Take Your Child to Work Day
"Alright, so it's agreed. Coin toss to decide who gets who." Delilah nodded as she picked up a pound coin from the table. "Heads are boys, tails are girls."
"Well, except for the young ones-after last year the station has set an age limit-eight or older only." Doug grimaced, remembering how the previous year had ended with half the building flooded after Derek wandered off and decided to play with some buttons on the tanker truck.
"That works for me, Janet said that it's a safety hazard to have young children in the ward." She too remembered the previous year and shivered momentarily.
She flipped the coin and caught it in midair, placing it on her hand. It was heads.
"Alright, I'm boys this year. And for all of you eavesdropping I hope you're happy-because I don't want any complaining tomorrow morning!" She directed at the door frame.
A few muffled footsteps shuffled away from the door and a voice that sounded distinctly like Dawkins mumbled something about needing to find rubber gloves for tomorrow.
After dropping off Triple D, Derek, and Deepak at school Delilah drove the rest of the boys to the hospital in the van. Doug had taken Dolly, Dana, and Dee Dee straight to the station from the house. The hospital was a large building-easily the tallest in the neighborhood-and its impressive concrete and plate-glass exterior glimmered in the early morning sun (a rarity for spring in Britain). After parking with the other employees the boys disembarked.
"Alright, I know most of you have already seen my work, but just to remind everyone of the expectations: please no running, yelling, going in rooms without permission, or leaving my ward. I trust you all can do this, right?"
"Yes Mum." They replied in chorus, with Dante rolling his eyes.
"Good. I know today is going to be great, so let's get in there and help some people." Delilah led the way through the lobby to the lift, with the eight of them squeezing in as she hit the button for the third floor. "So, I first have a brief meeting today with the other staff. After we finish you and any other children will be assigned to help with different tasks throughout the ward. I promise it won't be as bad as you think-and afterwards Dr. Lambert has scheduled a luncheon for us all." The lift dinged as the doors opened and the family filed out-with Dylan holding the door to make sure it didn't close on anyone. Delilah excused herself to the staff meeting and gestured towards a waiting room where the other children were waiting.
Or, to be more accurate, child. The only other person whose parent had brought them was Fergus. "What are you guys doing here? I thought you usually went with your dad."
"Mum and Dad had a coin toss. Apparently we were labeled 'safety hazards' after what happened last year." Dawkins cringed, remembering how Dolly had told them about the apparent flammability of x-rays after the fire last year courtesy of Dallas knocking over a lamp and burning down half a room before the sprinklers kicked on.
"Oh yeah, I remember that. Still surprised they decided to have it again this year."
"Why'd you choose your mom instead of mum?" Delgado asked, trying to get his chair to balance on its wheels-a habit he'd developed one summer he was particularly bored.
"I think I'd rather die than spend the day at a law firm. Everyone's always too busy to do anything, or if they do, it's just giving you a stack of paperwork to sort. No thanks."
Across town Doug was finishing up a safety briefing as Dolly, Dana, and Dee Dee sat in the back of the conference room wishing the clock to move faster than it was.
"How long has this meeting been? It feels like ages?" Dana whispered to Dolly, clearly bored.
"It's been twenty minutes. I counted the slides when Dad was setting up. We only have six more until he's done. Hopefully he doesn't get sidetracked again on some tangent about the best method to break down a door." She glanced again at the clock-9:18. This day needed to move faster.
At the hospital Delilah returned to the waiting room and handed out the assignments: Dylan and Fergus would help at the desk sorting files (Oh come on!), Dante and Dawkins would help Nurse Ellie with her rounds, David and Delgado would help clean rooms, and D.J. would help set up the room for the event afterwards with Carol from HR.
After a few moments of grumbling the boys split into their teams and went off with the different adults they were assisting. Dylan and Fergus followed Percy to the intake desk where he showed them the stack of files they would be working on. Percy could be best described in one word: beige. He wore beige scrubs (as all the desk workers at the hospital), had beige skin, nearly beige-blonde hair, and seemed as interesting as his appearance suggested.
"So, these are files of patients. Each file needs to be color coded with up to six labels. Each label indicates a different characteristic or quality of the patient while they are here. It is my job-well, our job today-to add these labels to the files and then place them into the correct alphabetic box for the staff to be able to reference later on. Now, legally you can't read the files-but you can help me place the labels and sort the files in the boxes."
