Friday, June 20, 2008

the crumpled cigarette

The main shopping thoroughfare may be free-flowing with buses and taxis and people, but the discrete little stubs of pavement, alleyways and back entrances that serve it are so clogged with utilitarian chaos, and there are so many office workers lunching in the sunshine outside obscure new cafés, Rae is forced not so much to drive the ambulance as to insinuate it through to the location given for our next patient.
Eventually we make out the likeliest candidate, a down-at-heel, middle-aged man sat flatly on his arse on a stretch of bare concrete behind a smart little mews garage, his legs crooked up, his arms on his knees, and his face propped on the right hand whilst the left serves his mouth with a cigarette. With the cans of lager around his feet, and his relaxed, relentless smoking, he looks like some weary philosopher, taking his ease whilst the world goes to hell.
Just next to him is a sweating businessman, urgently talking into a mobile phone. He nods to me – a cursory little tip of the head, as if he’s acknowledging one delivery whilst negotiating another – then takes a step to the side. I climb out of the cab and walk over to them whilst Rae manoeuvres the vehicle into a better position.
I squat down next to the patient, but before I have a chance to say anything, the businessman clips the phone shut then taps me on the shoulder with it.
‘For God sake, let him finish his cigarette,’ he says.
‘Hold on. Are you a relative?’
‘I called you,’ he says, showing me the phone, then stuffing it in his trouser pocket. ‘I called you. Is he going to be all right? I hate to see this. It just kills me to see stuff like this. I’m sorry if I’m a bit – emotional. My twin sister committed suicide two weeks ago and I’m not over it yet.’
‘Well I’m very sorry to hear about your sister,’ I say, squinting up at him, gauging whether I should stand and take a step back. Instead, I opt for the neutral calm I’d try to show before an angry dog. ‘That must be tough. Look. Thank you very much for calling us out to see this guy. But - I just need to ask him a few questions to see what the problem is. Okay?’
‘I mean – just look at him. He’s terribly, terribly sick. You must help him.’ But I study the businessman instead. His face is a more ghastly colour than the stripes on his tie. Booze fumes roll from him like scent from a cheap odouriser; he seems to be on the verge of tears.
‘If you’d like to step to one side – for one moment? Then I can get on and see exactly what this guy needs from us. Okay?’
‘Sorry. Sorry. I just – well, my sister dying like that. I see the ambulance. I see the guy lying there. And it’s just – well, you do what you can for him. I know you will.’
But instead of moving aside, he kneels down on the concrete next to the patient, who becomes slightly more alert, but not much. He takes his right hand in between both of his – which obviously inconveniences the patient, as he now has to support his head on his neck – and squeezes affectionately. The patient stares out at him from behind his heavy eyelids.
‘Get better, mate. Please. You’re in good hands now.’ The businessman releases his grip, produces a cigarette and puts it in his mouth. I have to tell him it’s the wrong way round.
‘These guys really know what they’re doing,’ he says, as if that just proved it. Distractedly, he stuffs the cigarette into his breast pocket. ‘They’ll do their very best for you, mate. Don’t worry. I’m sure the worst is over.’
I tell the patient that I’d like to talk to him on the ambulance so we can take a few details in private. He stands up with a little help, and I walk him to the back of the vehicle. The businessman tags along.
‘Are you taking him to the hospital?’ he says.
‘Well, that’s certainly one option. But anyway – thank you very much for all your help. I think we’ll be okay now.’
‘I’ll wait just over here. Let me know what happens,’ he says, pulling his phone out again.

Safe inside the vehicle I talk to the patient. He’s not unwell, simply worn down by his life, as drunk as he needs to be at this time of day, waiting on yet another appointment with the alcohol dependency team, the community psychiatric nurse, the housing support worker. He thanks us for coming out, apologises for wasting our time. He stumbles back off the ambulance.
Outside, the businessman closes in again.
‘What? What are you doing? Aren’t you taking him to hospital?’
‘No. He doesn’t need to go. He doesn’t want to go,’ I tell him.
Whilst the patient goes to sit back down on the concrete, the businessman follows me round to the cab.
‘Sorry if I’ve been a bit – emotional,’ he says, then gives a big, deflationary sigh. He pats himself down for a cigarette, eventually alighting on his breast pocket. ‘This thing with my sister. My twin, you know.’ He hauls out the crumpled cigarette and holds it up in front of him. We both stare at it, and his eyes seem to fill, as if he’s focusing on the remains of something vital he’d momentarily overlooked.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You may not blog every day, Spence, but how I look forward to your posts. Keep up the good work (here and at work!). You are a joy to read.

Spence Kennedy said...

Thanks v much, Schooner - and thanks for stopping by regularly. I really appreciate it.
S.

uphilldowndale said...

Sad in so many ways.

Spence Kennedy said...

This one certainly took me by surprise. The businessman behaved so strangely, intensely - and he was just a bystander!

Sometimes I think we should be sponsored - or at least receive large donations - from the drinks companies. Alcohol is a common theme to a lot of these cases!

Hope yr well
Spence :)

loveinvienna said...

Poor man (on both accounts), but of the two of them, I feel sorrier for the businessman. Perhaps his strange intensity was born of a desperate need to 'redeem' himself for the death of his sister.
Wonderful writing as usual Spence!
Liv xxx

cogidubnus said...

Reading your words I could just picture the scene perfectly...and smell the booze!

Spence Kennedy said...

Hi Liv!
They were both sorry cases! (Note to self: must write another funny one soon). I still don't know what to think about the businessman. His whole demeanour was so feverishly alcoholic. Maybe his whole behaviour was more some kind of DT-style hallucination.

Hi Coggie! How are things?
I raise my glass to you.
:) Spence

uphilldowndale said...

I'd chance a guess that much of what you saw in the businessman was grief, maybe he feels guilt that he didn't couldn't do more for his sister,but that he'll make sure this guy is OK, or maybe it was something as simple as the guy on the floor, drank the same brand of lager as his sister, that sent him in to such a state:grief is a tricky path for anyone, it can be compounded when the loved one has died by suicide or a sudden traumatic death and the symptoms of grief can be very 'physical'
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4139006
Sorry,long link, I must learn how to do links in comments :(

loveinvienna said...

I enjoy all of your posts Spence, funny and sad alike! :) Just keep 'em coming! :)

Again, poor man... when I think of this, I think of him and his crumpled cigarette and feel quite sad even if he was a raging alcoholic. But an honest portrayal of life is somewhat lacking in this shiny, polished, PC-crazy world we live in, so don't you dare stop posting the sadder ones!

Liv xxx