If there is a worse day than New Years Eve to have an emergency at home, I don't know what it is. The entire New Years weekend is fondly referred to by us working professionals as 'amateur night'. Everyone drinks too much, and too many folks think they are ok enough to drive only to end up killing themselves or others in record numbers. Even the ones that stay at home end up playing with their firearms and shooting them up in the air, forgetting that what goes up must indeed come down. Or the folks that miss while shooting up in the air part and accidentally shoot themselves, their spouses or their dog instead. This jolliness means that an EMS Tech
never
gets that night off, we all work, non-stop.
Now, even if I had to quit right on the spot, I needed a few hours to go home.
It almost came down that. I didn't like my new boss, Captain Rowlins, particularly, not compared to the great first boss I'd had but he was a reasonable man (and smart enough to pick me out of the hundreds of other junior EMTs to improve the rankings for his Station (when I arrived we were ranked #97 of out #113 for overall quality of service, when I left some two years later we were ranked #18).
Learning that I was resolved to go home that afternoon regardless of the circumstances, he thought for a moment and said, "That scratch on your arm looks like it needs a stitch or two. Have you had it looked at? I didn't think so, go get someone at the hospital to look at it. That will take awhile with the New Years crush, but just be back by tomorrow morning -- some folks will need a breather by then."
Amazingly, there was no way he could give me the time off, so he instead created a valid cause for a non-existent injury (the minor scratch referred to had barely broken the skin and had already been treated). I think I made it home in record time, barely stopping for lights or traffic… but Allison was not at home, and I didn't dare yet go to where I expected to find her.
I took the long way around the complex and walked up the stairs to Tiny's 2nd floor apartment. He opened the door before I could even knock. "They aren't there," he said, "but I think they'll be back shortly. I have to leave for awhile, you can stay here and wait." He turned to leave but added as he walked out the door, "I have my bird watching binoculars on the table there if you want to watch with those… I've noticed that you can see over the fence and into Willis's place real well from here." I think he wanted to say more, much more, but finished with "Don't do anything,
anything
at all until I get back, ok?" I nodded and he left.
Tiny was right, with the binoculars there was a clear view over the fence and to the patio door window, the blinds were shut at the moment but if they opened, even a little, I could get a view into the bedroom area. This is what I desperately needed to know, so I settled in for a long wait. If nothing else, military life teaches you how to 'hurry up and wait'.
I was rewarded about forty-five minutes later by seeing Allison and Willis returning from the parking lot but to my surprise they just exchanged farewells (no physical contact) and he entered his apartment (with what looked like a case of liquor) alone. Allison walked to our apartment but, to my surprise, didn't walk up our stairs. Instead she walked around to the right side of the building and just a bit out of my line of sight. I threw myself out the door, nearly tumbled down the stairs in my haste and moved around to the side of Tiny's building to give a clear view down to mine. Allison was nowhere in sight, which was impossible because there was nothing else out that direction… except our small storage shed.
Each building has some small 6x6 locked storage sheds along the side, one for each tenant's use. We never used ours, we just didn't have enough stuff and as far as I knew it was empty. Except, I remembered now, Allison was always bringing in holiday decorations in and out of the apartment. Since at least Halloween and it certainly would have had a lot of empty Christmas tree or decorations boxes that I don't remember seeing in any closet. She must have been storing things there… and I had never thought to search that shed for alcohol, I had forgotten we had it entirely!
A few minutes later a shed door opened (ours) and Allison came out. In the nick of time I had dived behind a bush to remain unseen. She walked around the front and up the stairs into our Apartment. I checked my key ring and, as I thought, I didn't have a key to the shed. Allison had the only one it seemed. But Tiny, as the de facto Apartment Manager, would certainly have one and, searching through the desk where he kept everything for the complex, I found a ring of keys labeled "Storage," and I found a key with our apartment number engraved on it. Moving quickly, but taking the unseen long way around, I got to the shed and opened the door, there I discovered Allison's secret hiding place.
I found several liquor bottles, some empty, some full and one recently partially drunk from. On top of the Christmas tree box was a bottle of mouthwash and a small spray bottle marked "No Booze-Breath," or something like that. Here was her secret life, in all of its sordidness. At some point the urge to drink had just been too strong for her. She had weakened and given in to her thirst. Fearing discovery, and the possible ruin of our relationship, she had tried to keep this secret well hidden from me. I was furious, but prepared to deal with this. This much at least I could handle. I resolved that this time she
must
go to the AA meetings. She had been to a few before but hadn't enjoyed them. She would only attend when I forced her to go and in the afterglow of a particularly pleasant evening of sex a few weeks after our return from vacation I had agreed that she didn't have to go to AA if she wasn't getting anything worthwhile from them. Bad mistake of stupidity for me! No More!