"Okay. Where are the labels?" Dylan asked, clearly just trying to get through the day. Fergus was still fuming at having to do paperwork-after intentionally choosing the hospital to avoid doing so.
Percy whipped out a large stack of stickers from a cabinet beneath his desk and placed them with an audible thud on the table. "This should be enough to start. When we run out I have more in the supply closet."
Nurse Ellie was an older woman-Dante guessed she was at least ten years older than Mum or Dad-but she seemed as spry as someone half her age. Dante and Dawkins had to walk quickly to keep up with her brisk pace. Her speaking was just as quick, and nearly indecipherable given her strong Geordie accent.
She seemed to be talking about a football match she'd seen the previous day (Dawkins picked up her talking about 'Newcastle' and 'magpies'), and Dawkins and Dante simply nodded along, unsure of what to say. When they reached the first room on her rounds she opened the door and cheerfully greeted the patient-a man in his thirties who was in a full-body cast. She seemed to introduce her companions, and Dawkins nudged Dante to say hello.
"Hello, I'm Dante-we're doing rounds with Nurse Ellie today."
"And I'm Dawkins…" He hesitantly added, smiling anxiously.
She smiled and continued babbling happily, asking the man questions-to which he mostly responded in pained sounding grunts. She motioned for the boys to come closer and seemed to demonstrate how an IV worked-Dawkins watched as the saline cleared the line before she hooked up another bag. She pointed to a chest on the wall and seemed to ask for something, so Dante opened the doors. Inside were a few blanket and pillows. He guessed she wanted one, but had no clue which. He guessed and grabbed a blanket, which appeared to be correct, and she smiled and draped it over the man. Dawkins and Dante shared a brief glance and knew it was going to be a long day.
Cleaning rooms wasn't too bad-if it wasn't for the constant stream of bodily fluids on every surface imaginable. David wasn't exactly a hypochondriac-he knew he had a good immune system, having been the only one to avoid getting the flu last season-but being near so much blood and vomit was… disconcerting. He put on another new pair of gloves and adjusted the face mask he'd grabbed from a supply cart. He and Delgado were helping Clark-a middle-aged man of African descent-clean the rooms on the floor as needed. Clark's pager seemed to go off every few minutes with a new room to go to, which meant a new mess they had to clean up. Delgado couldn't get around in most of the rooms easily because of the tight quarters, so he was in charge of pushing the janitorial cart.
This time it was the aftermath of someone who'd been sick on themselves after eating. The nurse had taken the patient out of the room to get fresh air, but the floor and bed were still a mess. Clark rolled up the linens as David took the mop and silently prayed to anything above that he would be done with this soon.
Human resources was not as fun as it sounded. D.J. had figured setting up for a party would be the easy job-everyone else had to work on boring tasks, but D.J. could just set up a bunch of balloons and get the perfect playlist picked. Or, so he had thought. Turns out this wasn't just the party for Mum's ward. It was the party for the entire hospital staff who had brought children. That meant he had to set up almost four hundred folding chairs, not to mention tables.
Carol didn't seem bad, she didn't talk much, but at least she didn't complain when D.J. knocked over a stack of folding chairs in what may have been the biggest game of dominoes played in a hospital conference hall. D.J. was mentally counting how many chairs he had left-thirty down, three hundred seventy to go…
Doug finally finished his presentation at 10:06. He had gotten distracted twice trying to tell a joke about water pressure in hoses (which really wasn't much of a joke to anyone but the other firefighters), but it was finally over. Dolly sighed a breath of relief. Dana and Dee Dee were both barely awake, but this meant they might actually get to do something cool now. Dolly had never been to the station before-she'd either been with Mum, or had been unfortunate enough to get sick on take your child to work day (three times!).
"Alright girls, sorry about that. I know it was a bit boring to sit through my meeting, but some fun stuff is next! Follow me!" He cheerfully smiled and led the way through a door to the left.
Dolly shrugged as she got up, stretching her back from the stiffness of the wooden chair she'd been sitting in. Dana and Dee Dee trudged behind her, barely awake.
The room to the left was actually the garage for the firehouse. Dolly blinked twice in the much brighter room (the garage doors had large windows that filtered in the mid-morning sun) as she looked at the three large engines sat in front of her.
"So, I know this is your first time at the station and I figured I could show you all the engines and talk about what they do… if that's alright with you." Doug sheepishly grinned, clearly attempting to extend an olive branch after the tedious morning they had all sat through.
Before Dolly could even manage to get a word out Dana and Dee Dee shouted in reply, "Yeah!"
