A Twist Of Noir 445 - Stephen D. Rogers

TRAUMA - STEPHEN D. ROGERS

All those drug-dealing gangbangers are only part of the problem. They’re a self-correcting population: fights over territory, fights over imagined slights, fights over real slights, fights that result from ripping each other off, fights that result from someone trying to get ahead, fights that result from someone trying to build a reputation. They don’t lack excuses to shoot each other.

That’s why they’re only part of the problem. This group here, they’re the real threat.

From the table on my right: “You can’t feed five or six off a whole chicken the way you could years ago. And I’m using all the meat. How do you explain that?”

From the table on my left: “Anybody have any trash? I’m taking my tray up. Any trash?”

From the table in front of me: “She’s adorable. Your first grandchild? What’s her name?”

These people are the real enemy, and they’re celebrated for saving the lives of the dealers who should be left to bleed out.

Maybe if the doctors and nurses and aides weren’t so busy helping some piece of scum, they might have been able to respond more effectively when Jenny overdosed.

But they don’t care.

They sit here in their white jackets, their baby blue and pastel green uniforms, and they chatter and laugh.

They laugh. My daughter is powdered ash in an urn, and they laugh.

Let’s see just how effective a trauma response team they are when the monsters who render treatment are the ones lying broken in pieces on the floor.

BIO: Stephen D. Rogers is the author of SHOT TO DEATH and more than 600 shorter pieces. His website, Stephen D. Rogers, includes a list of new and upcoming titles as well as other timely information.