...at the restaurant, the owner calls me, out the back door, there's something going wrong at the mall next door...
A man, older, late 40's, early 50's, staggering, falling against the wall, attempting to open the door of the dollar shop, failing, can't stand...
"Is he on drugs?" the owner laughs, but he's concerned, and I reassure him probably not, I'm the willfully blind, don't want to see what is clear, I excuse it, he's handicapped, don't want to be too quick to judge, maybe cerebral palsy, something else, but he's trying, trying again to get into the dollar store, to stand, to fall, he's not succeeding.
We go over to check it out. The Nephew and I. He's standing, lurching, teetering, toppling, eyes rolled back in his head, only the whites, jumping, shouting, unintelligible, nonsense in cave-man speak, jump, fall, recover, repeat...
The owner of the shop, he's called 911, they're giving him the gears...
...meanwhile, the nephew and I look for a friend, we find him, around the corner, short, portly bald man in a track suit, head to toe in bad tattoos, "Is that your friend...?" we ask, he comes round the corner, looks aghast at his mate, "Somebody must have spiked his drink.." he tells us, then yells at his buddy "Snap out of it mate! Snap out of it!".
"Should we call an ambulance?" we ask, we already have, he says no, he's clutching his own drink in a McDonald's cup, won't let it go, he's fumbling with his phone, tells us he's gonna call a cab...
The owner of the dollar shop is having no luck with the 911 operator, it's 5:00 on a Friday night, cars are backed up Center Street, there are no cops in sight, the liquor store parking lot is full, he puts me on with the 911 operator. "Can I get a description of the suspects..?" she begins, I comply, but there's no danger either of these guys are going anywhere, the first one now is lying on the snow in the parking lot, spit and vomit around his mouth, eyes rolled back in his head, breathing shallow, snoring loudly, his mate, his has just kicked in, he's still trying to pick up his phone, he's made it to the bus shelter and dropped his phone and despite numerous attempts just can't seem to pick it up, reaching, missing, reaching, missing, he's clumsy as all fuck but for some reason is clinging to the McDonald's cup, won't let it go, the 911 operator is clarifying lots of irrelevant information, she's unable to deviate from the script, it's an OD, probably Naxalone would be a good idea, she's wanting more information, in case they up and leave, nothing important, merely the keep the caller on the line until the police arrive...
The police, one officer, short, pulls up in the parking lot, probably a 10 minute response time, brushes us off, the owners of the dollar shop are trying to make the man down comfortable with a blanket, I wave them off, he's too far gone, won't notice a thing, the police officer gets on his phone, shares no information about what he suspects the OD to be, merely ignores everyone, when they offer to assist him he tells us to keep an eye on buddy, buddy in the bus shelter still trying to pick up his phone, buddy isn't going anywhere, even if he could pick it up, dial a cab, no one would give him a ride, he's OD'ing as well...
Another police car, an ambulance, buddy on the ground takes an hour in the ambulance to be stabilized, the police load up after a long persuasion buddy in the bus shelter, no feedback for the callers, the owners of the dollar store or myself, merely cops being cops...