Ambulance at Ten Miles an Hour

Deep winter. Two thirty in the morning. The apartment complex had gone dark and silent.

My phone rang. The hospital, emergency line. A car accident victim with intracranial bleeding. Surgery needed within thirty minutes.

I grabbed my coat, snatched up my keys and phone, and ran for the door.

I hopped on one foot, wrestling my shoes on while confirming details with the hospital. "Prep the OR. I'll be there in thirty minutes!"

The door next to mine cracked open with a low creak.

"Where are you going this late?"

A woman's voice cut through the predawn hallway, so sudden I nearly lost my balance.

I looked up and saw my neighbor, Gina Mercer, watching me with an odd smile.

She looked like she'd been standing behind her door the whole time, listening for any sound from my side.

We were barely on nodding terms. The whole thing struck me as odd, but I didn't have time to think about it.

"Emergency surgery. I'm in a rush."

I darted past her and jabbed the elevator button.

"Isn't your car in the shop? You won't find a ride at this hour. Let me drive you," Gina said casually, still smiling.

My car's windshield had cracked in the cold a few days ago and was still at the repair shop.

I glanced down at the ride-hailing app on my phone. Not a single driver was available.

Gina and I had never been close, so her offering to drive me out on a freezing winter night was honestly a little touching.

"Thank you so much. I really need to get to the hospital. Every second counts."

She nodded with a smile, grabbed her car keys, and turned to close her door. The screen of the phone in her hand lit up for a split second.

Her call log flashed across the screen. Twenty unanswered calls to "Husband."

Twenty calls, and her husband hadn't picked up once?

A flicker of unease ran through me, but gossip could wait. I just needed to get to the hospital.

Gina drove. I sat in the passenger seat, eyes glued to my phone as my colleagues sent updates on the patient. I fired off instructions in the group chat: run the tests and prep the OR.

"You doctors really have it rough, dropping everything in the middle of the night."

"Yeah," I replied absently. "The ER can get pretty hectic. Sometimes we're up all night."

Gina glanced sideways at me. "Must not leave much time for dating, huh?"

I looked at her, a little caught off guard. "No, not really. We're always busy."

"You could always go for someone else's husband. It wouldn't get in the way of your work, it wouldn't cost you much time, and you'd still get to play the saint."

My eyes drifted from my phone to Gina.

She caught me staring and laughed. "Relax, Dr. Kent. I'm kidding. Are all doctors this serious?"

I forced a laugh, pushing down the growing sense that something was off.

A car roared past us in the next lane.

My fingers started tapping against my thigh.

Gina noticed my restlessness and glanced over. "Don't be so anxious, Dr. Kent. We've never had a real chat before. Tonight's the perfect chance."

A patient was waiting in the OR. I wished I could teleport. "Sorry, tonight's really urgent. Let me take you out for dinner sometime and we'll catch up properly."

Gina let out a cold laugh. "Right. A saint like you wouldn't have anything to say to a housewife like me."

"I... that's not what I meant."

Even I, oblivious as I was, could hear the venom underneath her words.

I couldn't figure out why she'd offered to drive me if she resented me this much.

My phone buzzed.

"Dr. Kent, the OR is prepped. How much longer?"

I was getting anxious, but I kept my composure and did the math. We'd be on the highway any minute. From there, it was fifteen minutes to the exit, then just one turn to the hospital.

"Twenty minutes. I'm about to get on the highway."

The moment Gina heard that, she suddenly began to slow down.

On an empty highway in the dead of night, I watched the speedometer drop from eighty to twenty miles an hour.

I hung up and turned to her. "Why are you slowing down?"

Gina lifted her chin toward the road ahead. "Speed camera up there."

I looked where she was pointing. There was nothing.

I'd driven this stretch a hundred times. No one had ever mentioned a new speed camera.

I pulled up the GPS and checked a couple of times. No alerts.

"Are you sure? The GPS doesn't show any speed cameras on this stretch."

"Oh. Maybe I got it mixed up."

She said it the way you'd comment on the weather.

My stomach knotted. She'd admitted her mistake, but the speedometer hadn't budged.

I had an idea. I pulled out my phone, softening my tone. "It's really kind of you to drive me at this hour. Just name a price. I'll pay for the ride."

"No need. That's not why I'm here."

She refused, but still made no move to speed up.

I was frantic. "I really need to get to the hospital. The patient's life is on the line! What do I have to do to get you to drive faster?"