Chapter 5

I was back to work, and my partner and I were hanging out at Big City General Hospital, awaiting our next run. Medic 8 pulled up, and disgorged their patient. Once they were done, and cleaning up their truck, we wandered over to chat. One of the crew was an old partner of mine, Athos.

“Hey!”, he greeted me. “You been talking to Cletus?”

“About what?” was my response.

“Your girlfriend. He asked me, and I quote, if you were still seeing ‘that nigger bitch’. I asked him if his momma was still whoring, and, for some reason, at that point the conversation ended.” Athos grinned. “Not talking to that dingleberry will not bother me at all.”

I turned to my partner, and shrugged. Doug ventured, “Guess he doesn’t like black folks much, eh?”

“I wonder if that might prove to be some kind of handicap, in a city with a black mayor, black city council, and mostly black residents.” I took a breath. “That big talking, cock sucking piece of shit has never met Kathy, couldn’t pick her out of a lineup, and presumes to judge her.”

Doug’s dark eyes narrowed. “Hey, partner! Don’t start nothing! He’s an asshole, everybody knows he’s an asshole, and he’s gonna need some backup sooner or later. Might kinda suck, if everybody else in the city is busy when his ‘Code 1000” comes out? Or, when he goes down on charges, and you know he will, his mouth is bound to talk him into some stuff, do you suppose he’s gonna call the ‘nigger loving’ chief steward to help him keep his job?”

My long suffering, and African Persuasion-ed, partner, looked up with a malevolent grin. “I am beginning to wonder if Cletus thought through all this unmasking bullshit.”

Athos joined in. “I don’t know what he was thinking. He knows we were partners, he knows you’ve helped me with my own nursing school homework. Hell, I wouldn’t have passed pharmacology without your notes! How he thought he’d ask me something that stupid, and I wouldn’t tell you, well, he’s both an idiot, and an asshole!”

Doug nodded. “Yep. All the black guys I talk to, know that you don’t care about race. When we’re facing departmental charges, you are the steward, and we’re gonna get your best effort. You don’t ask who is on a crew: we all remember that time you dragged half a dozen of us to bail Medic Six out of a fight on one of their scenes. The fact that there were two black guys on that crew did seem to even enter your mind. Another EMS crew was in trouble, the cops had not been called, so you went on the air and beat feet over to their scene, to see if they needed help. The rest of us were kind of dragged along in your wake. So, if shit goes down, Cletus is fucked. You, my man, you have brothers watching your back!” He paused, and grinned a little bit. “Besides, with you dating a Sister, hell, we might get you eating some fried chicken and melon, come next summer! Break you out of that suburban bubble altogether!”

I chuckled, gratefully. “Dunno, partner. You know I’m all about the rigatoni, and Greek food, and tetrazini, gonna take some serious bubble breaking to make that happen!”

He slapped my back. “Dude! I’ve met Kathy, remember? Now, there is a woman to break some bubbles!” He paused, and looked at me with mischief in his eyes. “So, partner, if she realizes that a white boy cannot dance, and she decides to return to the dark side, make sure she has my number, alright?”

I guffawed. “I’m pretty sure that she already knows about my dancing skills! So, what do you suppose your wife might say about my steering Kathy your way? Does Medic Four have your house on their frequent flyer list, when Andrea figures that it’s time to kick your ass?”

He looked around. “Well, uh, Andrea doesn’t know about my designs on Kathy. She, well, she might not appreciate the rare gift I am offering to share with her.”

“Might that be a gift that, for some reason, Andrea thinks she is the sole rightful beneficiary of?”

Doug attempted to look innocent. “Who knows what a woman thinks? She might, I guess.”

Athos laughed. “Oh, I’ve met Andrea. I don’t think ‘I guess’ does justice to her perspective of things.”

Dispatch toned an end to our considerations, and Doug and I set out to save another life, and fight yet more disease.