Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
NYLA
His shoulders look tense, and his movements, as he now heads for the door leading out to the cafeteria terrace, are stiff. He’s clutching his phone in a tight grip.
Through the glass front I watch him step outside and slam the door shut behind him. He’s trying to breathe, but he can’t.
I’ve never seen him like this before. Until now he’s always been the fearless golden boy, a bon vivant who knows neither pain nor grief nor fear.
But now, as he lifts the phone to his ear—with that dark expression, his whole body strung tight to the point of bursting—he seems like a completely different person.
His lips move. Then he presses them together. I’d love to know who he’s talking to right now and why it’s throwing him so completely off balance.
Wait a second.
Are those tears in his eyes?
Before I can be sure, he turns his back to me. Gesticulating wildly with his free hand, he ends the call a few seconds later.
Now he slips the phone into his jacket pocket, grips the terrace railing, and stares into the distance. His upper body vibrates, his knuckles stand out, his hair trembles.
Spellbound, I stare out at him. ‘Who are you, Jaden Reynolds?’ I whisper. Whoever I’ve thought he was up to now, he obviously isn’t.
When I asked him about his future earlier, he deflected. When I told him about mine, he shut down. That call just now completely knocked him off course. And then there’s the fact of how hard he’s always trying to seem like the kind of person for whom the sun is always shining.
There’s something he’s hiding.
Maybe something that has sunk its claws deep into him? Something not even his superhero costume can help against? Something that’s eating him up, no matter how hard he fights it?
Maybe.
With a sudden jerk, he pushes himself away from the railing and heads back into the cafeteria at a pace as if he were on the run.
‘We have to go.’ He signals for me to leave the room with him. He no longer pays any attention to his sandwich, which he was so desperate to have earlier.
‘Who was that on the phone just now? Has something happened?’ I ask, slide off my stool, and reach for the life jacket.
‘Everything’s fine.’ His attempt to casually tug the corners of his mouth upward fails. ‘Come on, we have to get going again.’
I follow him into the hallway. ‘No, nothing is fine.’ He can’t seriously think I wouldn’t notice.
Instead of heading for the elevators, he makes for the stairwell.
Is he afraid that the elevator would leave him too much at the mercy of me and my questions?
I hesitate to follow him. Running down ten floors at the pace he’s setting right now would be an unnecessary strain during an already exhausting shift.
He slips through the door. Reluctantly, I stay behind and press the elevator call button.
What was that just now?
That question consumes me on the way down, and even more than before, when I see Jaden again in the parking lot in front of the emergency room.
There he is, leaning casually against the ambulance next to Alex, wearing aviator sunglasses and – unbelievable as it is – an unburdened smile on his lips. As I reach the two of them, Jaden is just cracking a joke, making them both laugh.
Immediately I think of yesterday, when he persuaded me, with an almost desperately wistful look, to dance with him in the rain, even though he must have seen how hard I was struggling with myself just then.
He saw everything: the fear, the worries, and the pain. The only thing he wanted was for it to disappear. Is that exactly what’s happening now too? With the difference that this time it’s about him? About his fear, his worries, his pain, triggered by the phone call?
Or am I reading too much into his behavior?
‘4-2-6, this is Dispatch, please respond,’ booms from inside the ambulance.
The way Jaden yanks the door open and grabs the radio has something of an alcoholic who can hardly wait to taste the first sip of vodka of the day on his tongue. ‘Dispatch, this is 4-2-6, what’s up?’
The radio crackles. ‘Traffic accident, passenger car with occupant crashed off a cliff. Incident location: Route 333, near the lookout point.’
Alex, Jaden, and I immediately rush into the ambulance.
‘The caller, eighteen years old, was able to free herself from the car. Driver, female, also eighteen, still in the vehicle, unresponsive. Vehicle unstable. Police and fire department alerted.’
Jaden pulls up the emergency data on the display. The map of Halifax and the surrounding area appears, followed immediately by the route to the accident site.
