Chapter 18 - Before Anyone Needed It
On Nia’s last teaching day before the transport-medicine course, the hangar smelled of floor cleaner and the coffee somebody had forgotten on a windowsill.
The oxygen cylinders stood in their designated areas. Equipment on hold was physically separated from the stations intended for emergency use. Maintenance status was checked against the underlying records, not guessed from the word closed on a summary.
The changes were less impressive to photograph than the old demonstration.
Nia liked them better.
Her collarbone no longer hurt. Sometimes, when somebody handed her a clipboard too quickly, her body still tightened before her mind caught up.
She was learning not to be ashamed of that.
A new group waited beside the mannequins. The instructor at the far end raised a stopwatch.
Nia recognized the feeling immediately: everyone assembled, the schedule ready, the small pressure to avoid being the person who delayed the room.
A young airman near the second station lifted a hand.
“Senior Airman Brooks?”
“Yes?”
He looked at the sheet in front of him.
“This section says verification complete, but I’m not sure what record I’m supposed to compare it with.”
Another trainee glanced at the clock.
Nia remembered a folded worksheet in a doorway. Tessa Ward waiting to be heard. Herself checking the time.
She put her clipboard down.
“Then we’re not ready to start.”
The instructor lowered the stopwatch.
Nothing terrible happened.
Nobody lost their rank. Nobody accused the airman of lacking confidence. He didn’t have to wait for a patient to collapse before his question became important.
Nia pulled up a chair beside the station.
“Show me where you got uncertain.”
He pointed. She looked at the page with him.
They found the relevant record, confirmed what could be verified, and left the remaining item on hold for the qualified person to address. The group moved to the prepared alternate station.
It cost them a few minutes.
Across the hangar, an open door let in a strip of bright Texas morning. Somewhere beyond it, ordinary people were walking to appointments, complaining about traffic, making plans they expected to survive.
Nia thought of Eli carrying his own bag. Of Ward’s mother booking a ticket. Of the course waiting for her next month.
Then another hand went up.
May you like
This time, the trainee didn’t apologize first.
Nia turned toward him and listened.
