22. Food is Love
22
Food is Love
If you ever want to get punched in the throat by ER staff, just say the words “Sure is quiet around here” in the middle of their shift.
Natalie
“And then everything went all fuzzy,” the kid on the gurney told me. He shrugged, his eyes fading out for a moment before he refocused back to me. “At least the cheerleaders all came to the sideline when I fell. They’re pretty.”
He smiled, his eyes going blank as he remembered the pretty girls all looking at him. At least the pain meds were working.
“So you got hit on the field during a high school football practice,” I repeated. “You hit your head and you hurt your knee.”
He nodded lazily. “The medicine is making the knee feel a lot better. I bet I could go home now.” He started to get up to his feet.
“Oh no you don’t,” I quickly said, putting my hand on his shoulder and keeping him on the gurney. “We loaded you up with some pretty good drugs.”
My patient frowned. “I’m not supposed to do drugs. I don’t think my mom will be happy with me.”
“You have permission to take these drugs,” I reassured him. “These are okay drugs.”
“Oh.” His face relaxed out of the frown, but he still looked unhappy. “I feel funny. I don’t think I like drugs.”
“Sorry about that,” McKenna, the EMT replied as she gathered her supplies to return back to the ambulance. “Poor guy was not a happy camper on the way here. His knee is pretty messed up.”
“I don’t like camping,” our patient agreed.
“I called his mom,” McKenna continued, ignoring the puppy dog eyes the teen was giving her. “She said she would meet us at the hospital.”
“Can you stay, pretty lady?” our patient asked, smiling at McKenna. “I like your uniform. And you gave me drugs.”
I arched an eyebrow at her. “He seems a bit young for you.”
She rolled her eyes and blatantly stole the pen off my computer cart.
“Everyone likes me after I make the pain go away,” McKenna replied. She smiled at the teen boy. “Good luck, Kid.”
He smiled at her, the joy in it wavering as soon as she left the room.
“I’m not going to be playing football for a while, am I?” he asked softly, looking down at his leg. We had it hidden under a blanket, but it was already swelling and didn’t look good.
I sighed. “Probably not. This looks like a pretty decent injury. And you banged your head really hard. We’re going to run some more tests to make sure you’re okay.”
He nodded slowly, as if the motion required effort. “Man, this sucks. I was having a great season.”
He slumped back on the gurney, tears starting to trickle down his face.
“You okay?” I asked, stopping the charting to put my hand on his arm.
“I just... I thought I could go pro, you know?” His voice grew thick with tears. “I was supposed to start this Saturday. I was supposed to play. I’m really good.” He looked at me with suddenly wild eyes. “Can you fix it? Can you make it so I can play?”
Hope shone behind fear-filled eyes.
I wanted to lie to the kid. I wanted to tell him that through the miracle of modern medicine, we would have him out the door with a band-aid and some pills and that everything would be fine.
But his knee was bent in a completely unnatural position. He had a concussion that was bad enough to require a CT scan.
I couldn’t predict the future, but I had a sinking feeling that this kid’s football hopes and dreams were over. If he was lucky there wouldn’t be lasting damage, but given the severity of his knee, I suspected he would have future pain and issues with it as a result of this accident.
All for a stupid game.
Why Dylan liked this stupid sport was beyond me. Was it really worth risking the ability to walk without pain to smash into another person and try to steal their ball?
Before I could say anything that I might regret, the curtain pulled back and a woman with the same soft brown hair as the boy ran in. She wrapped her arms around him, kissing his head and yelling at him that she was so glad he was okay.
“The doctor will be in shortly,” I told them both, wanting to get out of the room. I didn’t want to answer the mother’s questions about the severity of the injury. I didn’t want to destroy the hopes and dreams of this kid. Sure, there was a chance he would come back from this game and go pro, but the odds were not in his favor. Besides, I needed to go find the doctor to get his orders. It would be nice when I was a nurse practitioner and could just order the CT scan myself and save us all time.
I didn’t even make it three steps before a trauma alert went off and two staff members sprinted past me toward the ambulance bay.
It was going to be a long night.
How’s your night going, gorgeous?
I glanced around the nurses station, making sure that my boss wouldn't see me checking my personal phone. I’d been running like crazy all night and my feet hurt. I finally found a little time to sit and chart in between codes and injuries. I wondered if it was a full moon because we seemed busier than usual.
