2DREZQ

The opening sequence from the first chapter of my new Novel "Uphill"


“C'mon kid, hang on, sweetie, help is coming!”


Jake looked down at the tiny figure lying limp on the wet carpet. Her long blond hair soaked and matted around an expressionless purple face. She was cold, so very cold. Her flesh felt stiff, like a half-thawed piece of meat. He could see her ribs right through her almost translucent skin. Jake tasted bile in the back of his throat. His chest hurt and he felt like there wasn't a molecule of oxygen in the room. He was cold. His own ice-water sodden pants stuck to his legs like lead, like thick icey glue. He felt a sudden, incongrious urge to urinate.

Jake struggled to remember his last CPR refresher course. He could remember the faces of his fellow employees, rocking back in their folding chairs. Bored and anxious to get out of there. The company required annual CPR certification as part of his job. Nobody took it very seriously. It was damn serious now! A child, whose name he didn't even know, was lying seemingly lifeless and as cold as a fish on ice on the floor in front of him.. It had all seemed so easy when it had just been a maniquin on the table, and not real little girl. She was so small! Maybe seven at the most.
All this was flashing through Jake's head as he continued to press on her chest 15 compression, stop, 2 breaths, 15 compressions, keep it up. It was cold in the room, no one had thought to close the patio door. Still, beads of sweat were forming on Jake's forehead. "Wierd", he thought, "I'm feezing and sweating at the same time." His heart was pounding so hard it felt as if it would burst.

"She's dead", he thought, not a chance in hell she'll make it. But he remembered hearing a doctor on TV talk about cold-water drownings once. “You're not dead until you're warm and dead.” The doctor had said. The phrase stuck in his head. Jake kept going.


“Lord, Jesus” Jake said, not even aware he was speaking aloud. “I know I ain't had much to say to you in quite a while, but if you're still listening to me this little one needs you. Please, lord!”


Jake had heard that in an emergency most people focus so completely that they are oblivious to everything around them. Now he knew that was a load of bullshit. He could hear everything. The TV in the next room was on; a Spongebob cartoon was playing. There was slight rumble from nearby as the furnace kicked on in response to the dropping air temp from the open door. Jake could hear the girls mother stifling her sobs though her hand, the 911 operator on the phone, faintly assuring her that the paramedics were only moments away, he could even hear the strain in her voice as she tried to remain calm herself. The little boy on the couch was breathing almost normally now, Jake could hear that, too.


Then; another sound. Sirens, faint, but getting louder every passing second. At least two of them! Cops and paramedics, finally! Jake was near to passing out when the front door fairly flew open and that young cop, Mark, rushed in with two medics on his heels. One of the paramedics knelt by Jake while the other sat a large orange case on the floor and opened it up.


“You're doing fine, buddy. Just keep going a few more seconds.” The one medic said as her placed a mask attached to one of those resusitation bags over the girls face.


“I..Can't, go much...longer.” Jake gasped. Suddenly, the room was spinning around him, and the darkness that had been hovering at the edges of his vision swooped in. Jake felt himself floating away from the scene like a balloon in a breeze.


“I hope I did alright.” Was his last thought, then, nothing.