Page 54 of The Newcomer
“I’m going back to the office and calling Joe,” Ava said. “Letty, stay here with Sheila, please.”
Letty reluctantly went back into the darkened bedroom. The nightstand beside Harry was littered with pill bottles and the remnants of a messy sandwich.
“Aspirin,” Letty said, remembering something she’d read somewhere about first aid for heart-attack patients. “Sheila, do you have any aspirin?”
“Y-y-yes,” the older woman stammered. She scrabbled around on the nightstand, shook out a capsule, and offered it to her husband.
“I think you’re supposed to chew it, not just swallow it, to make it work faster,” Letty said.
“Leave me alone,” he muttered, but after a moment, he took the tablet and chewed.
“Has he had chest pains before?” Letty asked.
“I told you, it’s just heartburn,” Harry said. “Can’t you just leave me alone?”
JoeDeCurtis looked down at the stricken man on the bed, while Ava, Sheila, and Letty hovered nearby. “I called 911,” he announced.He sat on the bed next to the patient. “Don’t think I’m getting fresh,” he said, “but I’m gonna unbuckle your belt and unfasten your shirt.”
He touched the side of the man’s face. “Come on, Harry,” he said, grabbing his arm. “Let’s get you sitting up. It’ll make it easier for you to breathe.” He helped the older man to a sitting position, then slid a pillow under his knees. “Now lean forward if you can,” he said, his voice calm. “That’ll help pump blood to your heart.”
He looked over at Sheila. “Does he take nitroglycerin? Any kind of heart medication?”
She shook her head. “He had an episode like this last summer, when we were at the lake in Wisconsin. The doctor there prescribed it, but then the symptoms went away, and we never got it filled.”
“We had him chew an aspirin right before you got here,” Letty volunteered.
“Good idea,” Joe said. He kept his hand on the stricken man’s back. “Hang in there, Harry. The dispatcher I talked to said the EMTs were five minutes out.”
Right on cue, they heard the high-pitched sound of an ambulance drawing near. Letty stood outside in the parking lot, waving it toward the unit.
Ten minutes later, the paramedics wheeled the patient out of the room on a stretcher, an oxygen mask strapped over his face. “They gave him nitro because it looks like it actually is a heart attack,” Joe said, touching Sheila’s arm. “They’re going to take him to the emergency room.”
“I’m going too,” Sheila said, but Joe pulled her back. “They won’t let you ride in the ambulance. I’ll take you myself.” He glanced back inside the room. “Why don’t you grab all his medications? The doctors are going to want to know everything he’s taking. And don’t forget his ID and yours and your insurance cards.”
“Okay,” Sheila said. “I will.”
“We’ll lock up here,” Ava told her. “You just go with Joe. And let us know what the doctors say.”
The ambulance pulled away, lights flashing and siren screaming. Sheila buried her face in Ava’s shoulder for a moment. “Thank you,” she said.
20
ASMALL KNOT OF MOTEL GUESTShad begun to gather in the parking lot, drawn outside by the sight and sounds of the ambulance.
“Who was it?” Ruth Feldman asked Ava. “What happened?”
Ava and Letty exchanged a worried glance. “We think Harry Bronson might have had a heart attack,” Ava said reluctantly.
“Who?” Merwin Maples walked up, a beach towel wrapped around his waist. “Is he dead?”
“No!” Ava said. “It was Harry. He had some chest pains after lunch. He was insisting it was just heartburn and wouldn’t let Sheila call 911.”
“Stubborn old fool,” Wilona Wilson said, shaking her head. “That’s the same thing that happened with my Barrett. Wouldn’t let me call a doctor, didn’t want to make a fuss. By the time I got him to the hospital, it was too late.”
Oscar Jensen strolled up, a lit cigarette in hand. “Did somebody say Harry Bronson died?”
“Oscar, put that thing out,” Ava snapped. “Nobody died.”
By now the crowd of regulars had grown to more than a dozen people, worriedly murmuring among themselves.
