Bright Lights and Cold Steel

By James Windale

Bright Lights and Cold Steel is a novelette based on James Windale's first novel, Twenty-Five at the Lip. Follow Richard Henry and John Davis as they run calls in Borden City in 1982 back when Bristol County EMS was still a fly-by-night ambulance company known as Pocasset Ambulance.

Bright Lights and Cold Steel was completed during the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in 2015.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Windale
• Release date: Mar 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370385737

James Windale

James Windale is an author and paramedic, most known for his EMS novel "Twenty-Five at the Lip." Additional novels, novellas, novelettes, and short stories include "Tuesday's Gone," "Just Say Maybe," "Emily's Mother," and "The Delirium: A Zombie Opera of the Great War" which he co-authored with Jeremy Brinkett.

Book preview

BRIGHT LIGHTS

AND

COLD STEEL

A

TWENTY-FIVE AT THE LIP

NOVELETTE BY

JAMES WINDALE

Bright Lights and Cold Steel copyright © 2016 by James Windale

Cover art copyright © 2016 by James Windale

Smashwords Edition © 2017 by James Windale

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

CONTENTS

ALSO BY JAMES WINDALE

SPECIAL THANKS TO

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MORE JAMES WINDALE

For Christy Vogel…

Also by James Windale

Twenty-Five at the Lip

Tuesday’s Gone

Just Say Maybe

Emily’s Mother

With Jeremy Brinkett

The Delirium: A Zombie Opera of the Great War

In Another Life

SPECIAL THANKS TO

Liz Millar

G and The EMS Lounge

Abby Williamson

Meg McGinity

Brendan Pitts

and

Courtney Garrity

This story takes place in 1982…

Chapter 1

Ain’t that a shame? Richard Henry muttered to himself turning the wheel past the old church on Bedard Street. The Cadillac’s serpentine belt was squealing, and the owner-operator, John Davis, snoozing beside him snorted awake.

Hmm? What? John asked. Richard pointed his thumb at the Lady of Perpetual Mercy Church that had caught fire the week before. The diocese had been refurbishing the structure when a fire broke out. The high winds had kicked the flames into high gear, and the Borden City Fire Department had called all hands as well as mutual aid from Segregansett and Ocean Grove. Richard had been manning the wheel of the Cadillac that day, and John had called all five of Pocasset Ambulance’s units to the scene to stand by.

At twenty-seven Richard knew that this would be one of the biggest fires he'd ever respond to, but he felt a sense of loss at not being on the line when Ocean Grove's mutual aid arrived to cover the rear of the block from the exposure of the expanding fire. Several tenement houses had caught across the street, and Ocean Grove's two engines and the ladder truck were kept busy protecting the adjacent structures from the raging fire.

The church, Richard said. All those homes.

John brushed off the remnants of the blueberry muffin he’d been eating that morning from his shirt. The khaki shirt, black tie, and pants had earned more than a few comments about whether P ocasset Ambulance was actually working emergency medical treatment and transport in Borden City, or if they were planning on invading Poland. John Davis had ignored the comments, having received a compliment about the uniforms from an administrator at Borden City General Hospital. They were looked on more favorably than the white shirt and cranberry colored pants of TranStar Ambulance on the North End.

What do you care? You’re not even Catholic, John muttered, pulling the brim of his cap back down over his eyes.

Well, it's a place of worship for people. It's where they get peace, you know?

John pushed the cap up to the top of his head and stretched his back. He reached into his shirt pocket and retrieved a pack of