We drove together before dawn, the sky still undecided between night and morning. Rosie was at the wheel, steady and quiet. I sat in the passenger seat, watching the road slide past, while Maria sat in the back seat, her hands folded around thoughts she didn’t share. Today was her MCAT exam.
The university appeared ahead of us like a castle—stone buildings, tall arches, and winding paths that made the campus feel older than its purpose. Rosie dropped Maria and me at the entrance. Maria stepped out first, her backpack pulled close to her shoulders. She gave a brief nod and disappeared through the heavy doors. Rosie drove off to find parking.
I waited outside, scanning the entrance, expecting Rosie to return any moment. Time stretched strangely. The crowd thinned. When I turned around again, Rosie was nowhere to be found.
Thinking I might find her inside, I entered the building. The hallways were filled with examinees—faces tense, focused, silent. Each exam room followed the same arrangement: two invigilators at the front and one assistant standing to the side. In one room, an invigilator began explaining the rules in a calm, practiced voice.
Some examinees were deaf. Translators stood beside them, hands moving rapidly, shaping the spoken instructions into another language. I noticed the exam papers—covered in chaotic scribbles, like drawings from a two-year-old toddler. The pages felt heavy, as if they carried more than just questions.
Suddenly, a ringtone broke the silence.
The invigilator’s voice cut through the room: “You cannot leave the room.” I tried to explain that I was not an examinee, that I was only looking for my wife. My words came out tangled and urgent. The exchange grew tense, the room watching.
A supervisor finally stepped forward. After a brief pause, they asked an assistant to escort me out. We climbed a staircase so narrow that the walls seemed to close in around us. Each step felt tighter than the last.
At the top, a door opened—not into another hallway, but into the bright fluorescent entrance of a supermarket. I stepped outside, disoriented. Behind me, the door closed quietly, sealing the exam rooms, Maria somewhere deep inside the castle, and Rosie still nowhere in sight.