...that means the person inside has died, right?
I found a collapsed guy on the corner of the street on the way home tonight. I pulled my earphones out and asked him if he was alright, to which he opened his eyes and shook his head. He wrung his eyelids heavily under his spectacles and I could see the beads of sweat on his forhead. I asked what happened, and he managed to speak: "I don't know. I took some tablets... God I feel ill. I feel like I'm dying." I told him I was going next door to the pub for help and as I came back out with the barmaid (side-note: I hate that word) and at least one other lady, a couple in a car pulled up and the guy got out.
One of the ladies from the pub said he actually lived in the house he had collapsed outside and that they knew he was on medication. The guy from the car dialed 999 on his mobile phone and another stranger appeared, knealt down next to the guy and asked him how his breathing was and kept him talking. Oh yeah, first aid. I forgot that {bleep}. I realised my presence was surplus to requirements at that point and headed for home. A couple of minutes later I heard the ambulance siren sweep across the horizon and apparently come to a halt (although I thought it was customary to switch the siren off while the ambulance is stationary, it didn't pause but the volume and phase stopped shifting.) As I approached the hill to my house, the siren became more frantic for half a minute and then stopped altogether. I'd like to think they were out of the traffic, but "rush hour" lasts two or three here. My mum always used to say that when a moving ambulance's siren stops, the person inside has died.
:-(
