.
    Ari finally fully understood why she was breaking apart so much. She’d been trying to do all of this without her mom. Never before had she realized how much she’d