Closed Doors.

First rotation is over with. It had it's quiet moments, and a few interesting calls in between. I'm definitely making huge steps in ping pong.

On my fourth shift, overnight, we were called to a stabbing at an apartment downtown. It was pouring rain and about 2am at this time. As we were arriving, our dispatch added that it was possibly self inflicted. We got to the scene along with three police officers. They entered first and we followed. It was a big, run down, dirty place on the middle floor of a house. The hallway light didn't work, so they used their flashlights. It turns out most of the lights didn't work, and no one would answer their calls of "City Police!", so we had to go looking.

I've always told myself that I would never do anything that could get me hurt at work, or killed. I was just so caught up in how cool it all was. I felt like I was on a cop show. Knocking on doors in dark rooms and then throwing the door open if no one answered. It occurred to me after opening a couple doors that this was a stabbing call, and what if the "stabber" was still here? So then I was a bit more cautious. I looked down a dark hallway and at the end I saw another door, this one with light coming from around the edges. Maybe I've watched too many movies, but it was one of the scariest things I've ever seen. The "ones with the guns" went first, and I think we were all expecting to find a body on the floor. I hate to be anti-climactic, but there was nothing.

To me that was even more strange. The apartment was totally quiet, nobody around. No blood. The police never found anyone and we were never called back. I thought I was finally going to get to see something other than a patient being short of breath. Maybe next time, if I'm lucky... and someone else isn't.

-AM

i am the son and heir of nothing in particular