"Dad, that's so…"
"Awesome! Ooh! What's this one do?"
"Or what about this?"
"Can I sound the siren?"
"Or use the hose?"
The twins were bouncing up and down as Doug grinned.
"Thanks Dad. This is pretty awesome." Dolly stared up at her reflection on the chrome tanker truck's cylindrical reservoir.
Carol was better than not bad. She was amazing! Turns out she was an avid skydiver in her spare time, in addition to being a fan of basically every punk band D.J. listened to.
"Wait a minute, are you telling me you saw Lemon Killers live in '09? That was an epic show-I heard Fleming had an eight minute solo in the middle of Ivy Madness." D.J. was amazed at all the concerts she'd been to. It seemed like every one he had ever begged his parents to go to (or wished he'd been around to attend) she had front row seats for.
"Yeah, it was a heck of a solo. Even better was the after-party. Got him to sign my shirt and take a photo of him and my family. Here, I've got the picture on my phone. Sure enough the bespectacled woman was standing with her equally unassuming husband and a teenage son with a Mohawk along with Harvey frackin' Fleming.
"Have you heard their new album? The new bassist isn't as good as Potter-who could be-but it's pretty good. A lot like Body of my Perception." Carol pulled up the album on her phone and plugged it into a speaker she had set up for announcements during the party. "I'm sure no one will mind a little music while we set up…" She grinned, and D.J. couldn't help but smile back.
Percy was right. They did need a second stack of labels. Fergus groaned mentally as he and Dylan had to trudge across the labyrinthine hospital to the supply closet. It didn't help that Percy had a bit of a limp and was taking a while to lead the group to the supply closet. Percy paused a moment at a corner and adjusted his pant leg, revealing he had an artificial left leg. Dylan nudged Fergus and nodded toward the leg-Fergus raised an eyebrow.
"Percy, if you don't mind my asking, how did you get your prosthetic leg?" Fergus asked, gesturing to Percy's plastic leg.
"Lost it in Kosovo."
"Kosovo?" Dylan wracked his memory, the name sounded vaguely familiar. "Was that the one in Yugoslavia?"
"Yeah. I was deployed there in '98 and lost my leg in '99."
"Sorry… That, well, sucks." Fergus felt somewhat embarrassed for asking the question.
"It's not the worst thing that could've happened. It's been twenty years, at this point I've almost lived as much of my life without than with it." He paused, unlocking the supply cabinet door. "When you're in special forces you have to expect things to be rough-you get sent into stuff that the normal guys could never handle. Losing a leg? Not the worst thing that could've happened."
"You were special forces?" Dylan's uncle had been in RAF when he was young, but aside from that he didn't know many other veterans, let alone one who'd been special forces.
"You bet your ass I was. I was a twenty-two year old punk from Newham who thought he could do anything." He smiled wearily, "Unfortunately landmines don't care what you think."
Percy picked up a stack of labels before continuing, "It was tough. I was told it was going to be a long road-and it was. But I managed. Now most people don't even realize, especially when they find out I'm a fourth degree black belt."
"Wow." Fergus couldn't really think of a good reply, so he simply repeated it again, "Wow…"
"Come on, if you two want to hear war stories I can share a few while we finish up. There's a fizzy drink machine on the way back-my treat."
"Alright. That's the last room for us today. My shift is over in a few minutes. All we have left is to drop off the linens for the laundry service. There's a service elevator that'll take us to the basement." Clark led David and Delgado down the hall before pressing the down button on the silver panel. The doors slid open and he gestured for Delgado to go first, then pushed in his cart, with David entering last. The elevator was easily double the size of the one they'd taken that morning, so even with the large cart it didn't feel cramped.
The basement was a network of white passageways with blue linoleum tile. This part of the building clearly hadn't been renovated, there was chipping paint and cracks in the flooring frequently. Clark didn't seem to notice or mind as he pushed the cart full of spoiled linens down the hall before unlocking a room labeled 'Laundry' and scooting the cart in. He locked the door again and turned left, instead of the right they'd come from.
"I know you two got the short straw today-no one wants to be a janitor-but for sticking with it and not complaining I have something I want to show you."
David looked at Delgado and shrugged, his younger brother returned the motion and seemed to intone-why not? There's nothing else to do.
