A Memory

Two huge men with yellow coats were leaning over me as I woke up. One had a bushy handlebar moustache, and the other was wearing something around his neck. I was on my back and couldn't see past them, although I heard other voices.

I began to cry.

My mother's voice was in the background, and I tried to turn to see where she was. The big men said to "lie still," which only frightened me more. I saw the corner of the braided rug on the floor in my room, so at least I knew where I was. The last thing I remembered was playing Lego's with my sister on that rug. It had been 6:30 in the morning, and we weren't supposed to get out of bed until 7, but we had been quiet.

I heard more voices, this time like on a tape recorder or a telephone, and the latching (or unlatching) of a box. My mother put her hand on my head and told me it was going to be okay. It seems like there were at least 25 people in the bedroom I normally just shared with my sister Amy. My grandmother was there too; she brought me the bright yellow bathrobe I had gotten from Sear's last Christmas.

All of a sudden, I knew what was going on. I watched Emergency! every Saturday night at 8:00 (Mom let us stay up an hour later on weekends). I had a big crush on Randolph Mantooth, who played Johnny, and I never missed the show. These guys were paramedics!

But why were they here? And why was I on the floor? And why was Mom and Grammy trying to help me sit up? Why couldn't I stand up? My legs just wouldn't hold me. I was trying, but they just weren't working.

At that point, the big men were telling my mom that I had to go to the hospital for tests. One of them asked me, "do you want to ride in the ambulance or in your grandmother's car?" And later regretting my choice, I mean, how often does a 10-year-old get to ride in an ambulance? I chose my grammy's car.

With my mother on one side, and a paramedic on the other, I half walked, and was half carried to the car. I was like a toddler in those swings; where the child can move her legs, but isn't actually moving her body? Everyone in the neighborhood of our cud-de-sac was outside watching. It was still pretty early in the morning, and most people still had their pajamas or bathrobes on. There was a fire truck, a paramedic truck. a sheriff's car and an ambulance all wedged into our small dead end.

As we made our way down the driveway, Carly Little across the street yelled, "Hi Becky!" as if I were going to a party.

One of the paramedics, Jim, rode with us. I was in the back with my mother, and he sat in the passenger seat of the burgundy colored Buick. He talked to my mother most of the time, but at one point asked me to squeeze his fingers. The three fingers I grabbed of his turned white at the tips, and all three adults laughed when I did it. It couldn't be that bad then, right?