Red Light (24 page)

I cut down the next street and, after a quick check across the intersection, gunned the engine.

“No!” I said, too sharply. “No,” I repeated a bit more gently this time, “just call 911. Do whatever they say, and in the meanwhile, while you’re waiting?”

“Yeah?”

“Is she still talking?” I asked as I cut across Hylan Boulevard, one of the busier main roads. I decided to side-street it the rest of the way; there were no lights until I got close to the end.

“Mami…Tori’s on the phone…” I heard Elena speak. Then silence.

“Elena!”

Nothing. My chest grew tight and cold.

“Elena!” I called again.

She picked up the phone. “Tori, where are you? She won’t talk to me anymore, she’s just—”

“Elena, hang up with me and phone 911—now, Elena!”

I glanced up at the corner I’d just passed. I was five minutes away. If there was a unit free, it would be sitting less than two minutes from there.

“But Tori—”

“Elena, now! I’ll be there in five minutes!”

I clicked off, focused on the road, and cut off some asshole in a white Camaro. Who still drove Camaros, I thought as I waved an apology, squeaked through the remaining two lights, and left rubber on the road when I jerked the car around the last right to park on the side of the house. A rig was in front.

As I ran up the walk I noticed who it was: University South, ALS. A medic unit, thank God, because unless Elena was exaggerating, and she wasn’t prone to that at all, our mother was very likely having a cardiac incident.

The screen door slammed behind me, and two quick strides took me through the house to the basement door, which was open. I slipped down the first few steps, grabbed the railing, and vaulted the rest.

“Elena?” I called as I landed and whipped around the corner.

“Tori!” My sister came running up and threw her arms around me.

“Shh, Elena, it’ll be okay,” I said as I kissed her head. Elena trembled against me and I rubbed her back.

“Come on, sweetheart. Let’s see what’s going on with Mami.”

“Okay,” she sniffed into my shoulder.

I took her hand and we walked into the apartment.

Two medics already had our mother on a stretcher, a non-rebreather mask with oxygen running, an IV drip started, and leads running to her chest. Elena clearly hadn’t exaggerated; Mom was covered in a sheen of sweat over skin that looked ashen, like wax.

“Hi, Mami,” I said as I walked up to the stretcher where one of the medics knelt to evaluate her blood pressure while the other read the monitor.

I could see it was an effort for her to raise her eyes as I kissed her forehead. Her skin was cool and clammy under my lips, and her hands appeared swollen.

“I’m just going to take your watch off so you’re more comfortable. Okay, Mom?” I told her cheerfully as I did so. The band had started to cut into her wrist. I pocketed it and got out the crew’s way.

“PSVT,” the medic by the monitor said.

“BP a hundred over sixty,” the medic who’d been evaluating the vitals said. “Adenosine?”

“Yep. Hi, Scotty.”

I glanced over at the familiar voice. Holy shit—it was Jean. I hadn’t even noticed.

“Jean! What are you doing here?”

“Well, I wanted to send you an early Valentine, and I was in the neighborhood, so…” she quipped as she loaded a syringe, then angled it into the port on the IV line. She flashed me a warm grin. “Actually, I got called for a per diem at University.”

That made sense; per diems were hard to get, no one gave them up unless they absolutely had to, and they were always a source of income and references, if needed.

Jean grew sober again. “Scotty, does your mom have a cardiac history?” She studied the monitors, and I watched with her as the other medic adjusted the oxygen tank for transport.

“No…” my mom managed to moan out from under the mask.

“Okay, Mrs. Scotts,” Jean said, “we’re going to take you to the hospital, okay?”

My mother shook her finger back and forth in negation, and I ached to see her, famous for her words, unable to speak.

“Tori will come ride in the back with me, right, Tori?” Jean gave me that warm smile again.

“Yeah, Mom, I’m coming with you. Elena’s going to take my car.” I handed my sister my keys, and her eyes, so like mine, were large as she nodded in agreement.

