by Lisa Ladew
But, “oh,” was all she said.
He parked the ambulance in front of the restaurant and asked Katerina if she wanted to come in.
“I can help you carry meals,” she said.
“You don’t have to – they box it all up for me and the owner helps me carry it out.”
He saw the look on her face and wasn’t sure how to interpret it. “But you can if you want,” he said quickly.
She nodded and they walked inside the restaurant. The hostess, Jillian, greeted him warmly and he gave her a hug, then introduced Katerina. Their introductions were interrupted by the owner, Juan, who shouted at West from across the room. West smiled. Juan was a good guy. He always gave West a deep discount on the meals West picked up for the homeless. West had tried to talk him out of it, but Juan insisted. He wanted to contribute too.
West introduced Katerina again and then Juan loaded them up with sealed bags of take-out meals. They stacked them in the front of the ambulance, between the two seats, then drove away, heading for the makeshift homeless encampment.
“Those meals smell heavenly,” Katerina said.
West looked at her questioningly, wondering why she hadn’t gotten herself some food. She looked hungry, the way she was sniffing the air.
“How often do you do this?” Katerina asked.
West shrugged. “A few times a week.”
“But thirty meals? That must’ve cost you almost $300.”
West shook his head. “Not that much. Just under $200. The owner gives me a great deal.”
Katerina’s eyebrows furrowed. “You spend $600 a week on meals for the homeless?” She asked, her voice incredulous.
West shrugged again. It was probably twice that. Honestly, he bought them dinner five or six times a week.
“How can you afford that? I know you don’t make enough money to do that as a paramedic.”
West pressed his lips together. He hated talking about money. “Inheritance,” he mumbled.
He felt Katerina’s stare upon him and was glad when they pulled up into the homeless encampment. It was under the overpass, set back in a corner next to an abandoned lot. There were a few tents, and a few cardboard boxes, and several shopping carts. But mostly it was low-profile. As long as nobody complained, the police did not come down here and make them move. When they did have to clean up and move somewhere else, they normally ended up right back here within a week or two. It was a good spot, with access to panhandling areas close by, and shelter from the rain and the sun.
He stopped the ambulance quickly and jumped out, hoping to avoid any more questions. People streamed towards him, smiles on all their faces, everyone willing to help.
***
Katerina watched West distribute food containers and then carry the last few into the camp. People swarmed around him. They hugged him and shook his hand and everyone seemed to want a word with him. She watched him with slight disbelief, wondering why he was working as a paramedic if he had an inheritance. But then the answer hit her upside the head. He enjoyed it. She watched him offer a food container to an elderly man in a wheelchair and shook her head. He kept surprising her. She thought briefly that she was glad to be working with him. But in the next thought she wished she wasn’t. Because if she wasn’t, maybe they could have explored what they had started back in the bar. But she was. And besides, he hadn’t wanted to go any farther. She pushed the desire out of her mind and watched him walk back to the ambulance.
He climbed into the driver seat and retrieved the last bag from between the seats. He lifted it and looked at her. “There are a couple meals left. Would you like one?”
Katerina’s mouth watered. Well, if it was an extra… She didn’t want it to go to waste. “Yes, that’d be great.”
He broke the seal on the bag and handed her a to-go container. She placed it on her lap and opened it up. Teriyaki chicken, rice, vegetables and a small bowl of what looked like custard greeted her. Unconsciously, she licked her lips and started eating.
She noticed West watching her and tried to slow down. She didn’t want him to think she was a charity case. When he dug out his own meal and started eating she breathed a sigh of relief.
West’s phone rang. “This is West.” He listened for a moment. “That’s great news. Thanks so much for letting me know. Okay that sounds good, we’ll do that. Call me next week.”
He turned to Katerina. “That was my friend Lulu from the hospital.”
Katerina felt a burst of emotion flare in her chest. She stuffed it down, not wanting to think about what emotion it was.
“Remember our heart attack from this morning? He’s awake and talking. The doctors say he’s gonna be okay.” West lifted his hand and looked at Katerina expectantly. A smile spread across Katerina’s face and then she realized he wanted a high-five. She lifted her own hand and high-fived him a good one. They’d saved a life!
Katerina’s good feelings carried her throughout the rest of the shift. All the rest of their calls were minor and at 11:30 that night they finally took the ambulance back to the bay and signed out for the evening.
After West showed Katerina how to restock the ambulance and how to sign off work, an awkward silence fell over them. Katerina realized they were done for the night and suddenly felt unprepared for the moment.
“Well, goodbye Katerina, I’ll see tomorrow,” West said. “You did good today.”
Katerina nodded. “Thank you West. Thank you for helping me. And for the food.”
“Anytime.”
Katerina gave a little wave and turned swiftly, her heart beating fast. She walked out the door to her car and climbed in, heaving a sigh of relief. Her first day had gone well. The images hadn’t messed her up at all.
