Chapter 32: The Emergency List

They filled the field house to the rafters, and nobody told them where to sit.

Blackridge people stood three deep along the walls, with children on their shoulders and thermoses in their hands.

The paramedics from the territory ambulance service stood in a row by the door in their navy jackets.

I held my card against my chest and had no idea what to do with my face.

The Alpha climbed onto the folding table, because there was no stage.

Dr. Lowry steadied it with one hand and looked at him over her glasses.

"I will be brief," he said.

"I came to say what the territory owes this young woman, and I find I have nothing to pay it with."

A few people laughed softly.

"So I'll say only this. The next time anyone in Blackridge calls for help, they will not wait on a desk."

He pointed at the ceiling.

"The new alert line is built on one rule.

"Nobody is downgraded because of who they are related to."

I stared at him.

"It's already on the wall of the new ward," Dr. Lowry muttered. "I had it painted."

The old woman in the front row said, loudly, "Hear, hear."

Someone started clapping again.

I escaped into the crowd.

I found my father at the very back, by the fire door.

He had come alone and stood a little apart, in his brown coat, with his hat in both hands.

He did not come toward me.

I looked across thirty feet of gym at the man who had said "Received" while I lay under a shelf.

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