The ambulance streaked through the night, the flashing lights leaving greasy marks on the glass-fronted buildings on the main street of the city. The siren buzzed like a firefly in a bottle, angrily bouncing up the deserted streets. Amy felt her legs buckle a little as she tried to maintain her balance against the bump and sway of the speeding vehicle. She grasped the railing of the gurney, desperately trying to avoid falling. ‘Imagine if Jim caught this on camera, her flopping on top of a dying old lady.’ She hoped he was too busy holding on to focus on her.
She could hear Don Black, her producer, cackling in his hen-like way at her clumsiness. He was always having his little joke about her short sight, how she should wear her glasses more often. ‘Not likely’ she reacted with irritation when he broached the subject, lying there together but apart, her boss and her mentor. She looked like enough of an Asian geek without that. She flexed her arm, thrust her hips and regained her composure. Not tonight, she though to herself. She had fought hard to get where she was, she was not going to let it go now. Her arms ached with the exertion.
“Nice night for a drive.” Jim Sullivan deadpanned. He was jammed up in a corner, shoulder against a monitor of some description, the Panaflex camera focussed on Amy’s attractive mix of white and Asian features.
“You ready?” she replied before putting on her game face. Her subordinate braced himself and set the camera rolling.
“Even the deteriorating streets are no match for the determination of the dedicated ambulance officers, racing to complete this journey, this journey into the heart of darkness.”
She pivoted, surer now of her movements. The camera panned over her shoulder, giving the cameraman her good side profile as Jim closed in on the face of the old woman lying there, comatose.
“But we must never forget the real hero here-this little old lady, Antonetta Parsons. A mother, grandmother, stalwart of the PTA., she has lived her life for her family, for her community and now she makes the greatest sacrifice of all, the gift of her body.”
Amy paused as Jim shifted his gear to make it easier for close ups of the seventy six year old matriarch, her eyes shut but her face still with a little colour. Amy could see all the ages of the woman within the pale skin and bones-the little girl, the young beauty, the mature woman and the old lady all now living under the shadow of death within this emaciated shell. Darkness crept along the horizon of the woman’s jawline.
“You got it, Jim?”
She waited. The cameraman, an experienced operator that had been with her for the last six months, made sure the light captured Antonetta’s angelic presence, the white sheet hiding the dilapidated body.
Amy could not believe her luck, another example of her fortunate life. She was conducting an interview with one of the paramedics when his pager went off. Donnelly, the ex-military man who had spent the preceding ten minutes flirting with her while evading her questions, had a good line in Irish brogue but was unco-operative regarding facts until the call came through.
“Looks like I have to go.”
His eyes had that blue-green twinkle and he brushed his hand against her arm, sending a tingle up her spine.
“Maybe we should go with you?”
“Darlin’ I’d love nothing better. But we’re going to a pick up.”
“Your supervisor said I could spend the night with y6u.”
Donnelly pondered this. Amy knew she was flirting outrageously but if she got to go on an actual delivery it would be a coup. And the Irishman was easy on the eyes, too.
