Missing Death

An alarm rang throughout the small room, waking the young man on the bed next to it with his covers thrown off. With his eyes closed, he lifted his tanned arm and slapped the snooze button, stopping the ear-splitting sound. His arm dropped back down with his fingers brushing the chocolate-colored, hardwood floor.

When his alarm sounded again five minutes later, the man remained still. The alarm eventually stopped, but all the man did was roll onto his right side, away from the clock. 30 minutes had gone by when the man started to wonder when the alarm was going to go off again. He lay in bed waiting for the clock to do its job, only to remain silent.

The man sighed and rolled over onto his left with his eyes cracked open. The red digits on the clock read 7:39 AM. He stared blankly at the numbers for three seconds before his eyes widened in disbelief.

“I’m late!” he exclaimed while jumping out of his queen-sized bed and onto the crumpled blanket on the floor, which tangled around his feet, causing him to trip. He fell onto his face, stunning him for a second as pain pulsed in his skull. He lifted his head slowly with his eyes screwed shut, and a groan passed his lips.

He lifted his body off the ground cautiously, being careful to remove his feet from the thick blanket. Once he was free, he ran over to his closet and pulled out his blue business suit, and quickly changed. He left his room and entered the bathroom to brush his teeth and fix his brown hair, thanking his lucky star that he had the insight to take a shower last night. After he finished getting ready, he ran into the kitchen to grab a protein bar and check the time again: 7:50 AM. If he left now, he could make the train. He stuffed his protein bar into his mouth and ran for the door, only to trip again when something grabbed his pant leg.

The man yelped in surprise but caught himself before he face-planted the floor again. He turned to glare at his dog, a young male beagle, who still held his pant leg in his mouth.

“Duke, let go! I’m going to be late for my train!” the man ordered urgently, but the dog didn’t let go. “What has gotten into you, boy? I promise I’ll play with you when I get home, so please let go!” his begging and bribing seemed to work as Duke the dog let go of his pants. “Thank you, I’ll see you later, Duke! Love you, boy!” he shouted as he dashed out the door and jumped into his car.

It took ten minutes to get to the train station, which caused the man to be very panicked. He hopped out of his car with the grace of an ox in a china shop and ran for his train, which had begun to leave the station.

“No, stop the train!” he shouted with his hand outstretched, but of course the train kept moving, leaving him behind. He watched as the train left the station with a sad, mortified expression. His head hung low once the train was out of sight, a sigh of defeat weighing down his shoulders. The man hobbled away from the tracks while pulling out his phone to call his boss.

“Arthur, why are you calling me?” he heard his boss say through the speaker.

“I’m calling to let you know I’m going to be late, Maxwell,” he replied.

“What? You’re never late! How did this happen?”

“I missed the train, so I’m going to have to take my car to get to work.”

“Alright, but make sure this doesn’t happen again.” His boss hung up just as the man, Arthur, got back to his car. He got in and drove away from the station, which would have gotten him to work in five minutes, but now he had to drive for 15 minutes to get there. Since Arthur had a bit of a drive ahead of him, he turned on the radio.

Music played for three minutes into the drive when the news came on. Arthur looked down at the radio curiously, wondering what could be important.

“We are live at Nation Cross where two trains had made a collision just outside the station, causing a small explosion and derailing.”

‘Nation Cross? That’s my train!’ Arthur thought in shocked horror. If he had made the train, he could have either been dead or badly injured. He became grateful to his lazy butt and dog for causing him to miss the train.

A thought struck him then: his family listen to the radio all the time and knew which train he got on every day for work. They must be worried sick about him by now. Arthur grabbed his phone again and called his parents.

“Arthur, are you okay?” his mother shouted through the speaker as soon as she answered, making him pull his phone away from his ear for a second.

“Yes, mom, I’m okay.” He told her everything that happened that morning from the time he got up to hearing the news.

“Thank goodness you’re okay, baby. Remind me to give Duke his favorite treat when I and your father come over later.”

Arthur blushed at being called baby, but ignored it and smiled. “I’m sure you’ll remember without me telling you, mom.” He looked up to see his office building come into view. “I got to go. I’ll see you and dad later.”

“Alright, love you, honey.”

“Love you too, mom.” Arthur hung up and pulled into the parking lot. He sat his car in its assigned spot before turning it off and getting out.

As soon as he entered the building, his co-workers surrounded him. “Arthur, you’re okay! When we heard the news we thought we’d have to visit you in the hospital!” Tyler, a man Arthur had been friends with since college, exclaimed.

“How did you get so lucky?” asked Becky, a young woman he met when he started working in the office. Arthur sighed as he repeated what he told his mom about today’s events.

Maxwell came up to the group after Arthur finished retelling his story and laid a hand on his shoulder. “I’m glad you came late, Arthur. I’d rather have you late for work than dead.”

Arthur raised an eyebrow teasingly. “Was that you worrying about me or not wanting to lose one of your best guys?” Maxwell chuckled, but left the question unanswered and walked back to his office.

“All of you get back to work! As you can see, Arthur is still alive and kicking!” Maxwell ordered before closing his door, causing everyone to groan and return to their boring jobs.

“It’s good to see you in one piece, Arthur,” said Tyler, who punched him in the arm shortly after. “Don’t ever scare us like that again.” Tyler walked back to his desk so he could work on getting his next paycheck.

Arthur rubbed the spot where Tyler punched him and shook his head with a smile on his lips. He turned to his desk and pulled out documents upon documents he would need to fill out for the day from his desk drawer.

‘Well, time to get to work.’