Chapter 1: The Decal
The red-and-yellow decal slapped hard against the ambulance windshield.
Through the glass, the paramedic froze for half a second.
Outside, an early-sixties woman stood with her enormous brown handbag hanging from one arm, one finger pressed triumphantly against the removable sign she had just placed on the ambulance.
DO NOT BLOCK MY DRIVEWAY.
She leaned toward the windshield.
“Move this ambulance right now!” she shouted. “My driveway is private!”
The paramedic, Marcus Reed, had been inside less than a minute. His partner was with a patient in the house behind him, an older man who had collapsed at breakfast and was struggling to breathe.
Marcus lowered the radio microphone from his shoulder.
“Ma’am, we’re treating a patient. Please step back.”
The woman narrowed her gray-green eyes.
“Your patient doesn’t live here!”
Marcus looked past her toward the driveway.
The ambulance was parked at the curb, close enough to the house for the stretcher team to move quickly. One corner of the vehicle sat near the mouth of the driveway, but there was still room to pass.
“We need access to the patient,” Marcus said.
She pointed at the decal.
“I posted the rule. You don’t get to ignore it just because you have flashing lights.”
Marcus stared at her for a moment.
Behind him, a muffled voice called from inside the house.
“Marcus!”
His expression changed.
The argument was no longer merely ridiculous.
It was costing seconds.
He opened the ambulance door.
“Please move away from the vehicle.”
She folded her arms.
“My driveway comes first.”
Marcus stepped down onto the pavement, his voice still controlled.
“Someone inside that house may not have much time.”
For the first time, the woman’s expression flickered.
Not guilt.
Annoyance.
She glanced toward the house, then back at the ambulance.
“So if you can park here whenever you want,” she said, “what exactly is private about owning a home?”
Marcus had no answer he could give her in ten seconds.
Inside the house, another shout came from the medical team.
The patient was getting worse.
And the woman was still standing between the ambulance and the driveway.
