May 5, 2025

I was leaving the house for work when suddenly my niece ran out the door and tried to jump over the fence, only to land straight on her face. She looked up at me with her bloodied nose and started crying as I rushed over to pick her up.

While carrying her back to the house I called my manager to ask for a day off when sirens started blaring down the street. Apparently the background noise made my phone automatically dial 911 instead and I had to hang up before trying again.

I told my manger I needed a day off for an emergency but in response they read out a text message that I had sent a while back: “Brother took my luggage? Isn’t that a good thing?” They asked. I had to tell them that message was entirely unrelated to the current matter at hand and explain the situation.

“Absolutely not. How many days do you have left anyways?” They said. I was stunned. Usually they had been pretty accommodating so I couldn’t make sense of why they’d reject my request for a day off.