Love Me by Christmas

by Silvia Rojas

  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 s
eemed. 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

  Dragon Shifter Tales: Diving Deep

  Chapter 1

  This year's craft fair seemed exceptionally promising, if the turnout was any indication.

  Melanie walked the floors of the building where the craft fair was being hosted, scanning the rows of booths and wares. Many people were selling all kinds of handmade jewelry and other accessories, though one woman did have a stall of small felt plushies. When it came down to it, Melanie always looked forward to the craft fairs. Not only were they good for breaking up a monotonous weekend, but it was nice to see what people had been working on. She had something of a fondness for handmade crafts to begin with; combined with an equal fondness for window shopping and the craft fairs were her place to go whenever she could. With all the looking around and asking questions gave her thoughts of starting her own craft shop, but she didn’t think that what she made would be sellable just yet.

  Nonetheless, the sheer variety made it hard to choose who to stop by for further investigation; though Melanie had bought and equipped a nice hair clip in her dark hair, after a while the stock got a bit overwhelming. In fact, the variety seemed to be having the opposite effect: everything seemed to be blending together. How many bracelets, necklaces, or earrings did a person need, anyway? While collecting knickknacks was fun, there had to be some kind of limit on it, lest she end up a minor hoarder.

  "Excuse me."

  Jolted out of her reverie, Melanie spun around to see a tall, dark-haired gentleman with brilliant blue eyes waiting for her. His hair was tastefully tied back in a low ponytail, and she could see he had dyed a dark blue streak into it on one side. He seemed to be about her age, maybe a year or two older if she had to guess; he was dressed casually in a t-shirt and jeans, but even simple clothing seemed to flatter his form. She felt heat rush to her face; she was no lovestruck schoolgirl, but this man was undeniably handsome. Once she got over the combined surprise and rush of attraction, she mumbled a quick, "Yes?"

  "Is everything all right? You sort of just stopped and stared into space for a good few minutes," the man said.

  "It was that long?" Boy, Melanie felt silly asking that. She didn't think she'd been spaced out for that long. "Sorry. Was I in anyone's way?"

  The man chuckled, "No, not at all. It just seemed a bit odd, since everyone else was moving around you."

  "Huh." Melanie looked around and was relieved to find that no one seemed to be staring at her. "I guess I just got a bit overwhelmed. Maybe a little sticker shock too."

  "I see. Yes, that would happen in a place like this, wouldn't it?" The man looked over his shoulder. "Perhaps we could go to my booth so you could get your bearings? I have a spare map that should make it easy to determine where you are from there. It's in a less busy part of the fair, too, so that should help you clear your mind."

  That was a pretty smooth way to get her to look at his wares, as far as Melanie was concerned. She had already been through so many of the stalls and she was worried that one more would make her head spin. Then again, this guy was willing to get up to check on her, which put him a step above the people who were just sitting and waiting at their stalls. Maybe one more stall wouldn't kill her after all. "All right, fair enough," she said. "Lead the way."

  The two chatted as they went to the man's booth. "I should introduce myself," he said. "You can call me River. My shop is Riverflow Crafts. It's very nice to meet you."

  "I'm Melanie," Melanie said, wondering whether the man's name or the shop name came first. "It's nice to meet you too."

  "Have you bought anything yet?" River asked.

  "Just a hair clip," Melanie said. "There were a few places I was thinking of going back to once I was done scoping things out, but now I'm not so sure."

  River looked back at Melanie and nodded. "Decisions can be hard to make when there are so many things around."

  "You're telling me." Melanie saw that a few of the stalls they were passing had interested customers by them. "It's like, 'do I want one of these, two of those, or one of this and this?' In my opinion, it's a matter of getting things you're sure you'll still like the next day."

  "That sounds reasonable," River said. "It sounds like you put a lot of thought into your purchases."

  "I try to. No one likes to waste money, right?" Melanie said.

  "I think it depends on who you ask." River lead Melanie off to the side. "And here we are." Sure enough, there was a table with a large sign that read "Riverflow Crafts" on it. River went back behind the booth and sat down, clasping his hands in front of him. "Feel free to take a moment to get your bearings. Of course, if you see anything you like, do let me know."

  "Thanks," Melanie said, studying the various jewelry crafts for sale. One thing she noticed very quickly was that every item for sale had a blue piece on it
somewhere. It didn't need to be the entire theme of the item, but the color was present everywhere. "So, you like the color blue?"

  "Of course," River said. "Some people might criticize the decision to make everything so aquatic-themed, but I have my reasons. Really, what's bad about picking a theme and sticking to it?"

  "Makes sense to me." Melanie picked up a bracelet for inspection. "At the very least, people know what they're getting from you."

  "Yes, consistency is good," River said.

  Melanie's attention ended up getting caught on a lovely pendant with a shining blue stone in it. The stone was teardrop-shaped and had curved wiring around it, almost like snakes bundling around it. Something about it gave her the sense that the wire snakes were protecting the stone, somehow. "This one looks like it's got a story to it," she mused aloud.

  "Ah, that one is special," River said, grinning broadly. "I only stock one of these per showing. If you buy it, you become part of a special customer's club. Along with being part of an exclusive mailing list so you get to hear about deals first, you can also attend special group sessions with me to learn more about what goes into my product."