Them's The Brakes

THEM’S THE BRAKES

Johnny was running late for the training session at the Rappelling Site. He pushed his Rover a little faster hoping to get there before the exercises started.

He pulled into the packed parking lot. “Darn it,” he cursed under his breath, seeing that the entire lot was full. “Now where am I going to park?” he thought to himself.

He noticed the slight embankment above the parking lot. “I can get my Rover in there,” he thought. He pulled his vehicle over the sidewalk and parked above Mike Stoker’s truck. He grabbed his gear and rushed to meet the other guys.

Johnny was in such a hurry he didn’t notice his vehicle slip back down the embankment and hit the front of Mike’s truck.

He found the rest of the crew from Station 51 at the first rappelling task. “About time you got here Gage,” Captain Stanley said, slightly annoyed.

“Sorry, Cap,” Johnny said, “had to change a flat tire for my landlady. She is 8 months pregnant and couldn’t do it herself. In a way, I was doing public service,” he said, grinning.

“Yeah right,” Chet quipped.

“Never mind, we don’t have time for this nonsense. Gage, since you were the last one to show up, you can be the first one to rappel,” Cap said, pointing out the practice exercise.

“No problem,” Johnny grinned. He loved rope exercises and rappelling was one of his favourite kinds of rescues.

He quickly completed the rappel down the 200 foot drop. He loaded the “victim” into the stokes and prepared it for the ride back up.

“Good work, Gage,” the instructor praised. “Good time too,” he said, looking at his stop watch.

“hmm,” Stoker mumbled. “Show off,” he muttered to himself.

Everyone took their turn on the exercise but no one could come close to Johnny’s time. The only one that came even close was Roy, but he was still lagging behind.

The instructor had everyone rotate to the next training exercise.

“Okay the task this time is to test your strength on a dead climb back up a rope. You will be dropped 150 feet down, and you will have to climb back up the rope unassisted. The theory behind this exercise is it’s usefulness on those rescues when there isn’t enough man power to pull the rescuers back up,” the instructor concluded.

Each man was timed on this task as well. The training assistant was in charge of the timers. Chet went first, “not a bad time, Kelly,” he said, noting the time on his clipboard. Next Marco went, “very respective time,” he commented again documenting the time. Captain Stanley followed Marco, “nice work, Captain,” he said, reporting the time again. Roy and Mike went after the Captain, each receiving minor praise for their climbs. Finally it was Johnny’s turn. He grabbed the rope and slid down to the marked spot on the rope. The instructor called for him to start. Johnny made very quick work of his climb back up. “Very impressive, Gage,” he said, looking at his watch. “You definitely have the time to beat today,” he said, nodding his head.

“Well when you’ve got it you got it,” Johnny laughed lightly.

He didn’t realize that his fellow crew mates were finding the tasks a lot harder than him. He looked over and saw them nursing sore hands and realized he better keep his comments to himself.

The next two assignments were equally as challenging. Time after time Johnny’s superior roping skills shone through. When they got to the last practice exercise, Johnny was leery to even try his best. He was getting tired of the dirty looks from everyone every time he was praised for his efforts.

When they finally broke at the end of the day, the guys were a bit surly with Johnny.

“I’m glad that is all over with,” Marco said, rubbing his sore arms.

“No kidding. Damn that was one of the toughest training exercises we’ve been through in a while,” Cap commented.

“Well maybe not all of us found it so hard,” Mike commented, eyeing Johnny.

Johnny squirmed a little uncomfortable. “Hey, guys, look I love to climb, you know that. I wasn’t trying to show off,” he said, trying to defend himself.

“Stow it, Gage,” Chet said, heading towards the parking lot.

When they got close to the vehicles Mike gasped. “What the heck?” he yelled out.

He ran to the two vehicles that were still sitting together. “Johnny, you idiot. You smashed my truck. Haven’t you ever heard of a park brake?” He snapped.

“I set it, Mike,” Johnny protested. He was eyeing the incident, trying to figure out what happened.

“Typical move, Gage. Not paying attention. You really screwed up,” Chet snapped.

“He’s right, John. You really made a mess of this,” Roy said, agreeing with the others.

“Hey I really put the brake on. I don’t know what happened,” Johnny protested again. “I’m sorry, Mike.”

“Just be quiet, Johnny, I don’t want to hear your feeble excuses. They’re getting really old,” Mike angrily replied.

Johnny felt terrible about the accident. He was sure he had set the brake. He couldn’t figure it out.

“Let me know the cost for the repairs and I’ll get it fixed for you,” Johnny said, trying to ease the uncomfortable tone to the situation.

“You damn right you will,” Mike snapped.

“Roy, I really did set the brake, honest,” Johnny said, trying to talk quietly with his partner.

“Johnny, you’re always the one rushing in at the last minute. You probably just forgot. If you weren’t in such a hurry you might have paid more attention,” Roy said, shaking his head.

