At 5:30 everyday the company’s doors switches from an entrance to an exit as the work day ends. Every day at this time, crowds of managers and their employees flock through the door ways trying to get to the safe haven known as the parking garage. Among those employees migrating to their vehicles, Stuart Ashburn can always be spotted. Stuart is a 34 year old arrogant man, thinking too much about himself. Constantly reaching up and fussing with his hair, giving nods and the occasional “hey” while walking with his co-workers. Stuart reaches for his car door and gets in to sit in the german leather seats worth every penny. Starting the car with a push of a button he was the first out of the garage and on his way home hopeful for the weekend. Driving was Stuart’s favorite past time, always calmed him down and put him into a good mood. Once Stuart arrived to his house on the beach, he didn’t even sit down for a second before getting a request to go out for the night. He got back into the car and headed to the best restaurant in San Diego to meet with his buddies. Arriving there, Stuart managed to notice that he was in fact the last to arrive, yet he didn’t care. He had found the perfect road that goes on for miles, the perfect road for driving. Stuart walked in and immediately gets a resounding yell from the back table. WIth a smile on his face, he made his way to the table to greet and eat with his friends. During dinner, their table could be heard from anywhere in the restaurant. All throughout the meal, the group was talking about every topic under the sun. At the end of the meal, Stuart’s buddy Tony suggested the idea of going clubbing and every customer jumped at the thunderous reply. That choice became an event that Stuart not only regretted making, but would change if he could ever go back and fix it. Stumbling, the group exited the restaurant and went down the sidewalk together,tripping over each others and their own feet, finding the club they wanted. Once they arrived Stuart had a blast, at least that he could remember. He could recall snippets, from Tony yelling “Woah dude…… is fine let’s  go”  Or visions of him and his buddy chester dancing in the middle of a random group. All he could remember from that is as he spun, the conversations blurred together combining one sentence in his head “What are these old guys doing here?”Finally they leave and wobble to their cars. The only thing on Stuart’s mind was to go down that road and drive freely. He made it to that road, but with some trouble. For some reason the roads seemed to blur together and his car was a little uncontrollable. He began down the stretch and about a quarter of the way through he begins to swerve, small at first then the farther he went the more it became. The last thing Stuart did was yank the wheel to avoid a truck that was seemingly coming at him. Stuart began to come to while hearing voices. “20 cc’s… begin compressions… stay… me. . .”  And he blacks out again. Stuart jerks awake, startled by the silence surrounding him. Looking around he was hooked up to machines registering every vital that he gave off. Listening to the methodical rhythm of his heart, Stuart passed out again.  When Stuart resurfaced for the last time, he felt completely sick to his stomach, yet just as he was going to get up a doctor walked in. “Great!” exclaimed the doctor, “You’re up”. “Give it to me straight doctor,” replied Stuart, “Am I going to be ok?” “Well the cat scan revealed a concussion, so you’re going to have to let someone else coach for a little while,” revealed the doctor.
