by Silvia Rojas
“Hey, calm down dad.” Tristian walked up to his father, raising his hands up in the air to calm him down. “I told you I wanted to tell you and Mum something, this was what-.”
“No!” His father growled, shoving his son harshly to the side. “Absolutely not! How dare you take advantage of my son like that.”
“Tristie!” Jennifer shouted as the little ‘shove’ his dad had managed to not only send him through a bench but also falling down as he lost his footing. He winced, cradling his arm, and Jennifer glared at her ‘boss’. “Didn’t you listen to him!? He was going to tell you about it today! Hell, I didn’t even know-.”
“Oh yes, that is what they all say.” Tony sarcastically said, raising a threatening finger towards Jennifer. “At first they say they don’t know what the others are talking about. Then they say that they just want to be spoilt and finally, they strike for the gold that isn’t theirs. What is your true reason here girl? Do you want my son for his previous affiliations or because he is a famous cricketer in these areas?! Or are you a simple gold digger, huh?!”
“Okay Dad, that was uncalled for.” Searing the hurt on his girlfriend’s face, he got up again. “I told you yesterday I had gotten a new girlfriend I met at the Christmas Party. I told you I was over what that foolish, idiotic redhead did 2 years ago and I have told everything about her to Jennifer, so will you stop fooling around with your ridiculous and utterly foolish words?!”
“You shut the fuck up!” Now getting abusive, Tony’s teeth suddenly clenched hard and his eyes were slowly starting to bulge, literally. His veins popped out of his forehead as protectiveness surged up from deep within himself. “Don’t you dare defend her against me! You say that right now but in the end, it will end up like it ended up with that woman! Girl, you’re fired, now! Get out of here before I call the police!”
“You’re not going anywhere.” Tristian’s voice came in. Now the attention of all the remaining workers had been caught, and Mellissa was frantically running towards them. Jennifer firmly stood where she was standing, having already removed her apron. Now she realized what Tristian meant by his father being a bit ‘over the top’. This man had an anger that was worrying her. Inwardly she started noticing the signs of over the top anger.
A rapidly purpling face, eyes that were bulging and slowly getting blood-shot, fists clenching, she could see the signs of rapidly increasing blood pressure.
“Alright, Mr. Smith, I’ll leave. It will be much better for me and Tristian either way, but you need to calm down.” Jennifer said, her training kicking up. The man didn’t respond as suddenly his face went pale and slack as he collapsed where he was standing, starting to choke up on something. And right as she predicted, he had exploded.
“Tony!” A woman came rushing out of the back, she recognized the brown hair. It was the same as Tristian’s was. “Oh god, you fool. I told you not to worry about it! Can’t you have seen the signs?!”
“Now’s not the time for that,” Jennifer exclaimed, jumping into action. She instantly bent down in front of him and tried to roll the heavy set man over but he was getting too aggressive as he choked on his own anger and spit. His eyes were starting to tear up as he couldn’t breathe, hacking coughs coming out of his mouth. She looked up at a paling Tristian. “Snap out of it and help me! He needs to get up!”
Tristian snapped into action and barked out to his mother to call an ambulance. His mother was too frozen by the sight that was going on in front of him to even do anything so Mellissa took charge. She whipped out her mobile phone while his mother was openly weeping at the form of her husband dying in front of her. Everyone, even the ‘clients’ that were leaving were now forming a ring around the man that was slowly being held up by Tristian.
“Alright, do as I say. Hold him firmly by his ribs.” Jennifer instructed. She urged her boyfriend’s arms below his father’s chest and told him to stay there. “Now, hold him, firmly, let him bend over some, good.”
And then Jennifer started to smack the man’s stomach, causing him to cough more and more. She noticed how the man’s face was turning from purple to blue and he needed to breathe, immediately. She desperately hoped she was able to save him without any instruments.
“Mr. Smith!” Jennifer called out, calm as a bottle of water. She remembered all her training about choking on nothing. He needed to calm down, his Blood Pressure was too high and he didn’t even know what was going on around him. “Mr. Smith, you need to breathe through your nose. Take deep breaths, very deep.”
Seemingly trusting her, the man closed his mouth and started to breathe through his nose while Jennifer smacked and patted his stomach. He coughed a couple more times, not to breathe but as if something was going to come out and Jennifer instantly grabbed a nearby bin and held it in front of his face, just as vomit laced with slight blood came rushing out of his mouth.
The man was barfing for an entire minute, so much that even Tristian winced at the sight of it, but Jennifer didn’t. She stayed calm, and let him finish. Finally, after 8 minutes since the choking attack started, he was finally under control, weak and unable to stand.
