Chapter 5: Midterms

After Tony’s birthday party, and the day-after when Tony cashed in the first coupon, Tony and Trisha got pulled into a number of committees, peer review requests from journals they occasionally assisted with, and of course, their own classes and research projects. Their daily life was temporarily swallowed by the myriad of commitments they needed to fulfill on campus.

A typical day for the past two weeks started at 6:00 AM with either time in the home office, or a dash to campus and an early morning meeting. For the past week Tony and Trisha had managed to eat only one meal together – lunch the past Thursday – let alone find any together time.

“Why did I let myself get talked into this?”, pondered Tony as he moved a vitae to the not-to-be-considered stack. It is the second consecutive Saturday morning that schoolwork is taking priority over anything else.

Tony was part of the committee selected to review all of the applications submitted for the three new positions in the department next year. With the openings in three unique specialties the number of applicants was staggering. The to-be-reviewed stack still loomed high as it sat on the end table near his chair in the living room.

Trisha was sitting on her own recliner facing an equally high stack of papers, but hers was self-inflicted. She asked her class to write a paper, minimum of ten pages, on how the social sciences, and in particular, psychology, had influenced life in the 20th century, and then conclude with a forecast on which trends will be the most influential in the 21st century.

As the two continued to laboriously plow through their respective pile of papers the home phone rang.

“Hello,” answers Trisha distractedly.

After a brief pause Tony hears, “What? Did you call 911? Did you give him an aspirin? Is he conscious, do you need to do CPR?”

Trisha now has his full attention as he looks intently in her direction.

“Of course, we’re on our way, go tend to him,” Trisha urges as she disconnects the call.

“Bill just had a stoke or heart attack. Wendy called the paramedics and they are on the way.”

Tony jumps up, throwing the paper he started to review back onto the pile, and follows Trisha out the door as they run to the neighbor’s house.

They bound up the steps onto the Bentons’ front porch and find the door locked. Trisha rings the bell and Tony pounds on the door. A few second pass when the door is opened by a visibly shaken Allison. Before she can say anything Tony rushes past and heads into the house to find Wendy and Bill.

Trisha pauses at the door.

“Allison, I’m so sorry. Are you OK?”

She takes a step toward Allison and wraps her arms around her. Allison’s resolve breaks with the contact and she begins to cry in earnest. The two stand in the doorway for several moments until Trisha sees an ambulance come to an abrupt halt in front of the house.

Tony ran from room to room in the house, finally finding Wendy and Bill in the master bathroom. He assumed Bill had just stepped from the shower as he was in only briefs and the remnants of a fog had not yet fully cleared the room. Wendy was astride her husband alternating chest compressions with mouth-to-mouth breathing.

“Don’t die on me, Bill, don’t do it,” she is desperately repeating while plunging the palm of her hand into his chest.

Tony touches Wendy on the shoulder to let her know of his presence. She barely registers the touch, instead focusing squarely on her husband.

The paramedics rush into the room with a stretcher and take control. They get Bill onboard and carry him to the ambulance, then speed off to the university hospital with Wendy sitting alongside Bill.

Allison watches the events unfold in a muted stupor. As the quartet scurried out of the house and into the emergency vehicle she didn’t move from her spot near the fireplace.

Trisha walks over to Allison and takes her hand.

“Come on, we’ll take you to the hospital.”

Tony had followed the group out to the ambulance, but instead of staying to observe he ran to his house and collected his keys and wallet. He secured the house and pulled the car out of his garage and onto the neighbor’s driveway.