But Dylan’s text made me smile and feel a little lighter.
What are you doing awake? I texted back, seeing that it was a little after four in the morning.
Ellie thought it was a good time to stare at the moon, came the reply. Then I remembered he had a newborn.
I wish it was you keeping me up , the text continued. I’m going to be dreaming of the feeling of your body for a long time.
A happy flush washed over me.
So, how’s your night going? he asked. I imagined him standing in the kitchen wearing just his pajama pants, cradling Ellie as she sucked down a bottle.
It's been busy. I didn’t get to the cafeteria and they’re closed, so I’m going to see if I can steal some graham crackers and jello for dinner.
I thought about some of the meals I’d eaten with Dylan and my stomach grumbled. I’d forgotten to bring my lunch and the hospital cafeteria was only open from midnight to two. It opened again for breakfast at five, but that felt like a long time away.
I tucked my phone away, not wanting to get caught. Besides, I had so much charting to catch up on I needed to focus or I would never leave in the morning.
Ten minutes later, I stood up from the nurses’ station and stretched, feeling my spine pop. My stomach gurgled again and I wished there was something better than pilfered graham crackers or a stale bag of chips from the vending machine on the second floor.
“Uh, Natalie?” Sherri, my charge nurse waived to get my attention. I turned, already mentally preparing for a lecture or a new patient. Instead, she surprised me. “You have a visitor.”
“At almost four in the morning?” I asked but secretly hoped it was Dylan. I would need to strangle him for bringing a baby to the ER and exposing her to germs, but I liked the idea of getting to see him.
“They’re in the lobby,” Sherri replied. “And good job tonight.”
I thanked her and headed out to the lobby where I stopped dead in my tracks. It was not Dylan in the waiting room, but Alex. Alex with two plastic grocery bags and a very grumpy expression.
“Did you know that nothing good is open at three in the morning?” he informed me as I approached him.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
“Other than my boss waking me up before the butt crack of dawn to bring his girlfriend dinner? No. I’m fine.”
“You brought me dinner?” I asked, taking a closer look at the various containers stashed under his arm. My stomach growled.
“Do you have a break room or someplace I can set this down?” he asked, shifting his weight uncomfortably. He glanced around the waiting room, noticing that the three visitors and the security guard were all watching him. If they were half as hungry as I was, it was a miracle they hadn’t jumped him for the food in his hands. I could smell melty cheese and taco spices from the bags.
“This way,” I said, scanning my badge and bringing him back. I waved at my charge nurse and pointed to my stomach. She nodded and pointed to the board. The message was clear: it’s okay to eat because it’s calm right now. If it gets busy, you come out.
The break room was tucked off in a back corner of the ER. We had a coffee machine, a fridge from the late eighties, and six old plastic chairs from the same time frame. Only two of the chairs were comfortable and they were both tucked under a very worn Formica table in the center of the room. There were no windows in case we wanted to escape. No expenses were spared for this part of the hospital.
McKenna stood at the empty coffee machine, looking annoyed. It had been a crazy night for her too.
Alex thrust out the plastic bags. “It’s my mom’s salsa, enchiladas, and a couple of tamales.”
“Did you say tamales?” McKenna interrupted, walking up behind me and resting her elbow on my shoulder. She gave me a gentle push. “You know you’re sharing, right?”
“I will bite you if you touch my food,” I growled at her, twisting away from her and guarding my now precious food bag like an angry dragon.
She laughed and winked at Alex. “Don’t get between a girl and her food,” she told him. “I was going to grab an energy drink from the vending machine upstairs. The good one. Do you want anything?”
I shook my head, my mouth already salivating for the food. The first bag held various plastic containers along with a Ziploc baggie filled with homemade tortilla chips. I popped open the lid to the first container and breathed in the scent of tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro. I moaned with delight as I I took a chip out of the bag, dipping it into the fresh pico de gallo. My entire body, not just my mouth, did a little happy dance as the food filled me with warmth.
“Alex, where did you get this? It’s so good!” I said, settling down at the table and opening the container to the enchiladas. They were cold, but they tasted so good I didn’t care. The nursing commission should just be glad I wasn’t snarfing this food with my bare hands. I was barely managing to eat it like a human being.
