This is a story of life and love. It could be the ray of light we all need to look and listen more attentively to the signals being sent out by the young people around us. It is a story about a typical young American teenager much like the one who lives next door, down the street, or in your own home. You may think you know and understand him, but do you really? Throughout his life, Jim had been the popular one, adventurous, always having friends around him. He was always well adjusted, that is at least so it seemed on the outside. In school Jim always had the satisfactory answers to his classmates' questions and sensible solutions to their problems, which of course gained their affection, respect, and trust.
Jim's story is one of tender love and heartbreaking tragedy. Jim was in love with life; held a strong love for Lenny, his brother; Sandy, his girlfriend; his parents, and his music. Jim longed to live life to the fullest!
Life is an intricately woven tapestry whose every single colorful thread contributes to its completion. When we see the beautiful threads in someone else's life becoming tangled we must take time and make an effort to untangle them before the entire creation begins to come apart.
When did everything go wrong? Where were his parents, his friends, teachers, and loved ones when he needed them most? Who could Jim turn to when the world around him began to crumble? What happened to his zest for life, that sustaining ray of hope that everyone needs in the midst of chaos and confusion? Who should have foreseen the danger, but did not? Whose apathy and indifference precipitated the disaster to a higher conscience level when a little love and understanding might have prevented our tragic story?
As the story unfolds, perhaps you will see and feel the inclinations towards self-destruction. Maybe you or someone you know and love may be the one to reach out and prevent such a disaster. Because you possess the understanding, and will not be one of the many in the crowd who utter the words, “Why, Lord, Why?” when the precious life God gave is so tragically snuffed out, like the flame of an unguarded candle. Maybe you; think of it, yes, perhaps you, can make a difference! Perhaps you can be the one to prevent someone from destroying himself. “I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly” are the words of our Lord, Life of our Life!
CHAPTER I
A typical Michigan day
It was one of those typical, unpredictable fall days in Michigan. One minute the sky is full of threatening dark streaks and you think it is ready to snow. The next minute it turns into Indian Summer with temperatures in the high 70's and the humidity reaching close to a hundred.
Rob and Steve have completed eighteen hours of their twenty-four hour shift responding to crisis calls. Ambulance crews work twenty-four hours on and forty-eight hours off. Rob has been out of the service for only four months; having been a Navy Medic he spent six years attached to a Marine battalion. He has had field experience ranging from front line “meatball” surgery to doing physicals on the new Navy recruits. After his hitch in the service Rob joined Top Ambulance Service as a paramedic. Top Ambulance Service is in the first year of a five-year contract. They have five stations strategically located throughout the country. A two-men crew, one handling all the driving and equipment, and the other a paramedic, who is in complete charge and makes all the major decisions concerning the team, maintain each particular station. Thus the tremendous responsibility regarding the balance of life depends on his skill and judgment.
This particular station was converted from an old gas station near the center of a small town. It has one bedroom with two cots, and under the cots is a large fire bell that rings when a call comes in. The bathroom is slightly larger than an average size closet. It has a small stall shower; and the paramedics and drivers could count on running out of hot water in the middle of their showers, no matter what time of day it was.
Steve's background is completely opposite that of Rob. He was never in the service and is working his was through college as an ambulance driver. He has been working for Top Ambulance Service for the past six months now. Being a college man, Steve thinks he knows everything; and periodically Rob has to keep Steve under control in a very authoritative, but understanding way. The two men work well together and perform magnificently as a team. Whenever an emergency crisis arises Steve knows that Rob is the experienced one and has complete respect for his partner's capabilities. He has seen Rob in action. Rob has been able to perform miraculously with mutilated, battered and twisted bodies they have encountered at accident scenes. On numerous occasions Steve has observed Rob saving people's lives when they had appeared to be clinically dead. Steve has said for a long time. “If I was ever the one in need of emergency help, I would be confident that everything was going to be all right if I looked up and say Rob's smiling face.”