“Lay him down.” Jennifer looked at Tristian, her eyes softening at the panicked look on his face. “He’ll be fine, lay him down. He’s not choking anymore, but his blood pressure is still too high.”
She bent down and pressed her fingers on Tony’s wrist, checking his pulse and wincing.
“Mr. Smith.... Tony? Tony, can you hear me?” she asked gently. He was still dazed, his eyes open and was breathing deeply. “Mr. Smith, calm down. The further you fight the more you’ll be in pain. Just relax, take a deep breath and relax. You’re fine, you don’t need to panic.”
The man had heard her loud and clear as he took deep breaths. Now the people had whipped out their phones and were recording but no one was actually making it help them except Tristian. Johnas had helped a weeping Mrs. Smith onto a chair and was slowly walking towards them. Jennifer looked at him.
“Water, full glass,” she said. He nodded and rushed off, so Jennifer could look at Tristian. “Tristie, call off these people. We don’t need a ‘circle of death’ around him. Hyperventilating patients usually have sudden claustrophobia.”
“Sure.” Tristian stood up and got into crowd control. “You heard her, people, everyone step back! Let the girl work! Out!”
Many of the onlookers realized that they were actually doing more harm than good so they backed off, but Jennifer stayed right beside him, one hand constantly on his wrist the other slowly now giving him the water that Johnas had provided.
“Ambulance is on the way,” Mellissa said quietly. Finally, Tony was back in control enough to speak.
“Why?” he asked, no, whispered. “Why did you help me? After what I said....”
“I am a paramedic in training, Mr. Smith, remember? My job is to forget all alliances and affiliations when I am at work, it is the first rule of any doctor,” Jennifer said sternly. “And please, don’t try to talk. You might be angry with me and might have fired me, but as Tristian said, he’s my boyfriend and I do care about him.”
“I.... I am..... I am sorry.” The man apologized, tears now streaming out of his eyes. “I am so sorry! I shouldn’t have said that! Please, forgive me! I was just shocked and surprised and....”
Looking at the sings of another attacking coming back, she went in for the kill.
“Mr. Smith, I am glad you finally got what we were trying to say but can you calm down? I don’t care what you said and with what has happened to Tristian, I wasn’t surprised you said that. But if you don’t calm down and continue to worry and think about things so hard, you will die. Your blood pressure is already hard, you don’t need to have it spike even more.” Knowing that alone wouldn’t work, she had to go for the kill. “Tristian, can you fetch my bag that is in your car?”
“Yes.” Realizing it, Tristian immediately ran out to his car. She was a Paramedical student, she was sure to have some drugs on her
. Jennifer knew that it was almost the holy bible for her to carry a full first aid kit inside of her bag. It was big but it was needed and contained the most basic drugs needed. In the meantime, the paramedic in training turned towards Johnas again.
“Johnas, get Mrs. Smith something sweet to drink. Mrs. Smith, your husband is fine, he won’t die, he isn’t going anywhere. He just needs to have a breather. Mellissa, when is the ambulance coming?”
“They said there’s some traffic over at the highway so 5-10 minutes.” Calculating the time in her head at the answer, Jennifer ran through what she could use until she came to a decision. It wasn’t a hardcore drug, it wouldn’t have any dangerous effects and it wouldn’t lead to another breakdown for sure. 30 seconds later, Tristian came back with her bag. Jennifer opened it, extremely fast and picked out her first aid kit which had a lot of things, from various drugs to other things as well. She picked up a certain bottle filled with pills. But before she did, she got out a pulse meter and a pressure machine and hooked it up to the downed man who had now closed his eyes. He opened them at the unfamiliar sensation and only saw Jennifer working. The girl frowned when she saw that his blood pressure was 170-110. That was very high. His heartbeat was at 180, and the choking had caused a lessening of oxygen in his blood.
“Mr. Smith, this is an Ace Inhibitor, 2.5 mg, it will lower your blood pressure. Until then, you’ll have to wait for the ambulance to come in.” Jennifer said. She added the medicine to a small bowl and then some water and made the man swallow the mixture. The man slowly calmed down after taking the medicine and finally was stabilized. Jennifer sighed and sat down properly just as they heard the siren of the ambulance.
“Jennifer.”
She looked up at the sound of Tony. The others took her sigh of relief as their own sign of relief and all of them were either sitting down or supporting themselves to stand. “You better not run off now, I owe you my life.”
“Alright sir, I’ll be at work tomorrow.” Rolling her eyes, she stood up and waited for the paramedics to rush in and do their job.