Johnny knew he was fighting a losing battle. He went and got in his vehicle and waited for Mike to pull away. Once Mike moved his truck, Johnny drove down off the embankment.

As he was pulling away, the Captain waved him down. “You know, Johnny, if you’d just paid a little more attention this wouldn’t have happened you know.”

“Cap, I really did put the park brake on,” Johnny disputed the cause of the accident again.

“Okay, Gage, you said you put the brakes on, let’s see your brakes,” Mike said, hotly. He grabbed a flashlight from inside his truck and crawled under Johnny’s truck. He did a quick look at the brakes and noted that they were in perfect working condition.

“Just like I thought, everything is fine. You just screwed up,”Mike spat out as he turned away. The others followed Mike’s lead and headed off.

Johnny felt horrible. He put his vehicle in gear and drove away. ‘I know I put the park brake on’ he thought to himself. ‘didn’t I’ he was starting to doubt himself.

He drove home to reflect on what had transpired that day. He called Roy later on to see if Roy had any theories on what else could have happened to cause the accident.

Joanne DeSoto answered the phone.

“Hi, Johnny”, she said warmly. “I heard about your little accident. Sorry Roy isn’t here. He and Mike went to get some estimates on fixing his truck. Mike wants it fixed as soon as possible,” she said.

“Oh ok. No problem. Guess I will see him at work,” he said, hanging up.

No one called Johnny over the two days off. He stuck to home at his ranch, working on some damaged fences.

When it was time for the next shift he hoped that everyone had settled down from the little accident he had with Mike’s truck. When he walked into the station he was surprised to see the locker room empty already. He looked at his watch, ‘I’m not late’ he thought to himself.

He finished dressing and headed to the kitchen to grab a coffee. He found everyone sitting and looking at some papers Mike was reading.

“Morning,” Johnny said, warmly.

No one answered his friendly greeting. He frowned and headed to the coffee pot. He filled his cup and went to sit down. Mike looked at him with a dirty look and said, “here are the estimates for the repairs. I expect them to be taken care of right away. No excuses,” he said testily, as he pushed some papers in John’s direction.

“No problem, Mike. I will get a hold of my insurance agent today,” he said, grabbing the papers.

Captain Stanley stuck his head in the door and called Roll Call.

Everyone lined up and the shift officially began.

“Morning, Men. Quiet day today, so lots of chores to get caught up on. Stoker, you get cooking and the kitchen, Kelly, Dayroom, DeSoto, you get the dorms, Lopez, you can do air bottle checks and clean the apparatus bay. Gage, since we know you need things that are simple to focus on you can do the latrine, and when you are done with that there is some hose that needs hanging. See if you can pay attention enough to get it done,” he said tersely.

“Dismissed,” Cap said, heading back to his office.

Johnny shook his head. This was getting carried away. He went to find Roy to talk to him but found his partner already working on the squad inventory.

“Roy, got a minute?” Johnny began.

“What Johnny,” Roy said, not looking up from the drug box he was reviewing.

“This is crazy around here. It was a little accident. I’ll get Mike’s truck fixed. Why am I being treated like a leper," he complained.

“Obviously you were too busy planning to show off at the rappelling exercise to pay attention to what you were doing,” Roy said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“But, Roy,” Johnny began.

“Look, Johnny, I have work to do and I know you do too. Let’s just stick to that today okay?” he said, cutting off his partner’s protests.

Johnny turned to head back to the latrine. He was actually grateful for the isolation that cleaning the latrine provided. He thought back to the training exercise day. ‘I know I put that brake on. I remember doing it’ he thought to himself. ‘too bad no one will listen to me’ he shook his head dejected.

The squad was called out several times over the course of the day. The engine accompanied them on a few occasions as well. The crew spoke to Johnny when it was necessary in the course of a rescue, but other than that, he was completely tuned out.

When he was at the station he decided to just stay by himself. He was tired of people walking away every time he walked in the room. He took his meals and ate them out the back of the station. ‘I can’t believe how mad everyone is. This is ridiculous’ he said to himself, very down cast.

Finally the shift was over. He was in a hurry to get out of there. He had 2 days off and he needed to get a way for a bit.

He rushed home and grabbed his camping gear. He was going to go to one of his favourite camping spots in the mountains. He was on his way within a couple hours. He drove for over an hour, finally pulling off the main highway and onto an old gravel road. He traveled for another 45 minutes. He was exhausted from the long sleepless night he had just worked. He decided to grab some shut eye in his rover before he set up his camp. He pulled his vehicle off the road and turned it off. He was on an incline so he carefully set the park brake and pulled his jacket up around his shoulders as he fell asleep.

