“Do you want to eat here or head back to the station?”
I ponder him for a brief moment. He’s already holding our
neatly packed Chinese food in a to-go bag. I glance between him and our
ambulance parked neatly out front. “Let’s eat here,” I finally say after some
deliberation. It’s well after 4 in the afternoon and I haven’t eaten since
breakfast before I came on shift. The 10-minute drive back to the station seems
like a relentless eternity for my growling stomach. We plop down at a sunny table
near the door and descend upon our food like vultures who have found their
first meal in days.
“I took us out of service since you need to leave at 5,” my
partner tells me in between bites of his chow mein.
Perfect. Eat. Finish my report quick. And be home in time
for our family’s plans for the evening. It almost seemed too easy…and it was.
