The most peculiar thing happened on the eleventh of November, just as the snow had begun to drift down. As Katie watched Mother Nature begin to cover earth with a blanket of whiteness, she heard what sounded like a small explosion. She wondered what the noise was about, but she had become used to keeping to herself, locked in her own world.
She had been feeling restless and having more dark days than usual. Finding her way out of the darkness had become too monumental a process. She struggled to connect to herself, to find peace with the woman in the mirror. Having lost her job, she wondered if she had any value to anyone. Then, she heard that strange noise and felt a strong compulsion to see what caused it.
Wrapped in her favorite orange and cream scarf that had been knitted by her grandmother and her warmest coat, Katie stepped beyond her comfort zone. She headed down the long driveway to the street. Snow was starting to accumulate. What she saw nearly took her breath away!
A car was twisted around the stop sign at the corner, with its engine still running! She walked to the front of the vehicle and saw a young man who seemed to have went to sleep kissing the steering wheel. Through the broken passenger window, she reached in and felt for a pulse. It was slight but steady. She opened the door, and saw the blood.
Immediately, she took off her beloved scarf and bind it around the wound on his head, to staunch the bleeding. Then, she took off her coat and wrapped it around his shoulders, to preserve what heat heat he still had.
Knowing that she had done all that she could to stabilize him, she ran up the hill as fast as she could. She phoned for the police and for an ambulance, giving the dispatcher vital information about the man’s health status. She saved his life!
After all the emergency personnel and police had left, Katie went inside her house, allowing the warmth to envelop her. Something had changed inside her, that much she understood. Having the hospital close and losing her job as an emergency room nurse had caused her to distance herself from the world as much as possible.
But in doing so, she had stopped discovering life’s joys: the sweetness of being alive, the exuberance of just taking another breath, and the wonder of what is next in one’s life journey. As she did what came naturally to her in helping that young man, such peace and contentment filled her soul and the darkness lifted, allowing her to see that change was needed.
It was time to escape her comfort zone, to move to a new place where she could find the work she so loved. The fear of living in an unknown place with strangers she didn’t know had deprived her of joy in her life. She went to her computer, registered for a Linkedin page, and searched for positions for experienced emergency room nurses.
Today, living in Phoenix, Arizona, the hum of the distant mower gave her a thought. Life is too short to spend it having pity parties over what might have been. Instead, we have to take time to mourn our losses, and then seek what is next in our lives. Sometimes we have to make things happen, instead of waiting for fate to drop chances in our laps. She smiled, enjoyed the heat on her face once more, and then returned inside to her patients.
Fictional story, somewhat autobiographical, written for First Line Friday from Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie. The first line is in bold. Also, written for June Writing Prompts from Putting My Feet in the Dirt: the hum of the distant mower gave her a thought.
Help from Heaven 