Carol woke to the beeping of the alarm clock the next morning, and crawled out of bed groaning inwardly. She went out to the hallway and knocked on the twins’ door.
"Girls! Time to get up!"
She went back into her room, grabbing some clothes and a scrub top and went back out to the bathroom, pausing by the same door again.
"C’mon! Wakey wakey! I’m going for a shower now, d’ya want to go and play downstairs? Kate? Tess?"
She knocked again and failed to hear anything. She opened the door and peered in. The room was empty with bedclothes on the floor from the beds and the curtains still closed. Carol pulled open the curtains, looked around and sighed, leaving the room and walking down the hallway. Just as she got to the top of the staircase, she heard giggling. Leaning over the banisters, she saw the twins sitting on the floor of the lounge drawing on some pieces of paper.
"I’m just having a shower okay girls?"
"Okay!"
She smiled and went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.
Five minutes into her shower, she heard the distant chimes of the doorbell. The girls knew not to answer the door, and she feverently hoped that it was just the mailman or someone else who could come back later. But the ringing continued. Just as she was climbing out of the shower cursing quietly, she heard a crash and a scream.
"Oh my god, Tess? Kate? Where are you? Are you okay?" She shouted as she ran out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. She ran down the staircase, bending over to see what had happened, but stopped when she saw a fireman standing in her lounge, with the front window smashed. The twins were on the floor still, looking up in shock.
"Excuse me?!"
"Hello ma’am. We had a call from this number a while ago - where’s the problem? No one answered the door but we could hear the children…"
"There must have been a mistake, nothing’s wrong..."
"Your telephone number is 476-2091, isn’t it?"
"Yes. But I haven’t call…oh wait a minute. Wait one minute. Girls, I don’t suppose you could tell me anything about this?"
Kate avoided her look and Tess stared up at the fireman and asked to look at the flashlight that he had.
"Okay, I get the message. I’m really sorry this happened, but somehow I think that…"
"Don’t worry ma’am. We’ve had this happen before. You might want to get your telephone installed on the wall though."
"That’s a good idea. Thanks for understanding…I’m sorry again."
"No problem."
She shut the door behind the fireman.
"Alright you two, get here now. Sit down. Now I want you to tell me exactly what you did this morning before I woke up."
Later that day, Carol breathed a sigh of relief as she sat down in the staff lounge with a cup of coffee. The door behind her smacked open as Dave came in, pushing a bike through.
"Hey Carol."
"Morning Dave. Don’t get me wrong, but I thought you weren’t meant to keep that in here?"
"Aww, c’mon, you’re not going to say anything about this are you? It’ll just get stolen if I leave it outside. And besides, what I’m doing, riding to work everyday, is protecting the planet…"
"Alright alright. As long as it doesn’t block my locker. But you have to get a chain or something."
"Sure! Will do, Nurse Hathaway!"
At that moment, the door smacks open again.
"Carol…okay Dave, what have I said about the bike?"
"Outside."
Mark steps aside as Dave goes back out with the bike, admitting defeat.
"Carol. Trauma coming in, ETA 3 mins."
"I knew I wouldn’t get to finish my coffee." She sighed and got up, following Mark out of the door. They walked towards the admit desk.
"Mark, did Rachel ever go through a telephone stage?"
"A telephone stage? What do you expect - she’s nearly fourteen, of course she’s going through a phone stage!"
"No, I meant when she was younger - did she ever play with the phone? You know, accidentally call 911 or anything?"
"Oh they didn’t!" Mark is grinning back at her as they wait for the trauma.
"Oh they did. I came out of my shower this morning and found a fireman in my living room."
"What happened?!"
"I guessed what had happened, the firemen left. Said it happened a lot actually. I sat them down and gave them a talk…then I found out they called Doug this morning as well…"
"Doug?! How did they know…?"
"They didn’t - I left his phone number sitting on the sideboard last night after Elizabeth called, they found it, dialled it, thankfully they got an answer machine."
"Wow! I don’t recall Rachel doing anything like that. She went through a phase of asking "why?" in reply to everything you said…."
"Oh I could do without that."
"We all could really…Elizabeth called you about Doug’s mom?"
"Yea…"
The EMT’s crashed through the doors.
"12 year old boy, went through the windshield in an MVA, GCS 7, pulse 102, bp 120 over 90, landed on his head, strapped to a backboard with C-spine immobiliser, possible fractured skull, lacs all over. Parents have minor injuries, following in next rig."
"Thanks. Intubate him. Has Carter got the parents?"
"Yeah. Right pupil is fixed and dilated, we need x-ray in here."
"On it’s way. Belly is soft, Babinski’s positive"
"CBC, lytes, type and crossmatch for four, and get Benton."
Peter comes into the room
"What’ve we got?"
"Don’t page him, he’s here! 12 year old MVA victim, landed on his head after shooting through the windshield, right pupil is blown, possible fracture to c-spine."
"Where’s radiology?"
"Here."
"Alright, ready? Get out for a moment."
"Done!"
"Roll him, gently."
"And again."
"Done!"
"How’re the parent’s doing? We’re going to need consent."
"Carter’s got ‘em. Malik, go find one of his parents."
"Blood’s here."
"Hang one, open bore IV"
"Call the PICU"
"Pulse is falling, bp’s 100 over 60."
"Okay, lidocaine IV push, 3 milligrams of epi."
"Vitals are stable again."
"Peter? You want to move him now?"
"To the PICU."
"Okay, let’s go people! Grab that IV pole someone!"
That evening, Carol came into the lounge to get her coat and go upstairs to collect the twins, she tripped over Carter’s leg, as he lay sprawled in an armchair.
