NaNoWriMo

Mr. and Mrs. Costo had taught their children responsibility. On a Saturday morning, they were on their way to a baptism of a grandchild of a life-long friend who had assisted them when Mr. Costo had begun his career as a realtor. If it wasn’t for the friendship and good word from Franklin Meyers Stockton, Mr. Costo would have never made any contacts for big deals in commercial realty. One deal lead to a bigger deal and then the rest is history.
As Mr. Costo was riding in the ambulance, tow truck, he felt a pain begin in his chest. He coughed a few coughs. He felt to see if his medicine, that the doctor insisted he always keep with him.
“Hey mister. Are you okay?” asked the tow truck as he slowly changed lanes.
As he searched in his pockets, he found the small bottle in his pocket. There was only one left. He said a thank you prayer and put the pill under his tongue. He waited. The tow truck moved slowly on. Finally there was a little relief in his chest.
“Yes. I have a heart problem but my medicine should help.” He turned to the driver and smiled a weak smile. “Usually my wife has to insist that I take the medicine but today, with all of the excitement, I didn’t need any reminder.”
“Yea, my wife is always telling me to stop smoking and cut down on the beer. Can you imagine eating a pizza without a couple of beers?” He saw an opening in the next lane and changed lanes again. As he did so, another car tried to get into that spot and moved out of the way quickly. The driver speeded up and started to honk at the tow truck driver.
“Shut up, you old jerk!” yelled the tow truck driver and moved again two lanes to get ready to get on the exit lane. “Will you look at that man! He almost hit the other car ahead of us!” The tow truck driver looked at Mr. Costo and saw the man slumped over with spit drooling out of his mouth.
“Oh my God!” The tow truck driver picked up his microphone. “This is truck A44 with an emergency. I am not going to the address give to you for the accident I picked up. I am going to the hospital that is en route. Please tell the dispatcher to inform the hospital that the man looks like he is unconscious.” The driver planned the best route to the hospital. He did not see that the bottle that the man’s last pill was in had slipped from his hand and rolled under his seat.
Mrs. Costo’s upper body was aching. The worst pain was in her neck. Because she had no airbag deployment, she had her top of her body whipped forward very quickly. Her neck took the biggest part of the force. Not only did her neck hurt, she felt dizzy and sore on the part of the body where the shoulder belt was across her body. She never liked any kind of restraint in cars, but today it might have changed her mind.
“Mrs. Costo, I need to find out if you are allergic to any kind of medicine.” Asked the female ambulance technician.
“Huh?” Mrs. Costo saw the lady’s mouth moving but could barely hear her voice.
“Mrs. Costo? Can you hear me?”
Mrs. Costo touched her right ear.
“Does that part of your head hurt, Mrs. Costo?” the technician looked at Mrs. Costo’s right side of the head for bruises or blood.
“I…I….don’t have…” and she touched her right ear again. “my hearing aid.”
“Oh goodness, let me check your purse, okay?”
Mrs. Costo nodded okay and began to wet her lips. Then tears started to come out of her eyes.
The technician stopped looking in her purse and saw the tears.
“Mrs. Costo, are you in more pain?” The technician put her hand on the hand of Mrs. Costo as she talked a little more slowly.
“Pain yes, but I want my husband. We were going to see a baby get baptized.” She heaved a breath with a groan.
“Mrs. Costo, your husband said that he would be in the tow truck to get the car in a shop.” The technician tried to give a reassuring smile. “It will take about an hour, and then he will be by your side. You need to calm down so you won’t be so much pain.”
“Yes, by my side.” Mrs. Costo repeated.
As Mrs. Costo began to try to focus on a prayer, the ambulance pulled into the area at the hospital where emergency patients came in. The driver turned off the siren. Birds flew out of the road area. Two orderlies walked out and began to help the ambulance technicians prepare the stretcher to be removed from the ambulance. The technician started her report on the vitals for Mrs. Costo. As Mrs. Costo felt the stretcher touch the ground, she had finished the prayer she had been saying for all of those in the accident. As she said the “Amen” she closed her eyes and felt the stretcher move from the cool, calm outside to a busy, noisy waiting area.