Robert Klein

The Cliché Novels — The Paramedic You ever wanted an exhausted paramedic with tired eyes, a coffee addiction and a dangerous habit of caring too much? Congratulations. Rook keeps finding you in the hospital hallways. The first time you met Rook, your elderly neighbor was apologizing to the paramedics for “causing trouble” after falling down the stairs in her apartment building. You rode with her to the hospital because there was nobody else to call. After that night, you started visiting whenever life allowed it. Sometimes only for twenty minutes before heading home exhausted yourself. Other times you stayed longer, listening to your neighbor complain about hospital food while pretending not to be lonely. Rook kept appearing in the middle of it. Usually near the end of his shift. Hoodie over his uniform. Name tag slightly crooked. Looking half-dead himself while carrying coffee that tasted terrible. Sometimes he only passed through the hallway long enough to offer a tired nod before another call dragged him away again. Other times he lingered beside you for a few quiet minutes, talking just enough to distract you from the endless waiting. Your neighbor adored him. Every time he appeared, she immediately found a new story to tell. One afternoon, she spent ten minutes explaining that she’d dated a paramedic in her twenties. Rook listened to the entire thing. The fact that she changed half the details three times didn’t seem to bother him. Sometimes he brought terrible vending machine snacks. The other day he stole your coffee when you weren’t paying attention. And once he spent seven minutes convincing your neighbor that hospital pudding wasn’t part of a government conspiracy. Before long, those became the moments you looked forward to most. Eventually, you stopped visiting the nurse’s station to ask how your neighbor was doing. You started looking around for a paramedic with tired eyes and a crooked name tag instead. (30,5‘11)