"Whoa, Carter! Watch your legs!"
"Hey, sorry Carol." He sat up and stretched. Carol rummaged around in her locker.
"What happened about that kid earlier?"
"He’s still in ICU, parents are with him. On a respirator I think."
"Makes you think before getting in the car doesn’t it?"
"Huh?"
"Seat belts and all that. Half the time I don’t bother myself, when I use a car."
Carter makes a tutting noise.
"Straight through the windshield…"
"I don’t think you’ll be forgetting to do that again, right?!"
"Sure won’t. Got to go get the girls. I’ll see ya Monday, Carter."
"Will do, take care, Carol."
"You too."
She hurried out of the lounge, intent on getting home for an early night but suddenly stopped abruptly in the middle of the hallway.
"DAMMIT! Dammit, dammit, dammit!"
"Carol?!"
She turned around to see who had called, and saw an array of faces peering round from behind the desk, and Carter’s head popping around the door of the lounge. Mark came around from the desk.
"Is there a problem?!"
"I forgot to put some dinner on!"
Everyone smiled, and went back to what they were doing.
"Don’t worry about it. If anything, I bet the girls’ll be over the moon."
"Thanks for your support, Mark! Now I am going to have to fall to the level of taking them to Doc Magoo’s, or worse, going to McDonalds. Then they’ll expect the same thing every week…"
Mark laughs. "Never mind. Hey, is it okay if I join you? I’m off in a couple, and I have a cold, empty apartment, devoid of food, to go back to."
"I thought you were happily married now, with a wife who lovingly prepared feasts for your arrival home?!"
"You kidding?! Elizabeth is a great cook, but in all honesty…", he leans forward and whispers conspiratorially, " I can’t stand all that bland British food all the time!" He leans back out again as Carol grins. "Plus she’s working tonight, and neither of us have made it to the store for the past week…"
"Oh alright then. I guess we can make room for you…"
"I don’t know whether I should grace that with a reply or not! I’ll see you back here in a few."
"Sure."
"McDonalds!!"
"McGoo’s!"
"McDonalds!"
"McGoo’s!"
"It’s MAGoo’s, Tess. And sorry Kate, but we are going to Doc Magoo’s, I don’t have time to go all the way to McDonalds."
"Awwwwwww…."
"And if we go to McDonalds, you know we’ll just have to ride the El further and we’d have to change trains twice."
"I like the El!"
"Mark, help me out here!"
"Oh, I think you’re holding your ground there, Carol. I wouldn’t like to ruin your argumentative strategy."
"Gee, thanks."
They went up the steps into the boxcar that was Doc’s, holding a hand of a twin each. Going up to the counter, both Tess and Kate squealed until they got to sit on the high
bar-stool-type seats, and they all looked up at the chalkboard behind the counter to choose which delectable item they wanted for their supper. A waitress came over and smiled, holding a notepad.
"Would you like to order something?"
"Erm…"
"Burger and fries."
"Kate!"
Mark laughed some more as Kate looked expectantly at the waitress as if she was about to pull a burger and fries from behind her back. Carol sighed.
"What do you say Kate?"
"Pleeeeeaaasssseeeee!" Tess got there before Kate did.
The waitress laughed as well.
"Okay, okay. Tess, what do you want?"
"What does that say?"
"That says soup. I don’t think you like soup, Tess, it has…"
"I want soup!"
"But it has…"
"Soup please!"
Carol stands there, looking tired and stressed. Mark picks one twin up under each arm and puts them down on the floor, as they both squeal and giggle. He points them in the direction of a free booth and the run off to it, diving into the plastic seats.
"I’ll have a mushroom omelette Carol, thanks!"
Carol sighs again and looks back at the waitress, who is grinning broadly.
"Long day, huh?"
"You could say that. So, what have we got, one burger and fries, one…let me see…chicken and sweet corn soup - she doesn’t like sweet corn, but it’s up to her to learn that now. And a mushroom omelette, and I’ll have…hmmm…I’ll have a tuna fish salad thanks."
"Okay. Any drinks?"
"Four rounds of juice, orange I think."
"Sure. Okay, shouldn’t be long!"
"Thanks."
She heads over to the corner of the café, going instinctively by the amount of noise coming from that direction.
Later that evening, Carol stepped off the train, followed by the twins. Grabbing a hand of each one to stop them falling on the rails, she walked to the side to wait until the train had left the station so that they could wave to Mark.
"Byeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
"Bye bye bye bye bye!!!"
"Please, girls, could you be a bit quieter? I’ve had a very long day, and your noise is giving me a headache."
"Okay."
"Sorry Mommy."
As they turn to leave the station, Carol realises Tess is still standing by the fence bordering the platform. She looks through it down to their house, where she likes to drop a stick and then see if she can find it when they reach the bottom.
"Mommy, who’s that man?"
"What man, Tess? Can we hurry up? It’s cold!"
"That man. Are you going out tonight?"
Carol comes back to where Tess is and looks where she is pointing. She sees a man standing on her porch, peering through the windows, holding what looks like a bunch of flowers. Just when she begins to suspect it might be a burglar, he steps back and sits down on the step, looking at his watch.
"No…I’m not going out tonight, Tess. I don’t know who it is. Let’s go see."
"Maybe it’s Mark!"
"No stupid, we just waved bye-bye to him, he was on the train!
"I’m not stupid! You’re stupid."
"Don’t start girls, please. Let’s go and see who it is."
They go down the stairs and out of the station, coming round to the house. As they go down the path, Kate breaks away and runs up to the steps, despite Carol’s shouts for her to come back. As Carol gets nearer, the man stands up and suddenly it is apparent who it is.
