isolation

last tuesday, around 1am, i sent a short barni update via e-mail to my friend eric.

he didn't respond.

huh, that's weird. he usually writes back. oh yeah, he's in wausau this week. i usually don't hear much from him when he is traveling for work. i'll talk to him this weekend.

last sunday, i gave eric a call.

his phone went directly to voice mail.

huh, that's weird. he's usually really good about keeping his phone charged. not this time, i guess. i left a message. "hey, eric. are you coming over? i know we didn't talk this week, but i figured the plan was to get together today and work on barni. give me a call when you get a chance."

he didn't call back.

that stinker ditched me!

monday. he didn't call back.

huh, that's weird. oh, he must have lost his phone. and he probably has no idea what my phone number is without it pre-programmed into his phone. he'll call when he finds it or gets it replaced.

wednesday. 5am. something woke me up.* whatever you want, it bedtime. go away. too late. i'm awake. think, think, think. boy, i can't believe eric hasn't called back yet. maybe he's in wausau again this week. but that's really not like him. maybe he's not calling because he's taken so long to call back that now he's avoiding getting yelled at. not that i yell at him. but i'm starting to get worried. he should have replaced his phone by now.

thursday am. i give eric a call. the phone goes directly to voice mail. again? still? wow, that's weird. maybe something is wrong. well, he couldn't be dead - steve would have read the obit and let me know (yes, i literally thought this). but something is wrong, here. i better do a google search. type in "eric malmgren" and the first entry links to a story with the following headline: 4 dead in crash west of Wausau include siblings

oh. shit.

the article, after i mustered the courage to read it, tells me that eric is in the hospital, not the morgue. further google searching tells me that he was in critical condition, and that he has now been transferred to a hospital in minneapolis. and thanks to hipaa, the hospital in wausau is not able to tell me a damn thing.

nothing else to do but start calling hospitals.

i found him, at hcmc. i left my name and phone number with his nurse in the hopes that his family will approve me as a visitor tomorrow. the family makes that decision? ...not...the...patient? oh. shit.

so here is my sad revelation:

despite the internet, cell phones, instant messaging, and all the other ways of communicating we have available to us today, it still took me a week and a half to figure out that something had happened to a good friend.

maybe i need to be a better friend.

*when this happens, i assume it's someone trying to communicate with me telepathically.