20 Feb '16 14:19>2 edits
I was awoken by a knocking sound on my door at 3am Friday morning. It was one of those instances when you are caught between consciousness and sleep and are not entirely sure if it was real or you dreamed it. Then again, much more distinct.
I descended the stairs to the hall and opened the door. To my complete astonishment there was a women writhing in a foetal position on my driveway earnestly petitioning me to phone an ambulance as she was dying. Again because of the urgency of the event which rapidly unfolds one is caught for a moment almost mesmerised by the gravity of the situation and the surreality of the scene. I recognised her as the young women who lives two houses along from me. I literally had my thumb on the 9 to dial the emergency UK code of 999 when her partner appeared and beckoned her to lift herself from the monoblock and come home. I asked him if she was ok and he replied that she was drunk.
Now this is the strange part. She did not appear to me to be drunk, but in some distress and pain. The knock on my door was measured, at first a gentle knock and when there was no perceived reaction, a little more forceful. That appears to me to be someone in their senses and conscious of what they are doing. Someone who was drunk would simply bash the door.
Secondly when one is drunk one tends to feel no pain, copious lashings of alcohol deadens pain, this women was clearly in some kind of pain. Furthermore she was not lounging around uncontrollably but was crouched, foetal position holding her abdomen. At the time I simply took his word for it but in retrospect I am not entirely convinced. But what to do? A very strange experience indeed.
I descended the stairs to the hall and opened the door. To my complete astonishment there was a women writhing in a foetal position on my driveway earnestly petitioning me to phone an ambulance as she was dying. Again because of the urgency of the event which rapidly unfolds one is caught for a moment almost mesmerised by the gravity of the situation and the surreality of the scene. I recognised her as the young women who lives two houses along from me. I literally had my thumb on the 9 to dial the emergency UK code of 999 when her partner appeared and beckoned her to lift herself from the monoblock and come home. I asked him if she was ok and he replied that she was drunk.
Now this is the strange part. She did not appear to me to be drunk, but in some distress and pain. The knock on my door was measured, at first a gentle knock and when there was no perceived reaction, a little more forceful. That appears to me to be someone in their senses and conscious of what they are doing. Someone who was drunk would simply bash the door.
Secondly when one is drunk one tends to feel no pain, copious lashings of alcohol deadens pain, this women was clearly in some kind of pain. Furthermore she was not lounging around uncontrollably but was crouched, foetal position holding her abdomen. At the time I simply took his word for it but in retrospect I am not entirely convinced. But what to do? A very strange experience indeed.