Touch of Death by Kelly Hashway

bent down and listened for sounds of breathing. She pressed two fingers to the side of his neck. “Call 911 and have Helen get me the AED now.” I grabbed my cell from my back pocket, but Nurse Bennett pointed to the phone on the wall. “Use the landline.” I grabbed it and dialed.
    “911. What is your emergency?”
    “Dr. Alvarez collapsed. I think he had a heart attack. We’re at the clinic on Seventh Street. Nurse Bennett said they’re going to use something called an AED.” I had no idea what that was.
    “Foxmoor Clinic on Seventh Street?”
    “Yes. Please, send someone,” I pleaded before hanging up the phone.
    “What can I do?” I asked.
    “Jodi, please go in the waiting room. I need room to operate the AED.” Her voice was calm and composed, as Helen rushed in with what looked like a black box in both hands. She must have overheard Nurse Bennett ask for the AED.
    I nodded and stepped around her. Melodie was reading a magazine, completely oblivious to what was going on. “Hey, did you know eating corn makes your stomach look fat?” she blurted the second she saw me. She flipped the page before doing a double take in my direction.
    I broke down, tears streaming down my face.
    Melodie put the magazine aside. “What happened? Do you have to get rabies shots? They don’t have to amputate your hand or anything, do they?”
    I grabbed a tissue from the receptionist desk. “It’s Dr. Alvarez. He collapsed. I think he had a heart attack.”
    “Seriously?” Melodie asked. “Like an actual heart attack?”
    I nodded and threw my tissue in the garbage. “I called 911. Nurse Bennett is trying to help him.”
    “Come, sit down.” Melodie patted the seat next to her. I didn’t want to talk anymore. It was way too scary. Melodie seemed to sense that because, for once, she wasn’t grilling me with questions.
    We sat there in silence, watching the paramedics rush into the waiting room. I pointed to the examination room. “He’s back there.” Two of them went on ahead while the third, a guy in his twenties, held back for a minute.
    “Everyone okay out here?”
    “Yeah. Shaken up, but okay. I was with him when it happened.”
    “Can you tell me exactly what happened? How he acted? What he did?”
    More questions. Everyone kept asking me to relive the scariest moments in my life.
    “I’m sorry,” he said. “I know this is tough, but anything you can tell me may help save his life.”
    I took at deep breath and swallowed hard. “He was putting a new bandage on my finger and I bled on him, so he went to the sink to clean it off, and then he started to choke. He reached for his chest and fell to the floor.” I was breathing heavily, but managed to hold back the tears.
    The paramedic nodded. “Thank you.” He stood up, probably to join the others in the back room, but Helen came into the waiting room. Her face was blank. We stared at her, waiting for the word on Dr. Alvarez. She shook her head and stepped aside as the paramedics wheeled a stretcher into the back room. The silence was deafening. A few minutes later, the paramedics brought the bed back out, but this time there was a covered body lying on it.
    “He’s dead.” I barely recognized my own voice.



Chapter 9
    The paramedic we’d been talking to practically pushed us out the door. If he was worried about us being traumatized at the sight of a dead body, he was a little late. I’d seen more dead bodies in the past couple days than a mortician. The deer—I still swore he’d been dead—the rat, the squirrel, and now Dr. Alvarez. But I still let him usher us outside. I had to practically beg him to let us go home on our own. He wanted us to call a cab or one of our parents, but neither Mel nor I had money on us and our parents were working. I didn’t want to give the paramedic time to change his mind, so we hopped into Melodie’s car and got out of there.
    Melodie was in a daze and not paying much attention to anything. I didn’t have