May 20, 2012
“Momma’s Boy” his classmates had pronounced. Back when Larry had classmates. Back when he was a child in middle school. Nothing more needed to be said in the hall outside the cafeteria. That was enough. The kids all laughed, so it had to be true. Larry was exposed for what he was. The girls laughed, […]
May 7, 2012
By the time Larry’s shifts were done that Christmas, no one had come in to his ED clamoring to be admitted; no drunks, no drug addicts, no suicides, no maniacs, not a single compulsive gambler. Every homeless person in the city must’ve found a place to stay and every traumatized vet must’ve observed a cease […]
April 29, 2012
The next day, at work, Larry picked up the phone. Instead of his daughter, he called Shellie, the frequent flyer. “Aren’t you coming in today?” he asked. Pulling a long, uneventful double shift on Christmas Day, he tried not to sound beseeching, but he wanted something to do. Shellie had appeared at the ER every […]
January 14, 2011
The over-engineered gaiety of the holiday season has spent itself on strings of twinklies and on ceramic reindeer. A cat cannot bat an ornament without being showered by needles. By the side of the road, Christmas trees tilt, half buried by the plows. Angels on high have been replaced by credit card balances that are […]
December 27, 2010
Image by Rachel Coleman Finch via Flickr “Momma’s boy,” pronounced a classmate. Nothing more needed to be said in the hall outside the middle school cafeteria. That was enough. The kids all laughed, so it had to be true. I was exposed for what I was. The girls laughed, clutching their books to their new […]
December 26, 2010
Image via Wikipedia Tonight I had the night off from the ED (Emergency Department) and got in my car and drove till I saw no lights but the stars above me. I actually gave up trying and stopped, but there weren’t many lights around, only the yard lights of distant farms. I decided that the […]
December 25, 2010
I volunteered to work a double shift on Christmas so all the other PAOs (Psychiatric Assignment Officers) could be with their families. Least you think I did this out of some altruism on my part, let me just say that I conceived of the idea when Frank, another PAO, invited me to his home for […]
December 20, 2012
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