Everyone having sex is at least 18. This is fiction, I made it all up. Warning: this is a self-edited story. I do use Grammarly to help reduce my ability to murder the English language. Special thanks to goducks1 for his help.
Chapter 9 -- Graduation
Tomorrow, Sara and I graduate college together. We both are, I mean, we both will be RN's. A lot has happened in the last two years. Mom quit her job, sold the house, and married Captain Ron. They do everything together. She is like a ship's counselor or adviser. She helps people get along better. She is the second set of eyes and ears and is someone Ron can trust to help when needed. They now have their own show in the theatre on the ship. She is very busy and happy. Not too busy to talk weekly with me but often the calls are cut short because she is needed by someone. I am very happy for her.
My relationship with Sara has changed dramatically. She is no longer my plaything that follows me around like a lost puppy. She has more self-confident and is outgoing. Much less submissive than before. I describe us as equals now. She is more aggressive in our relationship and I am following her as often as she follows me.
I find our relationship much more satisfying now. It's no fun when you can easily dominate your partner. We argue more but in a fun way, not mean-spirited.
We have not heard from John in several days, but we know there are many fires going out west. No worries, no way John misses our graduation from college, right?
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He missed our graduation and still no calls. He doesn't respond to calls or text messages. We are both worried now. That day we put all our possessions into a POD and have it stored. Late the next day we are on a plane to Denver.
It's 2:00 AM when we show up at the Ranger station where John works. We have no idea where he is, we figure the Ranger station is a good place to start. We are in white blouses and short shorts, not slutty, just casual. We are dead tired from worry and lack of sleep.
Sara asks at the front desk, "I am trying to track down John McAlister. He is a Ranger and was fighting fires."
The desk clerk, "Sorry, I don't know anyone by that name. I have been here thirty years, I know them all."
I know that John lived with the cousins and may have taken their last name.
I ask, "What about a John Green?"
Now the clerk lights up, "Oh John. Yes, he was out fighting fires. Seems to me they ran into trouble. There was a report about it. I think they arrested him for some reason. Yeah, the police were involved and the hospital. Now I remember, he is at the hospital. Go up to Reed Memorial."
We thank him and are on our way. Normally that would have made no sense. However, we are distraught and tired, logic is not working. We do wonder, why is John at the hospital? Is he OK? How bad is he injured? Why was he arrested for fighting a fire?
We get to the hospital and I state, "We are here to see John Green."
Volunteer, "Let me look him up to see which room he is in. Just a minute. Computers are slow. Oh? What the ... Peggy, what does this mean?"
Peggy looks at the screen, looks at us, and calls security. I would bolt but I am too tired. Hey, I did nothing wrong.
I nice young man shows up and asks us to follow him. We do. We walk down a long corridor, past two sets of elevators, and then into another lobby. We turn left, right, left, right, and then take the elevators up three stories to the fifth floor. They have no fourth floor. Weird. Whatever. He takes us to the left, down a corridor and the left again where there are two policemen.
Security guy says, "Two visitors."
The cop asks, "Who do you want to see? Why? What are your names?
Sara quickly answers, "John Green, we are friends, Sara Hill and Lisa McAlister."
Cop calls us in to dispatch. They give him permission to let us in.
A female officer inside escorts us to John's room. The floor is almost silent. We can hear snoring and the nurses aren't doing anything but watching TV.
John is red rather than tan, burns? He has a drip going. They are not restraining him to the bed. That is interesting. John looks like he is out cold, medicated? We want to see his chart.
We press the 'Call Nurse' button and nothing happens, and nobody responds. Two more times and nothing. I remove the heart sensor, the monitor is showing he flatlined, he is dead (on the screen). Still, nobody comes. I am furious now. Sara is more than furious.
We follow the laughing to a lounge where several nurses are watching TV.
I calmly ask, "Which one of you is watching the dead patient?"
They all run back to the nurse's station where all, but one, looks relieved.
Nurse, "No way John is dead, must be a bad sensor. That kid is as strong as an ox."
I yell at the nurse, "I just wanted to see his chart, but nobody responded for a call so yes, I unplugged the sensor. I figured maybe someone gave a damn. Nope."
Nurse fires back, "Hey, it's not like these people are sick. They are being forced to rest due to extreme exhaustion. They spent too much time fighting the fires and not enough time resting. This particular group has a habit of running off at night to go back and fight fires. They are way behind in their sleep so they were arrested and forced to stay in bed and sleep.
"They made mistakes and almost died. Minor burns and some lost their hair. That's what caused their boss to blow up and have them arrested for their own good. They are on sleeping pills. They really are exhausted and need sleep. The best thing you can do for them is to stay away and let them sleep, they need it. They came in yesterday barely able to walk. Even John was in bad shape."