Friday, November 26:
Dr. Brackett's Office
It had been a long and busy day in the emergency department. The day after Thanksgiving tended to be like that, what with the consumption of improperly stored left-overs, shopping frenzy induced illness and post-holiday family fighting after too much contact with people you usually only saw a couple of times a year. Dr. Brackett wearily rubbed his eyes. He was more bothered about the situation with Johnny than he cared to admit. Something Dixie said that morning continued to niggle at him. He heard her loud and clear about looking over the exam one more time and he trusted her instincts. While he had indeed checked the printout at least three times, he had not gone past the summary page that said how many answers the test-takers had gotten wrong or right. He had never re-read the actual exams themselves. He fished Johnny's exam out of the pile.
As he carefully read through the many pages, he was sorry to see that some answers were indeed incorrect. When he came to the signature form on the last page, he noted with surprise that it did not say 'John Gage.' Dr. Brackett flipped back to the computer-generated cover sheet with the test scores; the name "Gage, John R." was printed on the front. He puzzled over that for a moment and then took a closer look at the ID number written on each page. The ID number on the pages did not match the one printed under Gage's name on the cover sheet. Recognizing that if there had been one mis-match here on Johnny's exam, there certainly had to be a twin somewhere else and he quickly dug into the pile of exams, comparing the cover sheet with the ID numbers and signature page for each one. Sure enough, he found another set that didn't match. The ID numbers on the two exams were nearly identical; except the middle two digits were transposed. Somehow the two numbers and cover sheets had inadvertently been reversed.
Dr. Brackett stared in irritation at the two exams on the desk before him. How could such a mistake have gone unnoticed? He picked up the phone and dialed Dixie's number at home. She picked up after a few rings. "Well, Dixie, you were right. Johnny didn't fail the paramedic's exam. His exam got mixed-up with Craig Brice's. Brice is the one who failed the exam."
After a pause Dixie said, "While I'm glad to hear that Johnny passed, I am sorry to hear that Craig Brice did not. Kel, how could such a thing have happened?"
"I don't know, Dix. Data entry or collation error is my guess. Maybe the files were dropped on the floor or something. I'll contact the Board and the Fire Department Headquarters tomorrow to get Johnny reinstated and let them know about Brice."
"Tomorrow is Saturday," Dixie pointed out.
"Well then, I guess it will have to wait until Monday. But I'd like to call Johnny myself and give him the news now. Do we have his number somewhere?"
"I have his number. Just a minute; I'll get it for you." She was away from the phone for less than a minute. "Here it is: 555-4231. Are you going to recheck all the other exams?"
"Yes. I'm doing that right now. But I thought you'd want to know about Johnny."
"Yes, I did. Thanks for calling, Kel. I'll let you get back to checking those exams."
"Okay. Goodnight, Dix. I'll talk to you later." Dr. Brackett hung up the phone with a sigh. His long day had just gotten longer.
The day after Thanksgiving tended to be like that, what with the over-eating, shopping frenzies and post-holiday family fighting after too much contact with people you only saw a couple of times a year.