The hall they were walking down dead-ended abruptly on a set of double doors. Clark took out a key and unlocked them, "This hospital is pretty old. Back in the day they'd have life operations down here for doctors and medical students to observe. That ended well before even I started here, but the operation theater was still around. I discovered it a little after I started, got lost in the tunnels and got curious. When I found out no one minded that I used the room I kind of commandeered it as a personal 'crash pad'." He pushed the door open and flicked on a series of switches.
Inside the large room were a number of bulletin boards covered in schematics and illustrations-well done illustrations David thought. There were also a few tables covered in bits of machinery that looked like old hospital equipment that had been disassembled, as well as a rack of power tools and a computer with a 3D printer.
"Woah, what is all of this?" David stated, somewhat in awe of the room. He looked closely at one of the illustrations on the wall-it was a detailed hand-drawn schematic of a human leg wearing a brace of some kind. "Did you draw this?"
"That and every other one on those boards. I heard your mum talk about how you like art, so I rigged the drawing so I could show off a bit…" Clark smiled.
Delgado was examining one of the items on the table, he cocked his head to the side to get a closer look. It looked familiar, like… "Are these supposed to be leg braces to help people walk?"
"Yep. I'm on the fifth prototype right now. If this one works like I intend I should be able to get a patent and contract a fabricator." He walked over to the table to demonstrate. "They're pneumatic, so in addition to offering support they actually bend and mimic regular walking patterns. They're a bit bulky, admittedly, but I'm hoping that I can manage to get them to work like a sort of external brace which can detect movement and replicate ambulation realistically without the use of arm braces."
"Wait… are you saying I could walk with these and not need braces?" Delgado nearly leapt from his chair to grab at the prototype.
"Hey! Not yet! They aren't ready for human testing right now. I still haven't fully calibrated them. But yes, if they work like I intend, you and everyone else with limited lower limb functionality could use them in place of traditional leg and arm braces."
"That's fantastic! How did you come up with this?" David turned from the diagram he was gazing at and reappraised his initial perception of the janitor.
"My youngest is in a chair and while I know he's happy, I've always wanted to be able to help him do more. I figured this was a good way how."
After a few more minutes of explanation and a brief demonstration of his previous prototype the three left the former operating theater. "Delgado, I've heard a lot about you from your mother. You're a good kid. When I do get this thing market ready you can bet I'll give you the second one we make."
The party that afternoon was enjoyable. As the boys reconvened and shared their stories over punch and light snacks Delilah chatted with her coworkers in a corner of the room. There were a few other kids there, but most of them were unfamiliar faces.
Delilah walked over to her sons and Fergus (who nearly was her child, given how often he seemed to be over at their house), "I heard you all had pretty good days with your different adults."
"Yeah, Percy's a total badass! Did you know he once jumped out a second story window and managed to land on top of a truck?" Fergus' face lit up and Dylan smirked at the normally stoic red-head's overt bromance.
"Clark's really cool too. Did you know he's making leg braces that work without arm support? I could walk around on my own without having to use my arms to swing everywhere!" Delgado made a mental note to take more interest in the other janitors he knew-maybe they all were this cool.
"And I take it you had a good time D.J.? Carol told me to invite you to go with her family to a concert next weekend, apparently she's an even bigger fan of Chemical Chaser than you are." Delilah smiled, happy to have heard things went well.
"I'm there."
"Also, Dawkins, Dante, thank you. Ellie's been having a rough time of it recently, having just moved south. Apparently some people can't understand her well. But she said you two were wonderful. A little kindness goes a long way."
Back home everyone was happy with the way the day went, and Doug and Delilah are glad nothing went awry at work. Dolly shared how the day at the firehouse went while the boys all described their different partnerships. It was a good day for all. Then the phone rang.
"I'll get it!" Dylan called from the kitchen, picking the phone up off the receiver. "Hello, Dawkins residence. This is Dylan."
"Hello Dylan, this is Mr. Larson, Dean of Students for the lower school. Can I speak with one of your parents?"
"Sure. I'll get my mum." Dylan covered the speaker and shouted, "Mum! School's on the phone!"
"I'll get it out here!" Delilah picked up the phone in the entry as Dylan hung up in the kitchen.
Deepak quietly opened the back door as Dylan went back to chopping potatoes.
"He did WHAT?!" Delilah nearly lost her composure for a moment. "Well, how am I supposed to know where he got that much paper mache?" She sighed before continuing discussing the merits of environmental protests in school.
Dylan rolled his eyes and chuckled to himself, there couldn't be a day without some sort of fiasco-but that was life in a big family, a life none of the Dawkins would ever wish to trade.
