Paint Me True by E.M. Tippetts

sitting room before she doubled over. I nearly dropped her, but managed to help her lower herself down to the floor. She curled up, shoulders pressed to her knees. The fingers of one hand clenched her clothes in a white knuckled grip. The other hand, with its arm still in the splint, was balled into a fist.
    “Aunt Nora?”
    “Just never you mind Louisa.”
    “Yeah, I wasn’t thinking about her just now. What’s the emergency number?”
    “No, don’t bother them with-”
    “What is it, Aunt Nora?” I made my tone as firm as I could and cursed myself for not knowing the answer already. If I was going to look after her, I needed to be ready for things like this... whatever this was.
    “Nine... nine... nine,” she said between gasps.
    I helped her lay down on her side on the carpet and scrambled for the phone. Seconds later I heard an almost bored voice say, “Emergency services?”
    “Hi, my aunt’s in severe pain. I’m not sure what’s wrong, but she can’t even walk.”
    “No x-rays,” said my aunt.
    I tried to keep my attention on the emergency operator, who double checked our address. “Now, are you certain you couldn’t drive her?” he asked.
    “I don’t drive over here.”
    “Get a taxi?”
    “Are you kidding me?”
    “It’s just that we don’t like to send out ambulances if we can avoid it. They’re quite costly-”
    “She’s got private insurance and is lying on the floor, unable to move. Get one out here now!”
    “Right. One moment.”
    It was all I could do not to bash the phone against the counter top. My aunt looked so small and her shoulders were shaking. I didn’t know if this was tears or tremors or convulsions of pain.
    “One should be there shortly.”
    “Thank you.”
    Aunt Nora cried out again and I flew to her side. “Help’s coming,” I said. “Just try to relax.” I cast about for something, anything to make her more comfortable and seized upon the throw pillows on the couch. I packed one underneath her back and tucked the other under her head.
    “I just don’t want x-rays,” she whispered. “Or scans or-”
    “Listen to me. First we’re going to get you to an emergency room, and then we’re going to talk to a doctor, and we’re going to do whatever needs-”
    She cried out again and tears ran from her eyes. One splashed off the tip of her nose and the other drew a line of mascara across her temple. I hadn’t noticed that she’d put on makeup that morning. I moved to wring my hands and noticed that I still held the phone. For one hazy moment I wondered if I’d hung up or if the operator were still on the line, but the sound of the doorbell startled me into tossing it onto the couch and dashing out into the entry way.
    The paramedics, two men built like linebackers with a rolling stretcher between them, followed my lead. At the sight of Nora, on the floor, they both knelt down. “Hello?” said one. “Can you hear us?”
    My aunt nodded, but didn’t open her eyes.
    “Where do you hurt? Your belly there?”
    Another nod.
    “Can we feel?” He moved to straighten her legs away from her torso, but she screeched so loud that I clapped my hands over my ears.
    “Right, I can’t tell if the abdomen’s distended-”
    “Yeah, we just need to load her up.”
    The collapsed the stretcher so that it was low enough for them to hoist my aunt onto it without much effort. They raised it up again and I followed them as they rolled it down the hall.
    “She’s got private insurance,” I babbled. “That affect which hospital she goes to?”
    “Not when she’s like this,” said one. “We’ll take her to the closest.”
    “Right,” said the other one. “You want to ride in the ambulance, or you going to make your own way there?”
    “I’ll come with you if that’s okay?” I was at my wits end, but I did remember to close and lock the door.

T he emergency room throbbed with noise and activity. Sounds ricocheted off the cheap industrial tile floor and