Daria: Winter Is Coming:Emergency Part One
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Daria: Winter Is Coming*Daria: Winter Is Coming*Daria: Winter Is Coming
Temple Beth-Shalom, Lawndale
"Help!" shouted the little girl.
Irwin Samuels turned his head to see what was happening.
"What's the matter?" he said.
"My Dad," said the girl. She looked frightened and scared. "I thought he fell asleep during services but now he won't wake up. I think he's unconscious."
"Did you try to wake him up?" said Mr. Samuels.
"Yeah," said Rikka. "I tried to shake him awake and he's not reacting." Mr. Samuels could tell that the young girl was on the edge of panicking.
"Is he still breathing?" said Mr. Samuels.
Rikka checked. Dad was still breathing.
"Hang tight, kid," said Mr. Samuels. "I'll go get someone."
Mr. Samuels stood up and quickly walked out of the sanctuary and into the foyer. He was only gone for a couple of minutes, but Rikka found herself shivering for the first time in years. He came back in, this time, with an older woman who looked like she was a bit older than Mrs. Cabrera, a woman who used to babysit Rikka once in a while when she and Dad were living in Las Vegas.
"Hi, I'm Leah Trautman," she said. "I'm a nurse. This is your Dad?"
"My good-father, yes," said Rikka. Now she knew she was scared. She hadn't used Westerosi idiom in years.
Ms. Trautman's eyebrows raised, but she didn't have time for clarifying the girl's relationship with the unconscious man. She turned to the man slumped in the pew. He was still breathing. She then checked his pulse and his heart-rate. He needed to go to a medical facility.
"Is he all right?" Rikka asked fearfully.
"Well, he's not going to die immediately," Leah replied, "but I think he does need to go to a hospital."
"Does he have any health problems?" said Leah.
"He's sick," said Rikka. "He came back east to be with family. He has—" The word was like the things in the river that occasionally dragged you under if you were crossing the river or drowned you if you were swimming, something you did not want to name or describe. She didn't want to say it, but she had to.
"He has cancer," she said.
"So what's your name?" asked Leah.
"Myrcia Morgendorffer," said Rikka. "I like to be called Rikka."
"I'm Leah Trautman," said Leah. "I'm a nurse at the Cedars of Lawndale, Lawndale's major hospital."
"If you'll excuse me a moment, I need to get an ambulance for your dad," she said. She pulled a cell phone out of her purse and started dialing. Rikka could hear Leah's cell phone click then beep, then Leah pressed a couple of buttons. She then heard a voice on the other end of the line.
"This is Leah Trautman, I'm a nurse. I'm over at Temple Beth-Shalom. We have a patient who has just gone unconscious and needs to be brought in."
"Adult male, Caucasian, upper forties to middle fifties," said Leah.
"I'm not sure, possibly exhaustion," said Leah.
"He's unconscious but he seems to be stable," she added.
"Good, we'll be in the Temple sanctuary waiting for you," she said. She then ended the call.
Leah turned her attention away from the patient and over to the little girl, who looked badly shaken by the events of the last half-hour.
"Rikka, could you answer a couple of questions for me?" said Leah.
"Like what?" said Rikka, a note of suspicion in her voice.
"So what's your Dad's name?" said Leah.
"Benjamin Morgendorffer," said Rikka.
"And where do you live?" said Leah.
"We used to live in Las Vegas, but right now we're staying with my aunt and uncles on Glen Oaks," said Rikka.
"That's not the one near Santa Fe, is it?" said Leah.
Rikka glowered at her in response. Don't call me a hick, she thought.
"Do you know their phone number?" said Leah. "Maybe they could come get you."
"I know one of them," said Rikka. Rikka turned and reached for her purse. She wasn't much for purses, but dresses didn't have pockets and she needed to keep track of a few things like a comb, a pen, and scratch-paper. Not to mention the slip of paper which she'd used to write down the phone number Daria had given to her.
"Does your Dad have a cell phone?" said Leah.
"Yeah," said Rikka.
Can I look in my Dad's pockets?" said Rikka.
"Go ahead," said Leah.
Her Dad's cell phone was there. Rikka tried to turn it on but the battery was too run down to use it.
"Here," said Leah, "Use my cell phone."
Rikka dialed the phone number that Daria had written down. That was the phone line Daria shared with Quinn. She heard the cell phone make clicking noises as it tried to connect, then she heard the busy signal.
Busy. D_nit.
-(((O-O)))—
1111 Glen Oaks
Lawndale, Maryland
"Thank you," said Quinn. "that's really sweet. But I can't do Thursday night. I have a really big project for class coming up and I need to work on it."
"Like maybe Monday night?" said Quinn. "Like that's free."
"Yes, Monday night," said Quinn.