“Uh, Scanlon, protocol—” the other medic protested as they moved my mom to the stairs and I walked behind them.

“Burns, she’s the member of service,” Jean interrupted.

“Oh.”

I helped them carry the stretcher up the narrow stairway.

“Hey, just like old times, right?” Jean grinned at me.

I snorted. “Yeah, just like ’em.”

Once in the rig, I sat at the foot of the bench so my mother could see me while Jean worked.

“Saint Vin’s?” called Burns from the front.

“Redirect,” Jean called back. “U South is closer.”

“Saint Vin’s is cardiac today,” Burns reminded her.

“I want the closest ER,” she said as she did whatever voodoo magic medics did, “and run lights-only.”

Jean was breaking protocol to go to the closest ER, which was about two minutes away, instead of the designated cardiac center, which was about ten. I was relieved because from what I could see, my mom’s eyes had closed, her skin had gone from ashen to milk white, and her face had developed the mask, where the skin appears to be stretched too tightly over the bones. I hadn’t looked or asked Jean what her vitals were, but I knew enough to realize Jean thought what I did: time was critical.

“Hey, Mom, that’s not too far away.” I rubbed her foot—it was cold. “Oh, and hey, since Elena’s driving my car, we’ll bring you home very quickly.”

She bobbed her head and gave me a weak smile. I glanced at Jean, who was still doing the voodoo she did so well.

“Anything I can help with?”

“No, just fine,” she drawled. “Why don’t you fill us in on who…what you’ve been up to?” She smirked.

I chuckled anyway. Trust Jean to make jokes. But it was the right way to go, and as we rode to the ER I talked about my classmates, my instructors, Bennie and Roy, and the couple of funny things I’d seen on my rotations.

My mom didn’t open her eyes, but she did try to nod in all the right places and occasionally managed a weak smile.

Things were a blur when we got to the ER, but I helped take the stretcher out of the rig, which was the least I could do.

The receiving nurse was about to protest my presence until she recognized me. “Oh, hey, Scotty,” she smiled, “didn’t recognize you out of uniform.”

“Me either,” I said as my mom was set up in a bed and a twelve-lead portable monitor attached to her. I held her hand and told her what they were doing so she’d be less anxious.

Eventually, I really had to leave so a proper evaluation could be performed, but I knew I could come back in as soon as they were done, since such were the perks of being an EMT.

I stepped outside the bay to have a cigarette, wanting to clear my head before I tried to find Elena in the waiting room so I could let her know what was going on. Not that I knew much at the moment.

The rig we’d arrived in was still there.

“Hey, Tor.” Jean’s voice sounded behind me.

“Hey, Jean, thanks for everything.”

“Yeah, don’t mention it,” she laughed, and clapped my shoulder, “not unless you want to get me fired or something.”

I gazed directly into her eyes as I chuckled. “Not hardly. But thanks, truly.”

“You’d do it for me,” she said, her voice low and sincere.

“You’re right, I would.”

Silence stretched between us. “So…I heard you’re at the academy now?”

“Yeah, I started three weeks ago. I’m going three to eleven,” I answered. “You?”

“My last week, next week—I’m ten to six. Maybe I’ll run into you during a break or something?”

“Yeah, maybe, that would be cool, right?” I don’t know why I said that. That…sounded monumentally stupid, but her hair had grown since I’d seen her last, and she’d taken such good care of my mom, and she was so pretty and tough and…the last time we’d seen each other, she’d told me she liked me. And I’d kissed her, a kiss I hadn’t forgotten, as much as I’d tried to.

“It would be.” She nodded. “We get a couple of breaks, about every hour and a half. I go outside, by the grease truck. You know, the van sitting out by the lot with the guy that sells the coffee and the sandwiches? But I don’t stay very long, because it’s too cold.”

I laughed. I knew the spot she was talking about. “Yeah, I go there too, but you know, if you go down a level, where the phones are?”

I was grateful for cell phones because there were only two public phones in the entire building, and they were on the landing of the first sub-level.

