Samaritan X (Chapter Two)

(Continued from Chapter One...)

The two running boys, checking out the commotion but not fully aware of what’s happening, continue along the side of the pool till they come across Franks gun belt lying on the deck. The boys stop suddenly and look at each other, and then look to the other side of the pool where Frank is.  They look down at the belt and notice a radio, handcuffs, a spray bottle, and the gun.  One of the boys kneels down on the wet deck and examines the gun handle.

“Should I?” Says the first boy.

The second boy looking across the pool at the commotion.

“Uh, What are you doing?”

“It’s a gun. A real gun.”

The boys look back at Frank again, nervously.

“Umm…Pick it up then, I dare ya.”

Both boys look back down at the gun and nervously stare at it, deciding if they can get away with holding it or not.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pool…

“Come on Amy, Breath!”

Said Matthew as he holds his daughters hand.

Frank and the lifeguard continue to position Amy parallel to the pool for CPR. Frank removes her life jacket as the lifeguard starts pumping her tiny chest.

“Put your hand under her neck and hold her head back, and make sure there is nothing in her mouth, I mean clean out her airway.” The lifeguard instructs Matt.

“She’s not breathing!” Says Matt excitedly.

Matt starts to shake her a little to try and get her to come back.

“Don’t shake her!” Frank said abruptly. “You can damage her insides by shaking her too much, especially when her body is duress.

Frank leans down and breathes into Amy’s mouth while the lifeguard continues to count out.

“1,2,3,4…breathe…”

So peaceful with her head down and glossy eyes with the continued jerking motion on Amy as Frank continues to breathe life back into her.  Matthew continues to hold his only daughters hand and speaks words of encouragement to her.  Everything seems to move in slow motion as Matt waits very patiently for his little girl to show some sign of life.

“C’monnn.” Matt says under his breath.

The lifeguard still pushing her chest in and out, not missing a beat, shows no sign of giving up.  Frank continues to breathe for Amy as he tries to comfort her.  Matt puts his head down to his knee as if to offer a little prayer for his daughter.

Meanwhile at the pool house door, the unknown man, still clutching his raincoat with the towel over his head, makes his way outside the door.  As his head begins to clear up a little, he is able to focus on the little girl lying on the deck on the other side of the pool.  A growing look of concern grows over his face, and then a sudden urge and need to help her overwhelms him, not understanding at the moment why he feels this way.  He grabs the doorway and continues along the wall to the fence.  He clutches the fence with his fingers and takes a deep breath.  He continues to stumble his way along the fence towards the other side of the pool where Amy lies.

Frank looks around and sees the fear and anticipation in everyone’s eyes, as they cry for her.  Matt still holds his daughters hand while he whispers to her.

“Come on Amy, breath, please. One breath for the old man? One breath.”

Frank stands up and wipes his face on his sleeve, unable to hold it together anymore. 

“I’ll go get my radio and call for an ambulance.”

Frank runs back to the direction of the shower house along the opposite side of the pool as the man, still unaware of his existence.  As Frank approaches his radio, he notices the kids playing around with his gun belt.

“Oh my god. Hey kids! What are you doing with that?!”

“N-Nothing sir!” As the boys freeze with startlement.

As they stand up, one of them, without thinking, picks the gun up with him.  As Frank nears, he instructs the boy to drop the gun.  The boy freezes, not knowing what to do.  Frank, running, reaches to the boy with his hand out.

“Give me the gun, son.”

The boy begins to cry in fear.

“I was just looking at it”

The boy reaches out his hand with gun and gives it to Frank, but the gun slips out of the boy’s wet fingers and falls to the ground.  The gun bounces off the belt and lands on the concrete, discharging a loud, ear-piercing shot that is heard through the whole park.  Everyone, including the lifeguard, jumped to the sound.  The boys freeze and drop to the ground in fright.

“You OK!?” Frank asks.

The boys nod their heads, crying.  Frank, shaken a bit, bends down and picks up the gun and releases the chamber to safe the gun then puts the safety on and slides it back in the holster. He continues to put his belt on, grabbing his radio in the process.

“10 to dispatch.”

Frank grabs the boys by the arm and drags them to a bench and forcefully sits them down.

“You boys stay there, and I mean it!”

<“Go ahead 10.>” As the dispatcher replies to Franks call.

“We have a 901b at the Riverbend pool. A little girl about 5 or 6 years, still resuscitating.”

Frank continues to yell at the boys.

“What the hell are you doing?! You can kill somebody.”

“<Roger, 10. Do you need assistance?>”

“I can handle the situation, but she still isn’t breathing on her own. Lifeguard is still resuscitating, over.”

After a brief pause he continues…

“Just get the ambulance. over”

Frank points his radio to the boys.

“You stay there till I come and get you. Understood?!”

The boys, too scared to cry anymore, just shake their heads.  Frank finishes buckling his belt and heads back towards Amy.

