CONNECTION LOST

As she turned her steering wheel along the curvature, listening to nothing but the whisper of the wind and the roar of the engine, she couldn’t help but feel comfortable. She had been a bit annoyed at Tom when she discovered that there was no signal in the address. But now, she sat on the driving seat, feeling the nature, being thankful to him for he was the one who suggested taking the road less travelled.

“For how long have you been working here?” he asked, annoyed by the silence.
“Few years,” she replied. “I came here as an intern, but for my brains, the internship was too low. So they promoted me.”
“You don’t sound too happy about it,” he noted the tone of her voice.
“To be honest, I hate this profession. Always did. I wanted to be a free-thinker, a writer and a traveller. This profession doesn’t leave room for any of this. And the only travelling opportunity I get is for conferences,” she replied with a touch of disappointment in her voice.
“Your Indian accent is starting to grow on me,” he said with a laugh. “Then why did you go for this?”

“Family’s peer pressure. They believe only in engineering and medicine, and before I knew, I was trapped.”

“I love mine,” he started. “My profession I mean. Besides, I’m your intern. Does that mean I’m trapped too?”
“Not really,” she laughed. “But you’ll be stuck with a lot of paperwork.”
“Dr. Maya Banerjee,” he stated. “Such a nice name with an evil personality.”

They both grinned as they rode to the hospital. Maya tried to recall when she had such a normal life the last time. Pushing the thought, she began. “Cardio is fun. You get to work with a lot of prototypes and instruments. If you’re lucky enough, you’ll get to do a transplant soon.”
“We can do one now!” he yelled with excitement. “I have almost all the materials in my bag, except a heart and a victim. The authorities insist that the interns carry supplies all the time in case of an emergency. Kind of annoying though, carrying all this weight.”
“They’re being practical, that’s all,” she said.

As the wind played around Tom’s hair, a speck of dust made its way to his eye, making him dart his vision. When his vision cleared, his eyes fell upon a cloud of smoke not too far away. “Is it just me or is something going on there?” he asked Maya, pointing at the scene.
“There must be some accident,” she answered as she increased the vehicle’s speed. “Try to reach 911.”
“But there is no signal,” he hesitated, raising the phone for bars.
“Wait here, I’ll check the scene; and page Dr. Warner,” she said as she pulled over.

Getting out of the driver’s seat, she saw two cars crumbled to pieces with a stream of blood pouring out of the one which wasn’t smoking. She caught the sight of a hand trying to move the metal pieces to get out. Without her knowing, Tom snuck out, reaching for the supplies.

“Are you okay in there sir?” she asked, peeking through the rumble. Her eyes to a man who was stuck in the driver’s seat. His scarred face resembled to that of a treacherous man, but his voice signalled her that he was not a dangerous creature.

“I could use a little help,” he said, coughing up more blood.

“Is there anyone else inside the vehicle?”

“Just me,” he said after a loud scream. “My leg, it hurts!”

“We’ll get you out of there sir. I’m Dr. Maya Banarjee and I have Dr. Tom Sanders with me calling for help. Meanwhile, please try to not panic. What’s your name?”

“Easy for you to say, I am the one stuck here in this hell hole!” he yelled out. “The name is Aaron Stone. Please don’t change that to ‘The Late Aaron Stone’.”

“Well sir you have a great sense of humour,” Maya replied, trying to calm the scene. “Are you able to get out?”

“I would’ve if I was able to,” he said after a moment of struggle with the metals.

“Sanders!” she yelled out. “Can you get any bars?”

“No, the tower is too far,” he replied. “I paged Dr. Warner, but so far there is no reply.”

“Not that bar! Iron bar, I need to get this man out before he bleed himself to heaven,” she said, pressing his chest with gauze to stop him from bleeding.

“That’s a nice thing for you to say, I mean, me going to heaven and all,” the man said, managing a smile. Tom searched the trunk and came up with an iron rod and a bag full of supplies.

