THE COWARD
The station is rather quiet when Johnny arrives to start another shift. Roy and Chet, who are already in uniform, are sitting at the table reading the newspaper. Johnny walks over to the stove to pour himself a cup of coffee. "Hi guys, what's up?" Johnny asks. Neither one of them speak. "I said, 'Hi guys, what's up?'"
"I heard you, I'm just ignoring you," Chet replies, not looking up from his paper. "I heard you, I'm just ignoring you," Johnny replies mockingly as he takes a seat next to Roy, who still hasn't acknowledged Johnny's presence in the room. He leans over and waves his hand in front of Roy's face. "Hey, earth to Roy, you still with us?" Johnny asks. Roy just shakes his head, sighs, and replies, "I just don't understand some people these days."
"What's the matter?" Johnny asks. Roy closes up the newspaper and slams it down on the table. "I really don't feel like talking about it right now," he replies as he gets up from the table and heads out the door.
Johnny, a look of confusion on his face, glances over at Chet and asks, "What's with him today?" Chet shrugs and replies, "Beats me, he was fine when he first came in."
"Huh, I wonder if he and Joanne are arguing again?" Johnny wonders out loud. "I don't know," Chet replies, "but it looks like he's in no mood to discuss it with you at the moment."
"Yeah, so I gathered," Johnny says.
Just then the station tones sound off: "Squad 51, woman injured, 1645 West Magnolia Drive, 1645 West Magnolia Drive, cross street Pine Ave. Time out---12:45."
"Squad 51, 10-4, KMG-365," Capt. Stanley acknowledges as Roy and Johnny slide in to the cab. Capt. hands Roy the address and the squad pulls away.
Squad 51 pulls up to the house. A young woman meets Roy and Johnny at the door. "Thank heavens you're here," she says, " she's hurt really bad."
"Who's hurt, ma'am," Johnny asks. "It's my friend, Annette. She's hurt something awful." Roy and Johnny find her friend, a young woman about 25 years old, lying in the living room floor with multiple bruises and lacerations about her face and head, and her left eye is swollen shut.
"Annette, I'm Fireman Desoto and this is Fireman Gage, can you tell us what happened?" The woman never speaks. "You think she's in shock?" Johnny asks. "I don't know," Roy replies. He turns to the friend. "Ma'am, can you tell us what happened to her?"
"Sure can. Her husband beat up on her," she replies. Roy and Johnny look at each other in disbelief. "Her husband did this?" Johnny asks. "Uh, huh," she says, "ain't he a sweetheart?" "Oh yeah," Roy replies angrily, "a real sweetheart."
Roy begins to get the necessary vitals and Johnny relays them to Rampart. The IV is prepared and as Roy begins to insert the syringe into Annette's arm, she starts resisting. Roy grabs her arms to try to calm her down. "Johnny, can you give me hand over here?" Johnny rushes over to help. "Annette, listen to me," Roy exclaims, "we're here to help you, not hurt you. Please let us help."
Annette begins to sob uncontrollably. "I don't want you to help me. I want to die. Please, just let me die." "No," Roy says, "I won't let you die."
Minutes later, the ambulance arrives and Roy and Johnny finish getting Annette ready for transport. Johnny then goes out to help load the stretcher as Roy stays behind to get the gear together. Roy glances around and spots Annette's photograph on the wall. She's a pretty girl, Roy thinks to himself. She doesn't look like a model like you'd find in a fashion magazine. In fact, she's rather plain looking. Most guys Roy knows probably wouldn't give her a second look, but something about her was beautiful. It was like a natural beauty. In some ways, she reminded him of his wife, Joanne. She, herself, had a natural beauty that, to him, rivaled that of the other girls he knew when he was in high school, and that's what attracted him to her.
Roy is jolted back into reality at the sound of Johnny's voice at the front door. "Hey, Roy, you coming?" Roy closes up the drug box and grabs the biophone. "Oh, yeah, I'll be right there. Hey, Johnny, I'll go in the ambulance and you take squad, ok?"
"You got it," Johnny replies.
In the ambulance, Roy keeps an eye on Annette's vitals. They were still a good ways from the hospital and the curiosity was getting the best of him. He wanted to know what possessed a man to do this to his own wife. He looks at her and she's still crying. This was almost more than he could take.
Finally, he just comes right out and asks, "I was just wondering, why did he do this to you?" Annette reaches up and wipes the tears from her face. "I was late getting home to fix his lunch," she answers. "I had to run a few errands this morning and I knew I would be back in time, but I got hung up in traffic and I was five minutes late getting home. You see, he works at the factory two blocks from the house and so he comes home for lunch. He only gets a half hour and he wants his lunch ready when he walks in the house."
