The whore...

sat on the bed, the capillary ooze seeping from the abrasions on her arm, legs and her back. She was lucky, this whore. Lucky for an unlucky person. She was lucky the guy who picked her up didn't kill her right away, but tried to fuck with her before really hurting her. The two punches to her head served more to put her into survival mode instead of intimidating her. When the gun appeared, it was the triggering event for her to jump from the car and abrade her skin on the pavement as she slid across it.

Perhaps if it had been winter she would have had more clothing on, as it was a warm evening, she was in shorts and a skimpy top. Neither offered her skin any protection from the asphalt.

The leap from the car could have killed her, but yet luck intervened again and she survived her escape attempt. Two brushes with death in a few, short minutes, both with outcomes more or less in her favor.

Despite her severe road rash, black eye, lumpy skull and overall pain, she did not want to go with us. She knew she was a likely candidate for debridement and wanted no part of the experience. Despite our insistence that she allow us to take her to the hospital, she refused. As she was of sound mind, we had no choice but to abide by her wishes. She signed our form and we left.

Three days later, I pull an overtime across town. It was just before bedtime and we pull a run at an apartment complex for a person who had been in an accident a few days prior and was complaining of pain. No way, I thought to myself, it can't be.

It was. The whore was now laid out on her bed, wearing only panties. The abrasions on her extremities and her body were still oozing, but now raw, red and swollen.  The pain was too much, she told us. Her attempts at self medication,  using recreational drugs and alcohol, were unsuccessful. Now, she wanted to go to the hospital, we were happy to oblige.

None of us envied her immediate future, the thought of her wounds being cleaned and scrubbed with a stiff brush was more than I wanted to visualize. We placed a moist sterile sheet over her and transported her to the hospital.

She was still upset about the event that was causing her pain. The idea of nearly being murdered and of being fearful enough to throw herself from a moving car was nearly as traumatic as her injuries. Both will leave scars on an already scarred individual.

We could only hope that the trauma was enough to cause her to find another line of work.

*****

Whore. A gritty word describing a gritty lifestyle. It was not meant to minimize her humanity.

*****

Memory is a funny thing. I hadn't thought about this call for years. I saw something on TV and it all came back to me. Odd.

Thanks for reading,
Schmoe