“Hold the rod to the door and push it out,” Maya ordered as she applied more gauze. With a swift motion, Aaron Stone was able to move a little bit. “Good, now move to some other place and try to get some help.”

“You are Indian, aren’t you,” Aaron asked trying to push himself out of the pile.

“I thought you got that from my name, but yeah, I’m Indian,” she said, trying to stop the bleeding.

“An Indian saving an American, well let this be a beginning, and I mean, in a good way,” he said with a laugh, which resulted in more blood pouring out.

“You are having a pleural effusion,” Maya blurted out, looking through the supplies.

“Is it as scary as it sounds?” he asked, trying to wipe the blood away from his face.

“I need to insert a tube inside your chest to get some fluid out so that you won’t die. But the problem is I have a chest tube here but if I insert it in, I should be able to close you up too, which I can’t do here in the unsterile condition. So...” As she went on, more blood came out from his mouth, making him feel one step closer to heaven.  “Chest tube it is,” she told herself.

She rummaged through the supplies and found a small knife, which would help her make the incision. She held onto the gauze and the tube. Without thinking for a second, calling up all the textbooks she used to learn from, she made a small incision and inserted the tube, letting the fluid spread out onto the road less travelled. With the fluid came out his harsh loud voice in a bellow, feeling the pain he never ever had in his entire life of adventure.

“911 will be here soon!” Tom yelled out as he ran towards the scene of life and death. “Wow, did you just insert a chest tube into a man on the road?”

“It was necessary,” she replied, wiping the sweat off her brow. “ETA?”

“Three minutes,” he replied, checking his watch again. “Is he going to be okay?”

“He will, if they get here soon enough,” she replied. Three minutes of long silence awaited them, and in that moment she was happy that she was able to save a man’s life. In that moment, she lost the sense of having regret for taking up the job she had now. She held onto the man’s hand, feeling his pulse every now and then. His eyes closed down, and she knew the end was near, when out of the blue the silence was broken down by a loud siren.

“There they are!” Tom yelled out. He ran to the ambulance to help them with the gurney. Maya stared at her blood stained hands for a moment, and moved closer to Aaron.

“We’ll take it from here,” the EMT informed her, taking him over. As the ambulance moved away with the siren again, she leaned on her car and let it all sink in.

“Told you that supplies would come in handy,” Tom said with a smile. “The coffee in your car must have gone cold. Shall we hit a cafe?”

Hearing the siren come to an end, she nodded with a smile, holding onto the knife she used to cut open a man’s chest to save his life. “You’re lucky that you’re off the hook from all the paperwork this month.”

“Maybe I should travel more often with you,” he winked.

“These things don’t happen every day,” she replied with a smile that showed her sense of relief. “But if you stick around, I could show you more crazy stuffs.”

“Crazier than this?” he chuckled. “I guess I’ll be holding onto your tail, Dr. Banarjee.”

“The way of you calling my name is also growing into me Tom.”

                                                ***

She sat in the Starbucks cafe, sipping her coffee and staring out of the window. The blood stained knife lay next to her handbag, covered with her blue silk scarf. It was a medal for her, to save a man from death. Although now she realised that she hadn’t looked for the man in the other vehicle. The EMT confirmed his time of death, but she still felt a pang of guilt for not trying.

“The man in the other car was already dead,” Tom stated, reading her mind. “I checked when you went near Aaron.”

“Well, may his soul Rest In Peace. And I should say, we should take the road less travelled more often,” she replied, taking a sip from her cup of joe.

“And you were mad at me for not finding radio signals,” he managed a laugh. “So, you were saying about literature?”

“Literature... that is still in my heart,” she said. “Who knows, maybe I’ll write a memoir one day, and this day sure will be in it.”

“Looking forward for that,” he replied, raising his glass. “To more blissful days.”

“To more blissful days,” she said after him, having a toast. As they exchanged their stories, their pagers beeped, drawing them back to reality. “Time to save more lives,” she said, looking at the blood stained knife.