Chapter 2

Thandy

11:30pm.
November 5, 1993. Kingston, Jamaica.

Generations supposed to ah start now. Why this woman walking suh blinking fast?

“I’m Nurse Smith but you can call me Smitty. Mi nah memba yuh name so nuh bother tell me. Welcome to the emergency room. You going to see whole heap a blood and hear a bagga noise. Most times it nuh dat serious. Govament pay yuh fi pretend seh it serious. Earn yuh keep.”

Blood and screaming. I should be in bed. Watching Generations on the tv before Mama woke up and wanted to watch Love tv.

There was one thing I always noticed about emergency rooms; the lack of urgency. It was actually the only place in the world I’d ever been where time moved slower than it was supposed to. A suspended hell.
People sat in the long rows of wooden benches with blood pooling around them, helpless, worried and concerned friends or family standing by fanning them with a piece of paper or supporting their heads or backs; pregnant women with their faces convulsed, faces varying shades of pink and purple and laboured breathing. Of course, there was the screaming person. Tonight it was a woman who was screaming and pointing fingers at the staff demanding to be looked after immediately-insisting her emergency was more exigent than everybody else’s; the pregnant woman- who had fainted or was in the process of fainting and laid sprawled across the floor-usually in the middle of the walkway. These sights which would have caused alarm, panic, and would have warranted immediate action in any other place, were treated with indifference in the emergency room. And the killer? Despite everything- the broken or missing limbs; the pregnant women and terrified fathers; people with any list of gory possibilities, the hospital staff exuded calmness, coolness and a collected manner that just about drove everyone crazy. Ms Nurse Lady Smith was just one of the many. Despite her feigned indifference, I could see that she cared, even if it was just a little.

This particular emergency room was no different from any other. Bleeding limbs were everywhere-with the occasional gunshot wound victim sweating profusely on a bench by the front of the emergency room. I watched as two attendants assisted him; one leisurely pushing the gurney-the other hovering over the patient-worry lines creasing his brows. The bleeding patients were in abundance tonight. A teenager was surrounded by a group of friends-who were all uber excited about a long slash from his calf to his shin.

Another sight was a little girl, probably 12 or 13, cuddled in a woman’s arms, her face red and her eyes puffy and swollen as she nestled her arm- which was also swollen. There were easily 15 other patients scattered across the rooms-in different degrees of anxiety and pain. The prize for Best Emergency easily went to a couple sitting a couple benches in. The woman was pregnant- looking ready to pop at any second and at the moment she held her partner’s fingers in a vice grip- squeezing it in time to her contractions. The man-her husband judging from the gold bands on their wedding fingers seemed to be in far worse shape than she was. His hands were white- from blood loss and his expression could only be called hunted like that of a rabbit taunted by a dozen hungry wolves. At the front of the room protected by a long rectangular pane of glass sat the emergency room attendant. She however, appeared to be in good health and was positively glowing as she chatted away on the phone-dipping her head back in a torso shaking, eye-crinkling laugh.

Marching up to the door of the cubicle, Nurse Smith wrenched it open and slapped her clipboard unto the wooden desk. The attendant was still engrossed in her conversation- her pen tapping away at the oak table top, her tongue and teeth toying with a piece of Wrigley’s, the blue one. Nurse Smith tapped her on the shoulder and took the phone from her hands before checking the name on her name tag.
“Samantha, explain to mi why the patients not being attended to.”
“I’m on a very important call Nurse”
“Mi neva ask yuh dat.“ At this she turned and pointed to me. "You! You! Is you me talking to.”

      Okay Thandy, now is not the time to tell her that your name isn't "You."

“Yes?”

    "Mi did ask har wat she doing on the phone?"
    "No miss. You didn't."

Nurse Smith turned back to the room attended and waved the phone in Samantha’s face. “I want them attended to immediately.”
“They have to wait a little…”
“This is an emergency room Samantha. Not Bobette’s hair dressing shop. They are here because they need di attention now. If them did want to wait, dem woulda line up fi buy cash pot. Govament not paying you to su-su-su on the phone. Now I want every single one of these patients seen to immediately. When I come back in 15 minutes I doe wah see none of these faces. Yuh understand?”
“My call…”
Shooting her a look cold enough to freeze hell, Nurse Smith put the receiver to her ear and listened. “Hello…yes Good eveling? Yuh work here?
Mi did think so. Yaw dead? Yuh giving birth tonight? Yuh have any emergency wi can help yuh wid tonight?” a long, pregnant pause.

“That’s right sir. I didn’t think so but right now, mi have at least 10 people who might drop dead in 5 minutes so excuse Samantha. Call back later”
Dropping the receiver on the cradle Nurse Davis picked up her clipboard and glared at Samantha. “I want that pregnant lady prepped for delivery in 3 minutes. Find somebody else to cover yuh shift for the next 3 weeks. Get to it.”
“But I need this job! “
“You! Mi did ask har dat?”
“No Nurse Smith. You did not.”
“But-”
“You have 2 minutes. Waste any more time and yuh can just doe come back a work. Call the nurses now.”

Stepping back to avoid Nurse Smith’s murderous footsteps, I looked up just in time to see her walk into the room. Unlike the other patients, all in varying stages of distress, this woman walked in calmer than the angel of death. There was blood everywhere, on her white tshirt, on her hands, on the sheet that was wrapped around her waist. Blood, for most people, was the first ingredient needed to lose one’s shit, but her eyes were clear and calm- her face as stiff and unmoving as my nurse’s uniform after Grandma used the Lander’s spray to starch them.