“I gave him an Ace Inhibitor, 2.5 mg,” Jennifer said, giving them the bottle. “He was choking on air so I had to perform the Heimlich maneuver to clear whatever he was choking on, probably bile and vomit that rose up. There was some red blood in his vomit too, and his BP had raised to 160-110.”
“Ouch.” The other Paramedic, the assistant, winced as she noted it down while the lead one worked on the man. “That’s bad. Anything else?”
“Yeah, I’d suggest if he keeps off work for the next few days because of the sudden rise in temperature,” Jennifer said, and then mischief pooled in her eyes. “And maybe get him to go on a forced program to control his anger.”
“That is for the doctors to decide.” The Trained Paramedic said. “What is your trainee number? I’ll be talking to your teachers to give you credit for this. You effectively saved the man’s life.”
Jennifer blushed bud did as he asked and stayed off to the side at the Paramedics worked on the man and then raised him on a stretcher to get him to the Hospital. After he was taken off with Mrs. Smith going with him, Jennifer got onto gathering her stuff and packing all up. She didn’t expect to see Tristian still sitting there, looking dazed and at the same spot his father was some time ago. She noticed the red blotch on his arms and sighed, shaking her head fondly.
“You know, you need to take care,” Jennifer said, kneeling in front of her boyfriend. She got out some cotton and antiseptic and got to work. “You need to watch out for your father. He choked on air and vomit because of his rage. I really meant it when I said he needs to control his temper.”
Tristian didn’t reply, he simply stood dazed while Jennifer worked at the man. Mellissa left the two alone, knowing they would need it, while Tristian didn’t reply at all.
Finally, he spoke, “Madilyn.” He said, “That was her name, Madilyn. She was a 23-year-old woman, completely cute and innocent, or so it seemed. Her red hair was the fiercest red I had ever seen but little did I know she wanted me for much bigger things. 7 months into our relationship I find out she’s been using my photos and editing them to use them as a cover picture for her website. She made over a million with my photos without me realizing and even though I still have kept the sue case alive, the girl disappeared after taking what could have been mine as well. That is why dad was so angry. I don’t know if you ever even want to do anything with him, or us again, Jenny, but I truly meant it when I said you mean to me a lot more than just a girlfriend.”
“And you are stupid to think I’m going to leave you over this,” Jennifer replied, softly applying a bandage to the wound he had gotten when his father shoved him aside. “We both know we started dating just 3 days ago, so it was expected, after what happened for us to start dating. Just so you know, I still am waiting for another offer to go to a hotel and just shag our brains out.”
“Heh.” Snorting a bit hysterically, Tristian got up, flexing his arms and then grabbing Jennifer into a hug. “Thank you, thank you so much.”
“Oh hush you, you know that it is my job to help people. Don’t thank me.” Wrapping her arms tighter around him, she pressed her face into his shoulder and let him simply hug her, knowing that he was about to cry and cry he did, and no one would fault him. He had almost lost his father, and no matter what the differences were between them, he was still his father.
Chapter 7
The next day, Tony Smith had returned back home and he was going to take Jennifer’s advice this time around. He had called him up to her home above the shop and had apologized truthfully once again. He explained his reasons and she had promised him something as well.
“Sir, I realize that you’re overprotective about Tristian, but I honestly like him and I have no doubts I am going to fall in love with him soon enough. So please, let me date him and if you think I’m breaking his heart, call me at any time and I’ll personally hand you the rusty knife to kill me.”
Tristian had laughed out loud when he heard that, almost falling to the ground as his father also chuckled. Mrs. Smith’s reaction had also been the same when she saw Tony dying. She had cried her hearts out, not only for saving her husband for also taming Tristian which had sent another bout of ideas into her head. Finally, as an ultimate apology, she was invited to celebrate Christmas with the Smith’s and she had agreed.
She found out, though, why Tristian had said his mother was also a bit ‘over the top.’
“Honestly, girl, you look like you haven’t eaten in weeks!” Mrs. Smith exclaimed. “Here, eat some more!!”
And then the woman gave her another serving of roasted turkey with some Yorkshire Pudding and gravy. Truly, everyone in the family of the Smiths was over the top. She also had to look out for Tim as at times she would hear his blood pressure rising and a small dress down for letting his ‘anger’ get the worse of him later she would be back to having a fun banter with her boyfriend.
Undoubtedly, when she gave Tristian his deep and long Christmas kiss that evening, she truly found herself agreeing that she had just witnessed and had been in a Christmas miracle.
The End