“<Understood 10, Ambulance has been dispatched, code 3.>”

“10-4” Frank acknowledges.

As he runs back towards Amy, he notices the man clutching the fence near Amy’s position from the opposite direction. 

“What the hell?!” Frank says, puzzled.

Surprised and curious, Frank puts his radio away and makes his way in the direction of the man.  Frank looks back to check on the boys.

The man falls from the fence to his knees and begins to crawl towards Amy.  Matt raises his head to the sound of clashing fence.  He sits in startlement at the man’s appearance.

“What the…?”

“Is there something wrong?” asks the lifeguard.

“Look!” Matt said.

Matt points to the man.  The lifeguard and Matt look at each other in puzzlement.  Matt turns around and looks for Frank, and notices Frank is already on his way to intercept the man.   Frank double-times it when he notices the man crawling towards Amy.  Matt lets go of Amy’s hand and pulls the towel from around the lifeguards neck, rolls it up and places it under her head.  As Matt stands up, he slips and falls on his shoulder. Matt rolls over and tries to regain his balance and looks at the man crawling to Amy.

“Who are you?”

The man is only about 5 feet from Amy, when Matt crawls to him and tries to pull him away.

“Who are you, get away from her?”

Matt’s hands slip off the man’s greasy and burnt leg.  Another patron starts to grab the man’s leg when Frank arrives.  By that time, the man falls towards Amy and lays his hand on her chest.  The lifeguard burns her fingers as she tries to grabs the man’s hand, and pulls away quickly.  A white, milky substance begins to excrete from the man’s hand.  The smell of ammonia and burnt hair off the man stops everyone in their tracks, including the lifeguard, to observe this phenomenon.  Everyone is in silence. As the man takes his hand off Amy’s chest, the white goo begins to boil away, her veins turn a shade of white and pulsates for an instance, and then her chest muscle spasms.  As she chokes, she spits out the emerald pool water from her lungs.  The man falls back to the fence, and clutches it, shaking. Amy rolls onto her side and grabs Matt’s hand.

“Daddy!”

“I’m here sunshine. I’m here.” Matt says as he stares back at the man.

The lifeguard stands and puts her hand on Matt’s shoulder.  Matt grabs her hand and thanks her.  By that time the ambulance is heard entering the park, sirens wailing.  Frank kneels and shakes Matt’s hand then turns to look at the man.  Everyone stares in silence at the naked man, never have witnessed anything like this before.  Frank holds out his hand and walks towards the man.

“We’re not going to hurt you.  What’s your name?”

The man closes the raincoat and pulls it tight around him after noticing everyone staring at his naked, burnt body.

“She’s going to be fine, thanks to you. Who are you, a-and what you, um, W-what did you do?

The man rubs his shaking fingers over the name badge while staring at the little girl.

     “J-Joe.” The man says in a raspy voice.

     “Joe. Is that your name, Joe?” Frank says.

Just then, a little boy is screaming from the other side of the pool.

     “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!”

Everyone’s heart stops as they look to the other side of the pool and see a boy shaking his mother as she lies on a blanket.

     “Oh no, now what!” Franks says with justified concern.

Frank looks at JOE, as if he was going to say something, but then just leaves.  Joe begins to follow.

“Will you be alright with her while I go see what’s happening?” The lifeguard asks Matt.

“Yea, yes. Go ahead.”

As Frank reaches the screaming boy, he notices a woman on a blanket, just lying there.  Frank drops to his knees and grabs the woman’s arm and shakes her a little.  She doesn’t respond. One of the patrons grabs a towel and puts it under her head.

     “What wrong with Mommy?” The little boy says as he hugs her other arm rocking back and forth.

Franks notices something on the boy’s hand.

     “What is that on your hand, son?”

The boy drops his mothers arm and looks at his hands.  Just then the lifeguard arrives and grabs the boy’s hands.  She looked at Frank and knew instantly what it was.  Frank grabbed the woman and rolled her over as the lifeguard kept the boy from looking. There is a gunshot in her chest, through her back, and is bleeding badly.  The towel is soaked, and she is not breathing. The lifeguard gives the boy to the patron and asks him to take the boy away. “He continues to scream for his mother.

<to be continued…>

Samaritan X (Chapter One)

A perfect sunny spring afternoon brings about a relaxing mood at the Riverbend public pool.  The small town you dream about where everyone knows each other and every weekend there’s dancing and singing at the town square by the forty-foot pine tree that lights up each Christmas.

Some curious smoke rising in the East beyond nearby woods interrupts the cloudless sky.  A faint smell of a burning campfire and the echo of barking dogs ride a cool breeze in from the trees giving relief from the hot sun.