Her discussion with Derrick was interrupted by a beeping noise: somebody else was trying to call her. The children's phone at Glen Oaks had a call-waiting feature. Quinn thought that was cool most of the time, like when her evenings were getting particularly busy, but sometimes the call-waiting feature was a pain in the butt.
To accept it or not? Quinn decided pick it up. It was Bill, a boy from Oakwood she'd met at a party. Bill wasn't an athlete, but he was a member of one of the popular cliques over at his school. His dad was also into real estate and, more importantly, Bill had access to a car. He could take her someplace interesting. She wanted to have at least one try-out date with him but this so not the right time to talk to him. She needed to wind up making plans with Derrick.
"Hey, could you call me later?" said Quinn. "I'm discussing things with one of my best friends. She had a bad experience with one of her dates and she needs to talk it out."
"Yeah, call me back in about an hour or so," said Quinn.
"Talk to you then," she said, "Thanks." She disconnected the call, then pushed the button on the receiver to allow her to speak on the other line. "Hello, Derrick? Are you still there?"
"Sorry, that was another call."
-(((O-O)))—
Temple Beth-Shalom, Lawndale
"Were you able to get through?" said Leah.
"Busy," said Rikka. "My cousin Quinn likes to talk on the phone and sometimes it's difficult to get through." She'd already learned that from trying to call Daria from school.
"We can try again in a little bit," said Leah.
A moment later a couple of men in Emergency Medical Technician uniforms came through the Temple's main entrance.
"Hey," said the senior EMT, a man wearing a two-tone blue uniform with patches saying that they were part of Lawndale's Emergency Response Team and a name badge saying that his name was Quentin Wakefield. "We got a call saying that there was an unconscious guy in the auditorium and we're here to take him over to the Cedars."
"He's in the Sanctuary," said Mr. Samuels, who was out in the foyer.
He pointed at the two double doors. "Through there," he added.
The two EMTs walked through the doors. Quentin entered the sanctuary and saw a woman look up and then wave at him.
"Over here," said Leah. The two EMTs walked over to the pew where Ben Morgendorffer was slumped.
Quentin started checking out the patient. Pulse, breathing, blood pressure, other conditions. He ignored the little girl sitting fearfully to one side. He frowned, the patient needed to go to the Cedars.
He turned to his partner. "Buddy, go get the stretcher," he said. "We're taking him to the Cedars."
"How' my Dad?" said Rikka. "Is he gonna die?"
"He's not going to die; he's stable," said Quentin. "We need to take him to the hospital."
"Hang tight, kid," he added. He turned to Leah. "Are you her Mom?"
"No, I'm Leah Trautman, I'm a nurse at the Cedars."
Rabbi Shapiro walked over. "What's going on?" he said. "I'd heard that Mr. Morgendorffer had fainted." The Rabbi had met Ben Morgendorffer a couple of weeks before. He knew that he was from out of town and was staying with his brother and his family.
"Mr. Morgendorffer fainted at the end of the service and isn't reviving," said Leah. "I called EMS and we decided that it would be a good idea to take him over to the Cedars."
"Good idea," he said. "Have you called the Morgendorffers' house?"
"I don't have their number," said Leah. "Rikka here called one of their numbers but it was busy."
"Daria and Quinn have their own phone line," said Rikka, remembering. "I don't think I've got Uncle Jake's and Aunt Helen's phone number."
"I might have it," said Rabbi Shapiro. "Ben might have written it down when he signed the guest register the other week. I could call you if I've got it and you could then call the man's brother and sister-in-law."
"Good idea," said Leah. She picked up a piece of scratch paper, wrote down her cell number, then gave it to the Rabbi.
At that moment, Buddy, the other EMT, came through the door with the Mobile stretcher. Rikka watched worriedly as they shifted Ben over from the pew to the stretcher.
"I want to stay with my Dad," said Rikka.
"I don't think that's possible," said Quentin. "Our regulations only allow patients and EMS staffers."
"Hey, I'm his daughter!" said Rikka.
"I'll take her over there," said Leah. "We can meet up in the Emergency Room."
Leah and Rikka watched as Quentin and Buddy rolled Ben out into the ambulance.
"We'll follow them to the hospital," said Leah. "My car's over there." She pointed at a five year-old Toyota. Leah unlocked the doors and they both got in. Leah insisted that Rikka used the seat belt.
Leah started her car, then drove and paused just before entering the street.
"Why don't you try calling your cousins again?" she said.
"Okay," said Rikka. She dialed the number on Leah's phone and again got a busy signal.
-(((O-O)))—
1111 Glen Oaks
Lawndale, Maryland
"Yeah, like I totally agree with you, Stacy," said Quinn. "Like that totally sucks. He shouldn't have said that. Like even if you did break off after only four dates, he had no right to call you a tease." Quinn's conversation with Stacy was interrupted by a beep heralding another call.
Quinn put Stacy on hold and connected with the other line.