The images! They had been gone all day! She just now realized that she hadn’t thought of them for hours. She thought back and tried to remember the last time one had marched through her mind. It had been when she was in the office with Lieutenant Masterson. But after that they had gone away. She’d realized it when they first climbed into the ambulance but then she hadn’t thought about them again all day. She’d been too busy.
Katerina laid her head back against her seat and said a little prayer of thanks. A lone tear slid out of the corner of one eye and tracked down her face.
But halfway home they came back.
Chapter 10
Katerina rolled over in bed, exactly the way she had the day before. She looked at her alarm clock, appalled at what she saw. Again, she’d slept through her alarm. Again, she was bordering dangerously close to being late for work. She scrambled out of bed and began to get ready, trying not to think about her dreams. She’d had the same dreams as the night before. And even worse, the images were back, stronger than ever. She said a little prayer to anybody who would listen that they would go away again once she got to work.
At the ambulance bay, Katerina ran inside and checked the day’s roster to see what ambulance she was on. Ambulance twelve again. She ran over, intent on starting the pre-shift checklist before West got there. But West was already there. She skidded to a stop and looked at him. He lifted his head and smiled at her, the most genuine, joyful smile Katerina had ever seen. His blue eyes glittered and the two dimples on his right cheek deepened charmingly. He looked like he was thrilled to see her. Katerina’s heart melted on the spot. She gave him a weak smile back and asked what she could do to help.
“I’m actually almost done, you don’t have to do anything. Let me finish up here and then we will hit the road. It doesn’t hurt to be early. We can get coffee.”
Katerina nodded. As she watched him work, she felt like she was forgetting something. She probed around in her mind, trying to remember what it was. Then she realized she wasn’t forgetting something, she was missing something - the images. They were gone again. She smiled and said thank you inside her head. Her eyes fastened on the back of West’s head and a thought flitted through her mind. Was it him? Did he have something to do with the images dis
appearing yesterday and today?
She wondered if she could recall one of the images if she tried and, ignoring a warning twinge, she did just that. She thought of the woman with the liquid brown eyes and tried to bring her face into detail. The woman’s face flashed into her mind in such full color and with such staggering force that she stumbled backward a step.
West noticed and was at her side in an instant. “Are you okay?” he asked her, curling an arm around her waist. She nodded, grateful that the woman’s face was already fading from her mind. She wouldn’t try that again.
***
West climbed into the ambulance driver’s seat and waited for Katerina to follow. Once she had closed her door, he gave her a nod and backed up, intending to pull out of the ambulance bay. She picked up the radio, and called them into service. An expert already.
When he’d filled out her evaluation form the night before, he’d noticed that her first name was Ginger. He remembered her teasing him about his first name in the bar and wondered if she was sensitive about it. He wouldn’t mind getting back to that teasing relationship they’d had.
He had thought about her all last night and puzzled over how to get out of being her evaluator. He could think of a dozen paramedic friends who would take over if he asked them to, but three months was a long time to train somebody if you really didn’t want to do it. He didn’t want to put that on any of his friends. But he really liked her. Well, he guessed he’d give it another couple of days and see where things went. If he had to, he would talk to Lieutenant Masterson and tell her what the situation was. Maybe they could come up with something together.
“Do you drink coffee?” he asked.
Before she could answer the radio squawked. “Medic twelve, respond to difficulty breathing at 1620 Holyoke Drive.”
“Never mind,” he groaned and she laughed.
“I do, sometimes, but not usually at three in the afternoon,” she said.
“But when you work the evening shift, three in the afternoon is actually nine in the morning,” he joked, turning the wheel hard and doing a U-turn to head the other way.
He slipped on the lights and siren and sped up. Difficulty breathing was one of their more common calls and one of their more difficult ones. It could mean anything. It could mean an asthma attack, which could be deadly, or an anaphylactic reaction to an allergen, which also could be deadly. It could mean escalation of chronic obstruction pulmonary disease or even a heart attack. It could also be something simple like a panic attack, or a drug overdose, or even something unusual like a child stuck something up their nose. Dispatch tried to get as much information as possible, but when none came, that usually meant that the person on the other end of the phone had just said something like, come quick I can’t breathe, and hung up. So they were going in blind.
“Do you feel like you’re ready to take the lead?” he asked her. He didn’t dare take his eyes off the road to look at her, but when she responded in the affirmative, he could hear the eagerness in her voice. Good, he thought. Let’s see what she can do.
They arrived at the address in only a few short moments. West parked quickly but held back, letting Katerina go in first. He stayed two steps behind her. Extravagant houses lined the block, and the house they were approaching was no different. It was a tall, white, three-story house with pillars out front. Katerina hurried to the front door and knocked on it. A woman answered almost immediately. West couldn’t determine her age. It could have been anywhere from thirty-five to a well-preserved fifty-five. Her hair was messy, but in an elegant sort of way. She wore no makeup on her gorgeous face. She was wearing a silk, emerald green bathrobe, that only sank to her mid-thigh. West was almost surprised to see she had no drink of bourbon in her hand, she looked so stereotypically rich-woman-of-the-house.
“Someone’s having trouble breathing?” Katerina asked her.