He slept soundly for over 2 hours, only waking when he felt the vehicle jerk. He wasn’t awake enough to realize the rover had started to roll down the embankment. By the time he was alert enough to know what was happening, his vehicle was out of control. His Rover flew down the hill, picking up speed as it went. He frantically tried to slow down the vehicle but the momentum of the downward slope made that impossible. It finally came to rest at the bottom of the ravine, as it solidly hit an old elm tree.

Johnny was slammed back against the door and his head his the window hard. The last thing he thought of before his world went black was remembering that he set the park brake.

The place where Johnny’s vehicle careened down the hill was a pretty remote area, not traveled very often. He remembered waking once, squinting to figure out where he was. As he tried to shake off the dizziness, he was hit with a sharp pain in his side. He winced as he looked down and saw part of the dashboard pushed into his right side. “gee, Gage, you sure made a mess of this one,” he laughed to himself as he tried to even out his jagged breaths.

The time dragged on for the injured paramedic. Night time arrived and he was no closer to rescue than he was 8 hours earlier when the accident occurred. He kept dozing between conscious and unconsciousness. He knew he had a head injury and had to stay awake but the pain in his side made that simple feat almost impossible.

The night passed and the next day crawled on. By late that afternoon, Johnny had resigned himself to the fact that he was going to die at the bottom of the ravine. He was having trouble waking himself up and knew it was only a matter of time. He finally felt the fight leave his body and he gave into the blackness for the last time.

He didn’t remember the hikers finding him. He wasn’t aware of the frantic life flight to Rampart Emergency or the life and death battle being raged by Dr. Brackett.

When Johnny’s stretcher was rolled into the Emergency Department Kel Brackett was shocked to see his friend in such bad shape.

He taxed all his resources to fight to save his life. Johnny was barely hanging on when his crew mates started arriving at the hospital.

Despite the fact that they were annoyed at him because of the vehicle accident, they didn’t want to see him hurt.

Roy was the first to arrive, as he worriedly looked for information on his injured friend.

He saw Dixie coming out of a treatment room and rushed to her side.

“How is Johnny?” he asked anxiously.

“Barely hanging on. He has multiple rib fractures. He has a lacerated liver that is going to require surgery to close. He had hypothermia upon arrival and we are still working to warm him up. The blood loss from his liver laceration is pretty bad so we are working to get his fluids up. He is shocky and unstable. The biggest concern is his concussion. He hasn’t regained consciousness since he came in. He isn’t reacting to painful stimuli at all,” she said, as she headed back into the treatment room.

Roy was stunned. He headed to the doctor’s lounge to grab a coffee and wait for more news. Within 20 minutes all the members of the A Shift were sitting around the table nursing a coffee they didn’t want.

“What happened?” Chet asked, looking at Roy.

“I have no idea. I just know he was in an accident at Bear Paw Mountain. Some hikers found him. I have no other information,” Roy said, shaking his head.

Soon Officer Vince Howard found the anxious group.

“Vince, you have any idea what happened?” Roy asked, trying to figure out what put his best friend in the hospital.

“Near as we can tell his Rover rolled down the hill to the bottom of the ravine. You should see it. It’s a mess. We have our inspectors checking over his vehicle to see what could have caused the accident. At this time we just don’t know,” he said, honestly.

“Could he have forgot to set the brake again?” Marco asked, saying out loud, what everyone was thinking.

“That’s a possibility. It would explain how the vehicle ended up at the bottom of the ravine with no keys in the ignition," he theorized.

“Damn it,Gage, not again,” Stoker cursed quietly to himself.

“We’ll let you know what we find,” Vince said, putting his empty coffee cup in the sink. “Keep me posted on how Johnny is doing, okay?” he said, heading out.

The wait continued on. Finally 6 hours later, Dr. Brackett walked in still in his surgical scrubs. When he opened the lounge door everyone jumped to their feet.

“Doc how is he doing?” Roy asked anxiously.

“He is still alive. That’s about the best I can tell you at this moment,” he said, cautiously. "We were able to control the internal bleeding and set his separated shoulder. He has 4 broken ribs that we have wrapped and should heal fine. We are very guarded about his condition. The concussion was very severe. The x-rays and Cat Scan showed no inter-cranial swelling which is encouraging. The longer he stays unconscious the worse things are going to be. It’s just a waiting game now,” he said, somberly

Once Johnny was settled in the ICU, the waiting began. His fellow crew mates came to sit with him one by one, talking to him. He was unresponsive to everyone. He was still and lifeless. It was an eerie sight that was in stark contrast to the hyperactive over grown kid they were used to.

Mike took his turn sitting beside his still crew mate. “Damn, Johnny, how could you be so careless?” Mike admonished. “This whole thing could have been avoided,” he said, frustrated.

Johnny didn’t hear anything. His coma was so deep he was oblivious to anything around him. He just remained still and unresponsive.

Each man was thinking the same thing. If Gage had only been more careful he wouldn’t have ended up in this mess.