"Hey, Quinn," said a male voice. "This is Andy. I know you called it off three weeks ago, but since you're quits with Thomas, I was wondering if like we could pick it up again."
"Un-hunh," said Quinn. Andy was another loser, but on the other hand, he did have a car and could take her places that most of the guys in the junior and senior classes couldn't.
Let's see what you've got to offer me, sucker, she thought.
Andy made a pitch to take her to Baltimore harbor and see the sites. Quinn thought that it wasn't a straight ploy to get her into a back seat somewhere, but on the other hand, Andy wasn't as well off as Skyler or one of the boys at Fielding.
In the meantime, Stacy pushed the wrong button and was accidentally disconnected. Quinn heard the beeping of another incoming call and decided that she'd "accidentally" hand up on Stacy, then call her back.
-(((O-O)))-
Leah Trautman's Toyota
En route to the Cedars of Lawndale
Finally, thought Rikka. I got through.
The phone rang once and then she was disconnected before she could so much as say what was going on.
Rikka tried calling again, but again got a busy signal.
-(((O-O)))-
1111 Glen Oaks
Lawndale, Maryland
Daria was lying down on her bed trying to do some school reading. It wasn't easy: not the text itself, which wasn't all that hard, but all the noise. Despite her bedroom's padded walls and the towel she'd put at the bottom of her door, she could still hear the strains of Boys Are Guys' "You Are My Squeeze-Babe" coming through the ductwork. Daria hated Boys Are Guys and particularly "You Are My Squeeze Babe." She briefly wondered about Rikka: shouldn't the kiddo be home by now? She looked at the clock beside her bed. It was now a quarter to eight: she and Uncle Ben were running a little late. She hoped that nothing bad had happened to them.
Despite the fact that both of her parents were out for the evening, the idea of temporarily relocating to the living room didn't occur to her. If it had, she might have been able to overhear the answering machine sending the call from Rabbi Shapiro's cell phone going to record ten minutes later.
-(((O-O)))—
Leah Trautman's Toyota
En route to the Cedars of Lawndale
Leah's cell phone went off at a bad moment. The traffic light near the hospital was notoriously unpredictable and there were some tricky turns involved into turning into the staffers' parking lot. Leah let her phone go into record, which was just as well: Rabbi Shapiro had just given her the Morgendorffers' main telephone number.
-(((O-O)))—
Cedars of Lawndale Hospital
Lawndale, Maryland
Leah Trautman parked and walked down the corridors into the Emergency Room, Rikka hard on her heels. The nurse's aide at the receptionist's saw Rikka and said that she wasn't supposed to be in there, but Leah overrode her by telling her that Rikka was with her.
Ben Morgendorffer was now on a hospital stretcher, an IV line running into his arm. Leah looked at him and frowned: he looked frail, like someone who was ill and had been pressing himself too hard.
She flagged down another nurse. Fortunately, the Cedars of Lawndale didn't have a big city hospital's traffic, so they could spare her a minute or two for conversation. "How is he doing?" she asked.
"He's stable. We have him on fluids, but we'll have to keep him here at least overnight," said the other nurse. "Does he have any family?"
"Yes, he's got a brother and sister-in-law here in town as well as a step-daughter," Leah replied. "She's with me." She gestured at Rikka, who had been listening intently to their conversation.
"Well, see if you can get in touch with his relatives and we can see about getting him formally checked in," said the nurse.
"I tried calling the number I had for them already," said Leah. "It's busy. I'll try again."
She stepped out of the Emergency Room and into a waiting area, dragging Rikka with her. She'd had difficulty doing that: the girl was very strong-willed. She pulled out her cell-phone: someone had called her and left a message on her voice mail. The number looked half-familiar, so she decided to check the message. Upon playing it, she realized that it was the Rabbi and that he had the Morgendorffers' main phone number, which he left for her.
Leah extracted a pen and a piece of paper from her purse and wrote it down. She then pressed the number, then hit the "SEND" button. Acting again on an impulse, she handed her cell phone to Rikka and said "You talk to them."
1111 Glen Oaks
Lawndale, Maryland
Daria decided that she needed a study break and decided to go downstairs to get a soda. She looked at the kitchen clock: Ben and Rikka should have already been back at the house. She began to be concerned.
She reached into the refrigerator and extracted a soda. She'd just set the can on the counter and popped its top when the mobile phone rang. Daria picked it up despite her fear that it was either a junk call or her mother's sleazy boss Eric trying to pile yet more work on her.
"Hello?" she said.
-(((O-O)))—
Cedars of Lawndale Hospital
Lawndale, Maryland
"Gods damnit, Daria! Why didn't anyone pick up!" shouted Rikka. "Dad's at the hospital and I'm here by myself and could somebody please come over?"
"SHIT!" said Daria. "Hang on, Rikka, I'm coming."