The woman nodded and motioned them inside. “I couldn’t get him to move,” she said, pointing. The light inside the house was dim and West blinked a few times, trying to get his eyes to adjust.
A man lay motionless on the floor in an entryway to another room. The sight of him startled West because of the woman’s mellow attitude.
“What happened to him?” Katerina asked, not waiting for an answer. She hurried to the man and then stepped over him, wanting to get to his head. She dropped the aid bag and pressed a gloved finger to the man’s neck. West knelt next to him and pressed his own fingers to the man’s wrist. He felt a strong, slow, but steady pulse. That was good. That meant they had time.
The man was in his fifties, and wearing a suit jacket like he was on a lunch break. West pushed the cuffs of the jacket up as much as he could, trying to see the man’s arms. No marks. He hadn’t thought there would be though.
“What happened to him?” he heard Katerina ask again and looked up at her. She was assessing the man’s breathing. He looked around, but the woman who had let them in was nowhere to be found.
“She took off,” he told Katerina.
“Goddammit,” she swore under her breath. West grinned. It was the first time he’d heard her swear. But the only person who knew what was going on suddenly disappearing could do that to you.
“He’s breathing, but barely,” she said. She positioned his head, pulled a breathing mask and bag out of their aid bag, fitted the mask to the man’s face, and depressed the bag a few times, giving him some breaths.
West looked around. The man’s heart was beating and Katerina was breathing for him, so now they had to try to piece together the clues to figure out what happened to him. He would let Katerina make all the calls on this one until she got something wrong. And he fully expected her to get something wrong, or act too cautiously. It was only her second day, after all.
His hunch already told him it was probably an opiate overdose of some sort. He had very little to base that on, except experience. Well, experience, the industrial size box of laxatives on the counter with the groceries (certain opiates cause severe constipation in regular users), and the fact that the woman had disappeared. She probably didn’t want to answer questions.
Katerina would probably find it hard to believe that the people who lived in this house did heroin, or whatever opiate it was they took, but after a month or two on the road she would find it a lot easier to believe. Some of the things they saw as paramedics defied explanation.
“Is there anything you want me to do?” he asked Katerina, in case she felt weird about telling him what to do. She was lead paramedic and she needed to start giving orders.
“Yeah, slap the monitor on him.”
He smiled. “Roger,” he told her and got to work.
Katerina rummaged in the aid bag again, and he watched her out of the corner of his eye, expecting that he knew what she was going to do next. She was going to intubate him. In a situation like this, since they didn’t know why he was barely breathing, the book said intubation was the next step. That way they could control the airway and if the person threw up, there was no chance of him choking. He struggled with himself for a short moment. Should he let her intubate him? She wouldn’t be wrong in doing so. Or should he stop her and tell her to try Narcan? Intubation was inherently dangerous, because there was always the chance of perforating the trachea. Narcan had much fewer risks. He was a big proponent of trying the least risky option first.
But instead of the intubation kit, she brought out the drug kit. West’s eyes widened in surprise. She opened it quickly, and picked out what she wanted. Then she gave the man a couple more breaths. After she’d done that, she ripped open the package of intranasal Narcan and prepared to give it to him.
West’s hands knew what they were doing. They placed the electrodes on the man’s chest without help from his brain, and that was good, because his brain was watching Katerina in disbelief.
Was she some kind of prodigy? How in the world did she know that this was an overdose? This was only her second day on the job. Her hunches shouldn’t be
that good yet. And she wasn’t even looking at him, asking him with her eyes if she was performing correctly. Instead, she thrust the Narcan up one nostril and then the other, and then continued rescue breathing.
West turned on the monitor and looked at the rhythm showing on the screen. It was a normal sinus rhythm, if a little slow. If Katerina was right, this guy should wake up in a few minutes and be fine.
A knock on the door sounded. “Fire department,” someone called.
“Come in,” West answered.
Four men in turnout gear tromped into the house. West greeted them all by name and introduced Katerina. She flashed an impatient smile and said hi. Then she asked for the gurney out of the ambulance.
One of the men went out to get it while Katerina continued to breathe for the unconscious patient on the floor.
When the firefighter returned with the gurney, Katerina instructed the firefighters to place the man on it. One of them raised an eyebrow at Katerina’s brusque orders, but West just smiled and shrugged. She was all business, a natural leader, and she was concentrating on her patient. Everything else was secondary.
When the man was strapped onto the stretcher to Katerina’s liking, she directed them out the door. Just before they were able to push the stretcher into the ambulance, the patient woke up. At first he was disoriented, but he quickly figured out where he was and what was going on. Anger flashed on his face. West stepped forward, between the man and Katerina, not wanting her to get hurt.
The man sputtered. “What in the hell is going on?”
“You were unconscious, your wife called 911,” West told him.
The man struggled in the straps. He searched for the clasps and tried to unlock them with quick, jerky movements. “Get me off of this thing!” He shouted. “I’m fine!”
West took another step back, forcing Katerina behind him. “You are fine because we gave you Narcan. What did you overdose on?”