“Wait, step down from coaching? I’ve never coached anything,” Stuart responds. “Yes, you were coaching your daughter Sadie’s game and you got hit by a softball” says the doctor,” Don’t worry it happens to the best of us.” Stuart couldn’t believe what he was hearing, this doctor had the wrong man. Then he noticed on the bedside table was a wallet. Stuart reaches for it and felt it’s sudden emptiness. He opened it and sitting in the front pocket was a license. Yet it wasn’t him. This wallet belonged to a Mr. Cedric Hourne. Stuart speaks up and interrupts the doctor, “Umm… this isn’t my wallet.” “It belongs to a mr. Cedric Hourne,” Stuart follows up. The doctor gives him a strange look, “But that is who you are.” Instantly Stuart’s hands shot up to his head and he began to moan. The doctor looked at him and muttered underneath his breath “is this still about him not being able to coach?” Looking at his clipboard, the doctor began to walk out of the room, saying over his shoulder as he left “oh yea, your family is out here and they want to see you.” Stuart lost all color in his face when he heard those two words, your family. As soon as the door closed it was forced open again with the doctor in the lead, “his family” behind the doctor. The first three people in the room, turned to him and ran towards him all yelling “daddy!” His kids. They came running over and the youngest jumped up on the bed with him. Stuart put on a smile for them and then witnessed an older woman walking towards him, a smile on her face showed true love and compassion. She stopped short, realizing that this wasn’t the same smile that she had been used to all her life. He painfully sat and listened to the kids talk about how worried they were, and about how sorry little Sadie was. Finally after a while, the women sent the kids outside to give Stuart some space. The minute the door shut, she turned on him and said “ Honey, you don’t seem the same is something wrong?” Stuart looked at her and replied “Honestly, I don’t remember anything. Who I am, who are you guys are, or even where we are.” She gave him a sympathetic look and softly said, “then just ask and I will fill you in.” For the next 45 minutes Stuart learned about the life that he took, Cedric Hourne. He learned about the kids, Desmond, Rose, and Sadie, then he learned his age,34, and his job, he is a salesman. The last thing he learned is all about his wife, Zoe, and about when, where, and how they met and went out. Stuart begins to feel as if he had always been Cedric. The kids came back in and then he chatted with them, as their ‘dad’. Stuart got released from the hospital the next morning and spent time with the family, acting as if he never left. The only thing is Stuart had a knot in his stomach that got tighter and tighter by the day. Then he went to work. Sitting in a meeting in the office, Stuart began to make a plan. He was determined to get his old life back. Forming a plan, he decided to take some time off of work and board a plane from Miami and go straight to San Diego. Stuart walked into HR and sent in the request form and got it immediately. Of course though there was the little shmoozing of the person in charge. Stuart started the conversation “ Hey Sean, we should go grab a bite to eat. We haven't talked in a long time.” Sean replied “ Yea lets go!” So they went to lunch and mid way through Stuart brings up the injury. “So Sean, did you hear that I recently had a head injury coaching my daughters softball game?” Warmly, Sean replies “ yea I heard about it, and if you need anything let me know.
“Well now that you mention it,” Stuart says, “ I think I could still use a few days off for recovery.” “Yea, anything you need” Stuart took this moment to then request a few days off. Stuart left work right after lunch, went home and booked his flight. When Zoe walked into the room, Stuart was surprised. Shocked he said “What… what are you doing home?” Zoe replies coldly “I was notified when the plane tickets went onto our bank statement, what are you thinking Cedric.” Stuart was stunned for a minute at how cold she was, then he replied warmly with a smile “I have to close a deal for work, and the company already gave up.” “They said if I want to spend my money and fly out there to close it, I get a cut.” Immediately Zoe lightened up and says “ alright, but be safe and call before and after you land.” Stuart got up, called a cab, and went to the airport. Before Stuart boarded he gave the house a call, little Sadie answered it right away. “Daddy!” she shouted “I miss you and love you, so so so much!” He began to feel a twinge in his heart. He realized he began to care for these kids and Zoe. Pushing this from his head, Stuart finished the call with no emotion and then sat for the rest of the flight playing games off of his phone. Stuart, going through what the phone has, looked on the pictures and realized that this wasn’t his phone it was Cedrics! Going through all the pictures he saw countless ones of the man he was with his kids and wife, each one with a big loving smile. As Stuart’s heart began to grow for this family, his stomach knotted more and more. Stuart landed, calling his family again, and then got straight into the car. Driving to the hospital, Stuart got worse and worse. When he pulled up to the hospital, he almost needed a cane because he was in so much pain. Stuart burst through the hospital doors, eyes wide with panic and fear.
Stuart stumbles to the main desk, feeling nauseous. “Where’s room 173?” he yelled to the nearest nurse. As she lead him down the hall, all Stuart could think about is how he felt worse and worse the closer he got to the room. The women brought him outside the door, and as he he gripped the handle he mustered all his will and swung the door open. The only person in the room was a nurse cleaning up and tidying the bed. Standing in the doorway, Stuart cleared his voice and asked the nurse one question, “Can you tell me what happened to the man in this room?” With a blank face, the nurse walked towards him and the door cut off the view, and noise from the room. More than an hour has passed and he hadn’t moved from the chair. He reaches into his pocket, pulls out his phone and makes one call. “Honey,” he says tiredly, “I’m coming home…”