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“We got a call reporting a possible jumper." The captain’s filling them in on the call they're currently going to. “Hopefully this goes by faster than our other calls today.” Laurie says. “I’m so done with today”. The calls have been frustratingly long today. “Well as much as I would like to get home already, I’d be happier if we don't end up with another suicide victim.” Kyle chimes in. Charlie is barely even listening anymore. It’s been a long and exhausting shift, and she just wants to get home. And clearly, she’s not the only one.
They finally arrive on the scene, and the first thing she notices are the people recording the poor boy who is standing on the ledge of his balcony. It has always annoyed her how people’s first instinct seems to be to record whenever something like this happens. The boy clearly is going through stuff to be in this situation and people can’t seem to have enough empathy to spare him from being posted all over the internet. Convincing him not to jump won’t be easy, so they’ll need another plan to get him off the edge of the balcony.
Captain Alan Morrison is already taking control of the scene “Alright everyone, we need to get him off that edge. Laurie and Paul, you two will try and convince him by talking to him. Charlie and Kyle, you two will drop from the roof to push him off the ledge onto the balcony.” Everyone quickly grabs what they need and start entering the building. In 5 minutes, Charlie made it to the roof and set up the winch and Kyle started to lower himself off the roof. Charlie’s not sure what Laurie and Paul are telling the boy that they have kept him from jumping this long. Although she shouldn’t be too surprised, since in most cases suicide victims claim they regretted it the second they did it. The poor boy probably doesn’t want to die, he’s just too tired to keep living.
She’s trying her best to understand what’s happening down there, she knows for a fact she won’t fully relax till she’s sure the boy’s safe. A few minutes go by which seems to feel like eternity, but eventually Charlie hears a thud which sounds like the boy falling back onto the balcony. She can’t even begin to express how relieved she is. She would not want to end this already hell of a shift with a bad call.
After finally getting home she just lays down on the couch and she’s about to fall asleep when her phone rings. It’s Natalie. At first Charlie considers just hanging up and going back to sleep, but honestly, she thinks it would be really nice to talk to her after the shift she just had. She presses the green button and raises the phone to her ear. “Hey, what’s up?” She doesn’t bother trying to hide the tiredness in her voice. “Hey, sorry did I wake you? I thought you’d still be awake right now.” Charlie glances at the clock: 20:23. “Yea, I am. I just had a long shift. Why’d you call? Everything alright?” They’ve been friends for at least 5 years now and are very close, so they tend to call about anything and everything. “Yep, I just wanted to let you know we finally closed that missing womans case. Turns out the wife had faked her kidnapping.” Since they both work as first responders, they love sharing their more crazier calls or cases. “Wait really?” She could swear she hears Natalie nodding. “Yep! Turns out she was cheating on the husband, and had her secret boyfriend fake the kidnapping so they could use the ransom money to run away and start a new life together.” She takes a moment before announcing “And it was your girl here, that cracked the case.”
“Well congratulations, Sherlock.” Charlie says it with sarcasm, but she is genuinely happy for her. “Why thank you, fire fighter. But anyways, what happened on your shift that got you so tired?”
“What didn’t happen, should be the question. It was a crazy shift.” Crazy is an understatement.
“Calls were basically non-stop, and each call was more insane than the last one” Charlie then starts talking about all the weird calls she had. Natalie listens and gives quick replies to let her know she’s paying attention and keeps the conversation going. Eventually they start talking about non-work-related topics and before they know it its midnight.
“Alright well I should probably head to bed. I still have a shift tomorrow.” Natalie’s the one to end the conversation. ”Right, I should probably get some rest too. Talk to you tomorrow?”
“Of course. Night Charlie!”
“Good night, Nat.”
Charlie hangs up and puts the phone down. She’s glad she doesn’t have a shift tomorrow, because she wants nothing but to sleep for hours. And before she knows it, she drifts off to sleep.
The alarm rings. It’s the classic alarm sound for iPhones. The sound is so annoying, but it’s the only thing able to convince Nat to get out of bed so she keeps it. She lost track of time yesterday talking to Charlie and thanks to that she feels exhausted. She’ll need a lot of coffee if she wants to make it through the shift.
She’s late to work, because she fell asleep on the couch after telling herself she’s just going to lay down for a second. “Nice of you to finally show up to work. What’s your excuse officer?” Sergeant Melanie Grant greets her. “Sorry sarge, I slept through the alarm.” Not a complete lie. “Won’t happen again!” At least she hopes so. “Alright, go get dressed. We don’t have any new cases at the moment so we’re going on patrol.”
“Got it, sarge. I’ll be quick.” she yells out as she’s half running, half walking towards the dressing room. She gets ready quickly, as she said she would and gets in the car.
Not much happens on her shift. It’s mostly speeders and separating people during road rage. Probably a good thing since they’re probably the only jobs she can do well while she’s this tired. The shift goes by quickly and soon she’s already back home. She lives in a small apartment, that’s made for one person to live in.
She decides to take a nap, but of course the second she lies down all the tiredness leaves her body, and she suddenly needs something to do. She decides to go on a run. She ties up her long black hair in a ponytail, preps up her playlist and leaves her apartment. Bad omens by 5 seconds of summer blasting from her headphones. She used to go on walks and runs all the time, but lately she just hasn’t really found the time or energy to do so. Especially since she already does a lot of it at her job.
The weather is nice. Not too warm or too cold. She gets lost in thought and ends up running 7 km. At least she still has great stamina. But even with great stamina, she has no energy to go all the way back. And she has no clue if there are any bus stations nearby. She could order an uber, but she remembers that Charlie doesn’t have a shift today and decides to call her.
Charlie’s there in 5 minutes. “Well, hello Ma’am. I’m your uber today. Where are you interested in going today?” She greets her as Nat enters the car. “Yea, sorry. I just remembered you didn’t have shift, and don’t live far from here.”
“It’s all good. I needed to get out of the house anyway. Even if it’s just to give you a lift.” Charlie has very short blond hair with red highlights so most of the time you can't even tell if her hair's messy, Nat has always been a bit jealous of that. But right now, she can tell she's probably been in bed all day till now, since the hair seems to be messier than usual. She hasn't even put any of her piercings on.
The car ride is mostly quiet, but it’s not an awkward silence. Charlie let Natalie connect her phone to the radio so she could play her songs. They have a similar music taste, so they never argue over who gets to pick the songs.
“Alright, we have arrived. Don’t forget to tip and leave 5 stars on yelp. I would really appreciate it.” Charlie jokes.
“Ha Ha. Again, thanks for the ride.”
“No problem, bye Nat.”
“Bye, see you again soon hopefully.”
Charlie makes sure Nat makes it inside before driving away. The run was a good idea because she feels exhausted now. At least she should get a good night’s sleep tonight.
Her phone vibrates, as she gets a text. She checks to see who it’s from.
“Please rate your uber experience.”
“⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐”
Nat can’t help but let out a small laugh. Charlie has always been the bigger humorist amongst their friends. And also, the most sarcastic one but those titles tend to go hand in hand. She replies with 5-star emojis and then heads to bed. And like she predicted, in just a few minutes she’s out like a light.