MODERN FABLES, Helpful, Ch. 12, The Almost Kiss

 CHAPTER 12: THE ALMOST KISS

 

The score was tied in the last half of the last inning for Eddie Gomez’s baseball team. Bases were loaded, Eddie at bat. The pitcher’s fastball came toward Eddie, who tried to get out of the way but was hit smack in the middle of his chest. Down he went.

 

The umpire signaled for Eddie to go to first base because the pitch hit him, and the runners all advanced a base, forcing home the winning run. The few fans went wild, or at least showed some enthusiasm. Eddie stayed on the ground, moving but quiet.

 

Tess ran over to Eddie. “Are you OK?”

 

No answer. Little movement. Tess looked closely at his face and saw that his lips were changing color. She yelled, “Call 911! Call 911! He’s not breathing!”

 

Tess, a fireman’s daughter, knew CPR. Tess rolled Eddie onto his back, put one of her hands behind the other, and pumped his chest: about 100 compressions per minute, hard and fast, as her father had taught her.

He was still not breathing. Tess bent over him, pinched his nose closed, covered his open mouth with hers, and breathed strongly into him. His chest rose, then fell. She did this a second time, then performed another set of chest pumps. The third time she started to breathe into Eddie’s mouth, he coughed and started breathing on his own!

 

Tess started crying, and Eddie took her hand. “I’m OK. I’m OK. Thank you. Thank you. You saved my life!” And so she had.

 

The Emergency Medical Services ambulance arrived a few minutes later, with Tess’s father and his partner. When they heard what had happened, they talked with Eddie and checked Eddie’s vital signs, then congratulated Tess on her swift and skilled CPR.

 

Eddie’s mother and father, Sergeant and Mrs. Gomez, came to visit Tess and her family, thanking her over and over again for saving Eddie’s life. They complimented her parents on what a fine young woman Tess showed herself to be.

 

Mrs. Williams replied that Eddie had proved himself worthy of their daughter’s friendship the time he walked her home when she was being bothered by some teenagers along Highland Avenue. She said that she and her husband were pleased that Tess and Eddie were good friends.

 

A reporter for the weekly paper came to the Williams home and asked Tess about the day’s event. When the paper came out on Wednesday, there were pictures of both Tess and Eddie and a headline calling her a “local heroine.” She was not sure about that, but she was certain she was happy to have been where Eddie needed her and had known what to do.

 

In the evening after that game, Tess wrote at length in her diary about what had happened: She wrote that she was glad she knew CPR and could save Eddie’s life, and…she was happy she had gotten from him, during the mouth-to-mouth part of CPR, her “almost kiss.” 

Moral: Be prepared to help!