The crew was back on duty the next day. They were forced to head home and get some rest. It was a long sleepless night for them as they worried about their injured colleague.

The shift the next day dragged on endlessly. Dixie had promised a phone call if there was any news. The silence of the phone was deafening to them all. They were almost hoping for a busy shift to keep their minds occupied.

As they sat around the table drinking coffee they finally started to talk about what was bugging them all.

“I can’t believe this happened. Gage knows better than to park on an incline and not put his park brake on,” Marco said, perturbed.

“I know, it’s just so senseless. He could be here at work but because of his carelessness he’s fighting for his life. How irresponsible,” Chet agreed.

The others also shared their frustration over the apparent cause of the accident.

The shift mercifully ended and they were able to go back to the hospital and check on their friend.

Dr. Brackett met them as they walked in. “Sorry, guys, no change,” he said, discouraged. “We were hoping to see some improvement by now. I guess its just up to him now, isn’t it?”

“We want to sit with him, is that okay?” Roy asked.

“Sure maybe it will do him good to hear some encouraging words. There is a lot of studies done that say coma patients respond to encouraging and soothing words. I’m sure you guys have been already doing that, but continuing it could definitely help,” Dr. Brackett said, and then headed off.

Each man felt a little guilty. They really hadn’t been the most encouraging bunch when they saw Johnny. They were all annoyed as hell about the cause of the accident. Just as they headed down the hall to Johnny’s room, they saw Vince Howard heading their way.

“Want to join me for a coffee? I have some interesting news for you all,” he said, turning towards the lounge.

The five of them followed him into the room. After pouring a round of coffee for everyone, Vince sat down.

“Well we have determined the cause of the accident,” he began.

“Park brake, right?” Mike said.

“Yes it was, but not what you think,” Vince said, sipping his coffee.

“What do you mean?” Roy asked.

“We found a defect in the park brake cable. The brake had been set but the defective section of the cable wasn’t allowing it to lock into place. The driver would never know it wasn’t set properly,” he explained.

“What?” five voices shouted at once. “You mean he did set the brake but it was a mechanical problem?” Roy said, his voice rising.

“That’s right. Apparently there was a bad batch of brake cables manufactured a few years back. The company tried to contact all the buyers but it was impossible. I’m sure Johnny had no idea there was something wrong with his brake cable,” Vince concluded.

“Oh man,” Mike muttered under his breath.

“I have to see Johnny,” Roy said, quickly jumping up from his seat. He took off down the hall to his friend’s room. He was followed quickly be the rest of the crew.

They all felt horrible that they had jumped to conclusions without waiting for the facts.

They kept up a vigil at Johnny’s bedside. Pleading for him to wake up. Apologizing for their actions. They just wanted him to wake up.

24 hours later as Roy and Mike were sitting beside Johnny’s bed he began to come around.

“Mike,” he mumbled as he saw his engineer sitting beside his bed.

“Johnny,” Mike said back, the relief in his voice.

Roy was immediately on his feet moving closer to the bed.

“Welcome back, Junior. You scared the heck out of us,” he said, putting a supporting hand on Johnny’s shoulder.

“Roy,” Johnny croaked out, his voice very weak from his long bout of unconsciousness.

“Take it easy, Johnny. There is lots of time to talk,” Roy replied.

Mike pushed the call button and within a few minutes Dr. Brackett was in the room. He ushered everyone out to give Johnny a quick exam. When he allowed them back in he gave the 5 men some very encouraging news.

“His responses all look good. That’s a very good sign. I think he will become more alert over the next 12 hours or so. I think he is going to be okay,” he said, wiping his brow.

There was a collective sigh of relief.

Over the next 12 hours or so, Johnny was never alone as they watched him become more and more alert to his surrounds. Finally he was able to remain awake longer than a few minutes.

“I want to know what happened?” he asked.

Roy was elected to let him know. Roy told him about his accident and the park brake flaw. Johnny just listened without saying a word. He watched the faces of his fellow crewmates.

“Johnny, I’m sorry about doubting you about setting the park brake the day you accidentally hit my truck,” Mike said, guiltily.

“Don’t worry about it, Mike. I’m glad it clears up the confusion," he said, grinning warmly.

"How can you be so forgiving? We cut you off. Shut you out and were down right nasty after the accident?” Chet asked, curious why Johnny was being so gracious.

“Well, Chet, I figured you were all a little perturbed already after the training exercises so the accident just added fuel to the fire, so to speak. Besides considering everything that has happened, no point in dwelling on it. After all, them's the brakes,” he said laughing, lightly. In typical Gage fashion he had shrugged it off and forgiven them.

Each man looked at Johnny a little different after that day. They were a little more tolerant, a little more respectful and above all they all accepted the fact that Johnny could climb circles around them. But then again, he always could.