Roy couldn't believe what he was hearing! Annette looks away and the tears start falling again. He wanted to say something, anything, to take away the pain, but he knew that there wasn't anything anyone could say that could do that.
Nurse McCall walks up to the nurses' station as Roy and Johnny finish gathering a few supplies. The look on her face wasn't exactly what Roy wanted to see.
"How is she, Dix?" Roy asks.
"Oh, she's gonna be alright, but--"
"But what?"
"But, she'll never see out of her left eye again. She was punched so hard, that her optic nerve ruptured."
Johnny speaks up, "Man, I have never seen anyone beat up so bad. Not even a man after a good fight."
"Well, except for the eye, all the other injuries will heal," Dix added. "It's the emotional hurt that might take awhile to get over. She may not get over it at all. You want to hear another piece of interesting news? She's refusing to press charges. In fact, she's claiming it was all her fault and that she probably deserved it."
"You're kidding?" Roy asks, not believing what he just heard.
"Nope. She also says that this isn't the first time this has happened. She says this occurs on a weekly basis."
Roy stands there not knowing what to say. How can she go on taking this abuse? Why doesn't she just leave? Why doesn't she get help?
Finally he speaks up, "I'm afraid that the next time this happens, it won't be the paramedics that need to be called."
"I'm afraid you're probably right," Dixie replies.
"Well, I hope I'm wrong. Come on, Johnny. I guess we need to go. Dix, will you keep me posted on her situation?"
"Sure. You guys take care."
"You, too," they both reply as they walk away.
Back at the station, Capt. notices Roy is not at the table for dinner. "Hey, John, where's Roy?" he asks.
Johnny replies, "I think he's in the dorm. He's been there since we returned from that last run."
Capt. looks concerned. "Is he sick?"
"No," Johnny answers, "I think he's got a lot on his mind right now. You think you could talk to him and find out what's wrong?"
"I'll certainly try," he says as he leaves the table.
Roy is standing at the bathroom sink splashing water on his face when Capt. walks in. "You want to talk about it, Roy," Capt. asks.
"I just don't understand some people these days, Capt.. First, I read in the paper this morning about a woman who dies when her husband decides to use her face as a punching bag. And then, that last run is a young, beautiful girl who's husband nearly beats her to death--and for what?--for being five minutes late getting home to fix his lunch. In the short time we've had the paramedic program, we've gone on hundreds of runs, but this is the first time I've been on a run like this. I can't grasp the reasoning behind this man's actions. Why would he do something like this to someone he's supposed to love? What makes someone do something like that?"
"He's a coward, plain and simple, Roy. He wants to prove just how macho he is and so he picks on the person he thinks is the most helpless and that's his wife."
Roy stares at the floor for a moment. "Capt., I was so angry. If that guy had walked in the door while we were there, I think I could've killed him on spot and not thought twice about it." He pauses for a moment. "I'm breaking Rule #1 aren't I? Never get emotionally involved with a patient. I guess I shouldn't let it affect me, huh?"
Capt. shrugs and replies, "Oh, I don't know Roy. I think I'd be worried if it didn't affect you. Just proves you're still human, that's all."
"Yeah, I guess so, Capt.."
The station is dark and everyone is in bed asleep except for Roy. He sits at the desk in Cap's office and begins dialing the phone.
"Hello, Joanne--yeah, it's me--oh, it's probably close to midnight--no, nothing's wrong. I just wanted to call and tell you that I love you--I promise, I'm fine. It's just something that happened on one of our runs has gotten to me--no, the guys are fine. They're all in bed asleep. Actually, it was one of our patients--well, I don't want to talk about it right now, but I promise to tell you about it when I get home tomorrow, OK? Yeah, I guess I need to go. Give the kids a kiss and a hug for me and tell 'em I love 'em, ok--I promise, everything's fine--yes, I promise to tell you all about it tomorrow--I love you, Joanne--you, too. Bye.
Roy hangs up the phone and sits back in the chair rubbing his eyes. He is really tired--physically and mentally. He gets up and heads back to the dorm being careful not to wake the other guys. He crawls into bed and gets settled into his favorite sleeping position--on his stomach. Maybe they won't get any runs the entire night. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day. Tomorrow he'll be with his family.
"The Coward" ©1998 Susan Atkinson. "Emergency!" and its characters © Mark VII Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. No infringement of any copyrights or trademarks is intended or should be inferred. This is a work of fiction, and any similarity to actual persons or events is purely coincidental.
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