I got a call from Detective Young, welcoming me back to the area. There was something in his smile that told me something was up.
“All right,” I asked. “What did I do this time?”
My question only made him smile more. “Jess,” he told me. “You aren’t going to believe this...”
Unfortunately– I did.
Miss Eyeliner was not happy with the fact that I had not been arrested. As a matter of fact– since I hadn’t been, she took it upon herself to see to it that I ‘paid for my crimes.’
It seems that she called the papers, the town council– the mayor... She even called the Feds. No one was taking up her cause. He warned me that the last time he’d seen her, she was rounding up a band of reporters and planning on confronting me directly.
I thanked him and prepared my defenses. I figure if she’s going to try and raise awareness to the city’s problems, the least I could do is show what they really are...
She never knew what hit her, but I could tell by her expression when she realized it had happened. The nice unbiased reporters started out trying to do an expose– but it very quickly became a community awareness piece.
I explained about the golden hour and how– with traffic tie-ups the only way to get a medic to the scene is to take extreme measures. When they asked me about safety, I admitted it was dangerous.
Miss Eyeliner perked up, until I pointed out that the real danger is to the medics, and that the best thing people can do is to pay attention.
“Accidents will happen,” I admitted. “But we can keep from compounding them by being alert and allowing the emergency vehicles through.”
It was a great coup. I thanked Young for the heads-up afterwards. He just laughed and commended me on my performance.
Sometimes– its really good to be a medic.
Copyright 2000 - M.T. Decker