“Yeah?”

“There’s a room off to the side where you can hang out; people have left books and board games and stuff—I discovered it when I got lost trying to find the facilities.”

She laughed. “Cool, very cool. You
would
find something else when you get lost. Maybe I’ll see you there sometime?” she asked, a slight curve lifting her lip.

“Maybe.” And suddenly it hit me, I was standing out there because my mother was inside.

“I’ve got to go find my sister. I’ve got to go.”

“Oh, yeah. Hey, look, I’m on for another few hours. I’ll check in from time to time?” Jean’s face was the picture of friendly concern.

“That’d be great, thanks,” I said, walking back to the bay doors.

“I’ll see you later, then,” she said as I punched the key code that would slide the door open.

Elena was pale and anxious when I found her, tapping her feet nervously as she sat in the waiting room.

“Tori, is Mami okay?” She stood and threw herself into my arms again.

“She’s okay right now, Elena,” I comforted. “I’m going back inside in a few minutes to find out more.” I held her tightly, because I was as scared as she was, but she was counting on me to do something.

“Did you talk with the desk clerk?” I asked her softly.

“No,” she sniffed against my shoulder. “I didn’t know what to do. I brought Mami’s pocketbook, though, and left a note for Aunt Carolina.”

“Good girl, you did a lot. Come on,” I said and rubbed her arm, “come with me.” I took her hand and took her into the ER to see our mother.

By the time she was admitted and a bed found in CCU, I’d found a moment to call Samantha and left a message to have her tell Nina what was going on. My mother was Nina’s godmother and they’d always had a special bond, but I didn’t want to leave that sort of a message for her, all things considered. So when I stepped out into the corridor from CCU with Elena, the entire family—aunt, uncle, cousins, including Nina and Samantha—was there and waiting anxiously.

“Victoria, what do they say?” my aunt asked as she approached. Her eyes were wide and worried.

I hugged her and explained to everyone what Elena and I knew, which wasn’t much except that she was stable at the moment and she’d be evaluated further. I strongly suspected that my mother had had her first cardiac incident and that it was due to CHF, congestive heart failure.

It was a long night. Aunt Carolina refused to leave the room, which was absolutely her prerogative, so I alternated with everyone else visiting my mom or waiting outside.

Everyone finally left very late, and for a long while, my mom and I were alone, surrounded by the hisses and beeps of the machinery that measured and monitored her body.

“How’s she doing?” Jean asked quietly behind me as I watched my mother sleep.

“She’s stably unstable.” I sighed softly as I held my mother’s hand. The skin felt so fragile, the bones so thin.

Jean put a warm hand on my shoulder. “She’ll be okay, Tori, she’s a fighter. She didn’t lose consciousness, she didn’t want the oxygen, and she didn’t want to come here. A real fighter.”

I covered her hand with mine briefly and raised my eyes to hers. “Thanks. I’m glad you think so.”

“I’ve got a gut feeling,” she said, a light curve gracing her lips, “and,” she glanced down at her watch, “I’ve got to go.”

I gave my mom’s hand a kiss, then stood. “I’m glad you stopped by.”

“Yeah, me too. Maybe I’ll see you in Fort Totten?” she asked from the doorway.

“Maybe. Be safe.”

“You know it,” she said and cockily grinned, a bright flash in the darkened room, then left.

*

They kept my mom a week, a week I spent back in my old room so Elena wouldn’t be too scared or lonely, a week with my mother, as soon as she could speak, mad at me for not telling her that her beloved goddaughter was pregnant, which I tried to deny, but my mom kept insisting she could see. Honestly, I was relieved and grateful for both her discovery and her annoyance with me, because they meant she was feeling much better.

Besides, when she stopped smacking my arm, she was very excited about being a great-aunt, and happy that she knew something my aunt didn’t. Ah, sibling rivalry, I thought, mentally rolling my eyes. I was so glad Elena and I weren’t like that.