X-ray Chapter 7, part 4

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35 X-Ray's post was down the block from the charred hulk of the old Naragansett Brewery. Within reasonable reach were the bodega, which opened at 6, a pawn shop, a newspaper stand, a trash can, the fire hydrant, and a host of empty store-fronts. Within questionable distance were a market and a check-cashing place. Police precinct 20's station house was available for a water fountain and burnt coffee if you expanded the idea of a corner to include a three block radius. 35 X-Ray often did, especially on Tour One, when everything else was closed. Further, the street in front of Precinct 20 was lit, so you could see people before they knocked on your window.

"Do you know where the subway is?" a young woman yelled through the window glass.

"Just down the block." Erin yelled back, pointing toward the monstrous steel structure that stretched over the street. "How'd you get mandated for Tour One, " she asked Ian, "Don't you usually work Tour Two?"

"I swapped with Frain for Tour Three last night. Then I got mandated."

"Are you on today?"

"No. Two days off," he crossed off another clue on his crossword puzzle. "Five letter word for sharp?"

"Quick?" Erin said after a moment's thought.

Ian pencilled the word in. Sara's brother is in town, we're going to see a movie."

"Why are you doing that? You can see a movie anywhere."

"He wants to see that ambulance movie, Taking Care of the Dead, or something like that, so he's taking us out."

"That's nice of him."

"He says he wants to see it with a 'real-life ambulance driver.'"

"Ick."

"Yeah, well.... Five letter word for bouyant?"

"Float?"

"Third letter is a p."

Happy, it turned out. As Ian slowly worked his way through the puzzle, the conversation turned to family, anniversaries, When Harry Met Sally, the staggering price of movie tickets (Ten dollars!), and, just as the MDT beeped for a diff breather, back to Sara's brother.

"Sara's worried about him, I guess he isn't doing to well so she invited him up. You're clear on the right after this green car. Means no sex for me, though."

"Sara won't when he's around?"

"As if he doesn't know. He's an eighteen year old boy, of course he knows."

"She's his sister."

"She's my girlfriend." Ian knew he had no enforceable rights per se, but if he was going to lose in practice he was damned if he was going to lose in theory, too. Besides, he knew he was right. If only he could convince Erin.

"Why are you trying to convince me?" Erin asked as she switched off the siren and brought the ambulance to a halt. Outside of the ambulance, as they grabbed their bags, she said, "I think I know this lady. She's very nice but she's got Alzheimer's or something. She keeps forgetting her meds."

That wasn't all she'd forgotten. The smell of burned metal greeted them as a bent old woman in a nightgown answered the door. Its source was a burning kettle, boiled dry and now starting to warp, Ian discovered when he tracked the smell to the kitchen. He turned off the stove and moved the kettle to another burner.

"Oh, I must have, forgotten that," the woman said. "Silly old me." She broke into a paroxysm of coughing.

"Mrs Leonardowitz, how are you doing today?" Erin asked.

"I, have this cough. The boy down the hall, called you for me, I couldn't, he, I couldn't find my glasses, for the phone."

After a quick history and a physical exam, remarkable for wheezy lungs and the usual signs of mild respiratory distress, they assembled a nebulizer and filled it with albuterol. Once they hooked it up to oxygen, medicated vapor started to drift from its tubelike reservoir. "You remember the peace pipe, right, Mrs Leonardowitz?" Erin asked.

"Oh, yes," said the patient, accepting the nebulizer from Ian and placing it in her mouth

"Good. Breathe it in. Have you been taking your prednisone? Your breathing medication?"

"Prednisone? I don't have any prednisone."

But in the bathroom, Ian found a full bottle of 30 prednisone tablets, dated two weeks ago. A half-empty bottle stood beside it. He also found an over-the-counter epinephrine inhaler, which was empty.

"Mrs Leonardowitz, you shouldn't use that inhaler. It's bad for your heart. You have a prescription inhaler, remember?" Erin said. "Your lungs sound better, but I think you should come to the hospital with us. Do you have a coat and hat?"

She did. Finding them took several minutes as she stepped into first one room, then another in search of it. Ian glanced at Erin and saw sadness, or perhaps just weariness etched into her face for a moment before she caught his gaze and weakly smiled.

Mrs Leonardowitz found her coat. They sat her on the stair chair and buckled her in to carry her down stairs to the ambulance. "Where are you taking me?" she asked. Where, indeed.

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