“My mom. She grew up in the States, but mi abuela insisted that she learn how to cook,” Alex explained. He leaned against the wall, watching me eat and glancing at the door leading out to the hallway.
“She is amazing,” I mumbled through a mouth full of food. “Does she give lessons?”
“Only when she’s mad,” Alex replied. “This stuff was from dinner. If she found out I gave it away, she’d kill me.”
I stopped eating. “Alex, I don’t want to get you in trouble...”
“No, no.” He frantically shook his head. “She’d only be mad because this isn’t her best. This is leftovers, not the stuff she gives to guests. She’d be so embarrassed to know you were snarfing what she made without thinking.”
I happily continued stuffing my face. “It’s still amazing. She can give me leftovers anytime.”
“Don’t tell her that,” Alex said with a wince. “But my usual three A.M. restaurant is closed for repairs and there was nothing else open. So you get what was in my fridge.”
“And I am so incredibly grateful,” I told him, still stuffing enchilada into my mouth and trying to savor the taste before adding more. It was so spicy and good.
“Nat, they are out of the orange kind, so I let Sherri know. She says they’ll restock the vending machine tomorrow,” McKenna said popping her head into the break room. I noticed she kept her orange energy drink carefully hidden behind the wall.
I nodded, my mouth too full of food to say anything else. She laughed and headed off to the nurses’ station to probably fill out paperwork and steal our pens.
“Who’s that?” Alex asked, his eyes following her out the doorway.
“Who, McKenna?” I swallowed my bite and grinned at him. He stared after her, mouth open. “She’s single, you know.”
I was rewarded with his face turning a fabulous shade of crimson. He started stuttering and couldn’t complete a sentence denying that he was interested.
“She’s cool. She likes football and video games. You two would get along,” I said, finally slowing down on inhaling my enchiladas enough to manage complete sentences.
“Now you’re just being mean. She’s way out of my league.” Alex glanced wistfully at the doorway again.
“You brought me food at four A.M. The least I can do is play wing-man,” I replied, popping another chip loaded with salsa into my mouth. I tried to savor it. It was about to be my last. “I’ll even try not to be obvious.”
Alex narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. “I don’t believe you.”
I sighed and picked up the delicious container of homemade salsa.
“I want you to know how much I want to eat this. It’s the best salsa I have ever had. I want it very clear to you that this is not too spicy. It’s perfect. I’m doing this for you.” I put the lid on the salsa and gave it a fond, but sad, little pat before standing up. I took a step out of the break room and saw McKenna at the Nurses’ station filling out paperwork using the hospital pens. “Hey, McKenna. You like spicy stuff, right?”
The girl perked right up like I’d said magic words. Paperwork and pen forgotten, she hurried back over to the break room to join me.
“This salsa is too spicy for me,” I lied, making a disgusted face. “Alex made it himself. You want it?”
Alex’s eyes bounced between me and McKenna as he nervously swallowed.
“Salsa?” McKenna grinned and grabbed the container from me with gusto. She slid into one of the plastic chairs at the table and stole my chips to try out the salsa. I made sure to give Alex a look that said “look how much you owe me.”
“Oh man,” McKenna groaned. “This is really good stuff.”
“Yeah...” I gazed longingly at the salsa. “You should know that Alex delivers this stuff. You should get his number.”
“You deliver fresh salsa?” McKenna asked, her eyes going to Alex and suddenly seeing him in a new light. She fluttered her eyelashes at him.
“Yeah. Mi abuela taught me how to make it, so it’s super authentic,” Alex replied, managing to sound smooth.
“Alex works for my neighbor,” I explained to McKenna. “Usually, I love his salsa, but for whatever reason, it’s just not doing it for me tonight. My loss is your gain, though.”
“I would love to get more of this,” McKenna said, biting her lower lip. Food was her love language.
Alex’s chest puffed out just a little bit and he grinned at her. “I also make really good tamales.”
I made sure to hide the container with tamales a little deeper in the plastic bag before tucking it into the staff fridge. I was willing to give up my salsa, but the tamales were not for sharing.
“Well, I have to get back to patients,” I said, washing my hands and making sure I hadn’t left a mess. “McKenna, will you make sure Alex makes it out of the ER?”
“Yeah, I can do that.” McKenna didn’t look at me, but she grinned at Alex.
I left the two of them in the break room to flirt.