zDay 9 – Sarah
I remember one particular a day a long time ago… March 5th, 2000. The sun was bright but the air was cool – cool enough to wear a sweatshirt and feel fine. A perfect day, as my father would say, to get things done. He enlisted the aid of my brother and I to help him do the flashing on his roof. Far be it to call in a contractor, no… my father was old school. He always said “If you got two hands you can do anything yourself”.
Six hands meant the sky was the limit.
It hadn’t rained in almost two weeks and the wind was a gentle kiss on the cheek. There we were, the Foree men standing triumphantly on top of my parent’s 2 story colonial as if we were doing this for years. I didn’t have a clue. I would just do as I was told. My father played the foreman role well. I don’t consider myself to be a complete sap when it comes to handiwork but some things are better left to the professionals.I can’t say for sure what happened. I’ve always stuck to the little white lie of a bird hitting me in the head, but that so wasn’t the case. I was trying to tack down my section of underlayment when my knee just buckled. I kinda did an ass-over-tea-kettle roll forward and right off the roof.
Thank God for safety harnesses, huh?
Oh wait. Pops didn’t believe in those. Expensive pieces of crap. You can get the same level of protection with just some laundry line wrapped around your waste and secured to a solid spot. Well, I’m not sure how much pops tested that safety feature out but lemme tell you first hand, I’d go with the safety harness in a heartbeat. I thought I was going to die. As soon as my death roll started my heart jumped into my throat as I watched the world spin around me. Then I was airborne for what felt like a minute but what I was later told to be a blink of an eye. I was quite certain I was going to land head first on the walkway, but then a whole new feeling shot through my body. My safety line snapped straight and immediately halted my descent. Let me just say that I believe the bottoms of my boots touched the back of my head. The only thing I can equate it to is imagine tying a rope around your waste and fastening the other end to a Ferrari leaving a lot of slack then telling said Ferrari to gun it and take off in the opposite direction.
Yeah. Not pleasant.
My back was completely fucked. I thought I snapped in two. I was certain I was going to be paralyzed because of this. When they lowered me to the ground I could feel all my extremities but there were shooting pains lighting up my whole body. I couldn’t stand and pretty much slumped down in this weird half-sitting half-slouching position. Thankfully mom wasn’t home at the time. She would have probably wanted to give me one of her home remedies. Yeah. She had a home remedy for everything.
Scott called the paramedics and thankfully they got there before my pops could load me into his Valiant. You don’t wanna go to the hospital in an ambulance. They’ll charge you an arm ‘n a leg and take your brother’s while they’re at it. Scotty managed to run interference with my pops while the paramedics helped me into the back of the ambulance. I was whisked away to St. Mary’s.
I hadn’t broken my back after all but apparently the medics felt I was okay enough to be brought to the receptionist’s desk and fill out some paperwork. That’s where I met my beloved Sarah. She had on these cute purple scrubs with little Pooh bears all over them. Her hair was tied up in a pseudo-bun-like thing leaving a few chestnut tendrils that would brush against her neck. God she was beautiful. She had that kind of natural beauty where she didn’t even have to wear makeup. Her skin was light coffee and her chocolate brown eyes could burn a hole right into your soul. She had these pouty lips that gave her this added look of concern even if she wasn’t.
Of course when I caught sight of her I did what any self-respecting man would do – I faked like I wasn’t in that much pain. Our eyes met for an instant while she was asking me my name and immediately I felt like I had to go to the bathroom. I couldn’t believe it! It’s like I reverted into a 12 tear old again. I was sweating profusely – largely because it felt like a large man was standing on my left kidney but not entirely. Her voice was mesmerizing. Slightly deep and rich not whiny and shrill like a lot of young women’s voices tend to be. She came out from behind the desk and actually helped me over to a seat near by. There was legitimate concern in her touch. She sat down with me and to my shock, took the clipboard from me and started filling things out for me. We eventually go to the subject of how I ended up there and I playfully informed her of my father’s candidacy for Safety Chief and explained the whole story. She couldn’t help but to curl the ends of her mouth into a uncontrollable smile upon hearing what happened.
God I loved her smile.
It wasn’t busy in the Emergency room which was surprising to me. I’d never been in one before so I was kinda expecting to see a total movie scene. Interns rushing bloodied and dying people in on gurneys, hundreds of patients waiting to be tended to with varying degrees of injuries and ailments and an undermanned hospital staff barking obscenities to anyone who approached the desk. It wasn’t anything like that. I think John Lennon’s Power to the People was playing in the background as only the two of us sat there in the empty waiting room. I knew I would be taken away after the paperwork was done but I didn’t want to leave her side. In the short time I was there I felt utterly comfortable around her – even with the searing pain going through me. I knew my time with her wasn’t going to last and I was so choked up with nervousness that playing the cool nonchalant role wasn’t going to fair too well. I looked down at her left hand and noticed she didn’t have a ring on. Like an idiot, I actually blurted that out…
No ring, huh?
She giggled softly and teasingly fired back with “Are you trying to insinuate something?”
She knew she had me balled up in knots. Chicks know these things from get go and she knew full well that I was wrapped around her little finger from the beginning. Of course I fumbled and bumbled my way to a half assed reply. I think I said something along the lines of no no I just think you’re beautiful or something lame like that. She laughed once again. I think she was more amused with how absolutely asinine I was behaving under deres. Nothing like trying to be cool when there’s absolutely no possible way you can be. I was sweaty, partially slouched over and kept trying to put on this it’s-no-big-deal smile the whole time.
One of the residents on duty came into the waiting room and disrupted my magical moment. Sarah finished the paperwork and set the clipboard in the seat next to her. She didn’t even hand them to the doctor. She took hold of my hands, looked me straight in the eyes and said “You’re not feeling too well right now. Why don’t you pay me a visit when you’re all fixed up. You know where I work.”
She smiled warmly and gave me a wink that I still have dreams about today….
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I only have 3 bullets left…
I need to get out of this city. There’s nothing left for me here…
A Zombie Tale 