At the East end of town off Newport Ave. sits a typical small town park with the smell of pine and applewood filling the air.  The park is fairly quiet for this time of year, Lending an opportunity for Family time at home.  There is a water fountain in the center of entryway leading to a playground at the end of the walk.  A small creek runs along the backside and a public pool lies off the path leading to the woods.

Swinging a whistle around her finger to the beat of the ambient music playing through the monotone speakers, a lifeguard sits watch over the children playing and splashing about in the overly chlorinated emerald pool.  A mother sits reading a book on a blanket in the grass keeping one eye on the children as they take turns on the diving board.  A sense of security comes over her by the slightly rusted eight-foot high chain fence surrounding the entire pool area looking as if it has been there for 50 years.  A faded graffiti stained red brick shower house with “Boys” and “Girls” signs posted above the doors encloses one end of the pool.

The lifeguard blows her whistle at the two scrawny young boys with Super Soakers carelessly running around the pool chasing and squirting each other.  The Lifeguard unravels the whistle from around her finger and stands in her chair blowing her whistle at the boys.

“Hey! No running boys!”

The startled boys slow to a fast walk without missing a stride saluting sarcastically and giggling as the lifeguard shakes her head.

A young, quiet little girl, Amy Baird thrashes about in the middle of the pool unnoticed while everyone’s attention is still on the whistle-blowing lifeguard standing in her chair continuously shaking her finger at the running boys.  Amy struggles to squeak out a cry for help but her little lungs can’t find the air as she bobs up and down staying under a little longer each time.  Her fear is unrealized till she gasps in some water and struggles to push to the surface to cough it out.  A panic comes over her like she has never felt before, like the instinct in all living things when you know your life is in danger.  She frantically paddles and waves her arms at the same time hoping someone will notice.

An off duty police officer, Frank Huff, still in his blues and here to pick up his 9 year old son, notices Amy is not resurfacing.  A sense of concern comes over Frank.

“Oh no. Lifeguard!”

Frank leaps from the shower room doorway, unbuckles his gun belt and drops it to the soaking wet pool deck.  His hat flies off and lands in the pool as he jumps in the water after her.  The lifeguard notices Frank.  Realizing what he is doing, she then spots the little girl struggling under the water’s surface.  She blows her whistle as she throws her towel around her neck and climbs down from her chair.  She grabs the first aid kit hanging on the hook on the base of the chair, and runs over to the other side of the pool, skiing on the wet concrete along the way doing what she can to keep her balance. Everyone pauses from their fun when the lifeguard orders everyone to exit the pool. When the swimmers realize what is happening, they swim over and gather around Amy, helping Frank drag her onto the pool deck. The running boys stop to watch the commotion.

Meanwhile, a man runs out of the woods, staggering and stumbling, tripping over every blade of grass in the yard, he falls against the pool fence.  He is covered in blood and naked accept for a bright yellow fireman’s raincoat.  His skin is burnt and peeling off him and smells like burning rubber.  With intense fear on his almost unrecognizable face, He wraps his fingers around the fence to pulls himself up.  He struggles to speak, but his mouth trembles as he tries to move his lips. After several tries, he manages to cry softly in a raspy voice,

“H-Help!”.

No one notices him as everyone’s attention is on Amy.  He makes his way along the fence to the shower house, softly and repeatedly crying for help the whole way, but can’t seem to find his voice.  Disoriented and stumbling, he finds his way to the shower room entrance.  He enters cautiously not wanting to frighten anybody from his appearance.  He makes his way towards the lockers where he spots a towel flung over the bench.  He grabs it and as he wipes his face off, he notices skin and blood all over the towel.  He walks over to the mirror next to a shower stall and attempts to focus on the image.  As he squints, the image begins to clear and is startled by what he sees.  His face is bloody and burned, but oddly he feels no pain.  He wets the towel and wipes his face some more, and as he wipes away the burnt skin and blood, he notices no evidence of any damage to his face at all, accept for his hair is gone.  He begins to examine his chest when he notices something written on the raincoat he’s wearing.  A nametag reads Joe.  The rest of the name is burnt off.  He looks in the mirror and a sudden fear comes over him, as if he is suddenly alone.  He cannot remember his name or who he is or what he’s doing there, but still feels a sense of time.  He looks at the nametag again rubbing his fingers over it.

“Joseph? Joel? Joe… Joe.”  He thinks to himself, “I’m Joe?”

As he looks back in the mirror, he begins to feel dizzy and disoriented again.  As he stares back at this unknown man, images flash by of fire and commotion.  All sense of who he is, flashes before him, then fades.  He composes himself once again and makes his way to the pool area for help.  He throws the bloody towel in the trashcan near the pool entrance, grabs the doorway, and slides down to the ground where he sits and continues on trying to focus. Looking through the door on the other side of the room, Joe notices a commotion on the other side of the pool, but can only make out faint shapes and blurry colors.  He gets up slowly, not taking his eyes off the action and slowly walks towards the pool house door. 

<…to be continued!>