Orange Carpet

I was 12.  I was with my mother at the video store she worked at, helping her straighten shelves when the kid walked in...he was tall (or he seemed tall to me...I was a short 12-year-old), and he had on his soccer uniform and he looked tired...

"Hi!" My mom greeted him in her usual friendly way.  "Can I help you find anything?"

The kid frowned for a second and shook his head.  "I'm just going to look at video games," he replied quietly.

Mom and I went back to arranging movie jackets on the white plywood shelves.  Why was it that I always got stuck straightening the 'Horror' section?  I could barely stand to look at the pictures on the covers.  Maybe it was because Mom knew I was easily distracted and I would do anything to finish the job quickly and move on so I wouldn't have to be near those movie jackets...

"Mom can we watch 'Clue'?" I asked.  That was my favorite movie at the time -- I always wanted to watch it when I worked with her...One of the perks of working at a video store was that you got to watch movies...

"Maybe when we're done here...Don't you have that movie memorized?" Mom smiled at me as she continued to straighten the movie jackets in the "Action" section.

"So?" I said.  "Dad and I have 'The Princess Bride' down cold.  And He can practically recite that Monty Python movie 'Yellowbeard'.  And how many times have you seen 'Some Like it Hot?'"

"That's different," Mom countered.  "That has Tony Curtis in it..."

In my home we were constantly quoting movies and books at each other...it was kind of like our own little language...Mom was actually the best at this in our family, but she pretended she didn't like to play along...Dad and I would start quoting some movie back and forth and she'd look bored until she'd jump in with a one-liner that would crack the rest of us up...On other days though, Dad and Mom would get really silly (usually in public where it would inevitably embarrass me) and I'd pretend I didn't know them...If they saw me blushing, they'd ham up their act until I was ready to try to blend in with the paint on the walls...

I went back to straightening the shelves...my attempt at a diversion hadn't worked...

"Oh Well," I thought, "After I finish 'Horror' I'll do something fun like 'Cartoons' or 'Comedy'...Maybe that won't be so..."

My reverie was interrupted by a thud coming from the other end of the store.  Mom and I turned around to see the kid who had just walked in sprawled on the floor next to the video game section...We hurried over to him and discovered that when he fell, he had hit his head on one of the shelves.  He was bleeding on the orange carpet...

I froze in place, not knowing what to do...

Mom knelt down next to the boy and said calmly, "Young man, are okay?"

There was a short pause before he muttered, "Yeah...I fell..."

"I know, Honey," she said quietly.  "I'm going to call the doctor for you, all right?"

"Call my mom," the kid told her.  "Her name is Alice Quinn."

Mom nodded.  "Okay, I know her.  I'll get a hold of her right away."  Alice was a regular customer at the video store.

Mom turned to me.  "Laura, stay here and hold his hand while I call his mom and get the ambulance for him."

"Why did he fall?" I asked.

Mom shook her head.  "I don't know...I've gotta go make some calls."  Mom got up and quickly made her way to the front desk where she made a quick call to the boy's mother and then called the ambulance.

I sat next to the kid...I still didn't know his name.  He laid there with his eyes shut.  I was too shy to hold his hand. I think I managed to say something feeble like, "It'll be okay, don't worry."

A few minutes later, his mother ran through the front door, rushed to his side, and took his hand.  "Joe, Joe, are you okay?  Joe?"

Joe opened his eyes and looked at his mother blankly.  She managed a weak smile.  "Joey, it'll be okay.  It looks like you've had another seizure. The lady called the ambulance.  They'll be here soon."

She didn't look at me. She sat there holding her son's hand, whispering to him softly.  I felt helpless, but I was glad his mother had come. 

I don't really remember much after that.  The EMT's came a few minutes later and Mom made me stand behind the front counter while they worked with him, put him on a stretcher and carried him out, his mother following close behind.

The last thing I remember is Mom scrubbing the blood out of the orange carpet.