‘Emergency doctor not dispatched, as already in the vehicle. Priority level: Code 3. Understood?’
‘4-2-6, understood,’ Jaden replies, fully focused. ‘Arrival on scene in seventeen minutes.’
I just manage to fasten my seat belt before we tear out of the parking lot.
Barely twenty minutes later, the ambulance comes to a stop with screeching tires. During the entire drive Jaden was unreachable, as if in a trance that had completely taken hold of him. There is nothing left of the fatigue that still dominated him on our last call.
Right down to his fingertips he is once again that hero who seems ready for anything.
I can hardly hear him breathing, but I notice how he scans the cliff with his gaze.
The car can’t be seen from here. A teenage girl with long dark hair is standing like frozen next to a fire engine, chewing on her pink-painted fingernails.
Tears are running down her face; she must be the passenger.
The two police officers have closed off the road, five firefighters are standing together in a heated discussion.
Even before I’ve unfastened my belt, Jaden jumps out of the vehicle. I hurry to follow him.
‘First we need to get an overview,’ I suggest.
Jaden nods. ‘You talk to the emergency services, I’ll take care of the woman over there.’ He points at the passenger and sprints off.
With the emergency backpack slung over my shoulder, I walk over to the police officer. ‘What’s the situation?’
‘The car is wedged between two rock outcrops at a depth of about twelve meters, front end down, driver’s door blocked.
’ He hooks his thumbs into his belt and nods toward the cliff.
‘The passenger managed to get out in time before the fall; she’s in shock but outwardly uninjured.
The driver is still in the car – she lost consciousness while driving, which probably caused the accident. No contact.’
Possible explanations immediately race through my mind. The information that she’s unconscious is simply not enough for a tentative diagnosis, so for the time being I have to classify her situation as potentially life-threatening.
Out of the corner of my eye I see the teenage girl talking to Jaden, gesticulating in despair.
I turn to the firefighter. ‘We have to get down there, as fast as possible.’
In the background I hear the front-seat passenger sob. ‘Yes, that’s her. My God…’
‘Access to the vehicle is currently not possible. The slope is too steep, and the force of the crash has destabilized it,’ the firefighter explains to me. ‘We’re waiting for a special unit.’
‘But the woman might not have that much time.’ Unease spreads through me.
‘She’s diabetic,’ Jaden yells to me a split second later. ‘It could be a severe hypoglycemia!’
I look over at him.
He turns toward the cliff. Starts running.
He’s not actually going to…?
Yes.
He will.
‘Jaden, wait!’ I call after him, but he doesn’t hear me.
I go hot and cold at the same time.
Fortunately, a police officer holds him back. ‘Careful, the ground is unstable.’
‘There’s an unconscious woman down there in the car with a dangerously low blood sugar level,’ Jaden replies, agitated. ‘If she doesn’t get glucose immediately, she’ll die.’
That’s true. Even so, he can’t approach the patient without safety measures. My God, he could plunge into the depths! That wouldn’t help anyone.
Jaden tears himself free. His whole body is on high alert, the adrenaline rush has long since taken hold of him. I can see it in the superhero manner with which he approaches the cliff.
Alex sprints after him and reaches her hand out to him. ‘Don’t do that, the risk is too great,’ she snaps at him, upset.
‘She needs help. Right now.’ His voice is sharp, allowing no discussion.
‘Even if by some miracle it goes well, you’re definitely getting another warning from the boss, and you already have too many on your record.’ Her fingers clamp around his forearm. ‘That’s some damn thin ice you’re walking out onto there, Jaden.’
Without responding to her words, he shakes off Alex’s hand. ‘I can get to the car, that’s not a problem.’
Not a problem?
Has he lost his mind?
My heart skips a beat as he passes Alex and keeps racing on. Then he’s at the cliff, right where it’s most dangerous, and there is nothing but determination in his expression.