Hospitals are the very definition of evil. The cleanliness. The stench of disinfectant. The fluorescent lights. The dieing people.
Normally I wouldn't be caught dead in this place, no pun intended. But somehow, for some reason, I'm sitting by a hospital bed waiting for a guy to regain consciousness so I can leave.
What else was I supposed to do? Leave him to die in the street. Not likely. It wasn't as if I was a doctor or anything. I guess it was lucky for him my flight was cancelled and my school had forced me to complete a First Aid course.
Five hours ago I'd caught a cab into Detroit Airport with my friend Cassie only to find that the flight we were meant to be going home on was cancelled, due to another damn blizzard. I love snow, just not when it delays a freakin' plane.
Home was where I wanted to be, I hadn't seen my family in four weeks. But I was stuck in the airport, tired, grumpy and hungry. Luckily I knew the wonders of Starbucks and so I skipped after Cassie towards the place I had come to love after many a sleepless night.
I didn't think things could get any worse but apparently they could. The attendants gave us information about a kind of hotel just down the road. We decided to walk as we needed to stretch our legs and besides it was just a short distance away.
Except it was not 'just' down the road. We'd been walking for thirty four minutes and twenty eight seconds (not that I was counting) and judging by the directions we'd been given earlier we were only half the way. I trailed behind Cassie kicking the powdery snow so that it stuck to my Vans blending in with the laces. I was not amused.
There I was thinking things couldn't get much worse. That's when the shit hit the fan. I'd just directed Cassie along another road which looked the same as all the others - deserted. Obviously it wasn't. The first thing that hit me was the two smashed up cars in the middle of the road, steam issuing from both. Then the shouting and the screams. Then the blood, splattered across the snow.
But this isn't my story. It's his story. I think you get the gist of what happened then. I did what I could to stop the bleeding. The ambulance arrived, sirens whirring and lights dancing across the stained snow. It was as if I was watching a silent movie, part of the audience and scrutinising the horror of the situation. The ambulance doors slammed shut and it drove off sirens still blaring.
So much for a quiet life, eh?