The Secret Life of Roy DeSoto
By: Vanessa Sgroi
“Hey, Roy?”
“Yeah?”
“What were you like as a kid?”
The two paramedics were just leaving Rampart General Hospital after delivering two little boys who too the word mischief to a whole new level. As a result, Johnny’s curiosity was piqued.
“What do you mean?”
Johnny slid into the passenger seat and pulled the door shut. He looked over at his partner.
“I mean, what were you like? You know, good . . . bad?”
“I suppose I was pretty good.”
“Ha! I figured you were a goody-two-shoes.”
Roy threw a glare at his partner.
“Well, except for the time I got caught smoking out behind the school.”
“Smoking? YOU?”
“Yeah.” It was my first and only cigarette, but you don’t need to know that.
“I’m amazed.”
Roy purposely let out a long, regret-filled sigh. “Then there was the time I got caught drinking.” It was only a couple of swallows of vodka and I got sick, but you don’t need to know that either.
“No way!”
“Yep.” DeSoto bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. He rather enjoyed seeing his partner unsettled.
Gage was quiet for several minutes as he contemplated what he thought he knew about his partner.
“So smoking and drinking. What else did you do?”
“Tormented my brother.”
“You? I can’t picture you tormenting anyone!”
“Sure I did. I used to glue all his baseball cards together. And the pages of his comic books. Oh, I glued his shoes to the ground once too.”
“Man, sounds like you were a young Chet. It gives me the creeps,” Johnny shuddered at the thought, “What else did you do?”
Thinking hard, Roy finally said, “Umm, let’s see. I shaved our cat once. Oh, and I dyed our dog blue. It was a poodle.”
“Geez, and I thought those two kids we just dropped off were bad,” mused the dark haired paramedic.
DeSoto grinned. “Nah. Even I wasn’t as bad as those two! I don’t even think that Chet could have been as bad as those two. I’m almost feel sorry for Dr. Brackett. Dixie even looked a little ruffled.”
“Well, all I can say is I’m glad you grew out of it.”
Roy didn’t say anything for a few moments as he carefully backed the squad into place. After putting the vehicle in park, he opened his door and prepared to step out.
With a glance over at Johnny, he said, “Grew out of it? What makes you say that?”
“What makes me . . . what do you mean? Roy? Roy? Come back here! What did you mean by that?"
* * * The End * * *
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