Monday November 27, 2023; 9:07 AM EST
- We walked across the sunny parking lot to the motel office. Inside on the left was the front desk, and on the right the tending-toward-dismal free breakfast room where each day somebody managed somehow to burn the edges of the faux scrambled eggs. But not this morning. Another guest looked over the crowd-control belt blocking the narrow entrance to the breakfast room. Supposed to be open at 7:00, but I guess not this time. The fellow guest turned to ask about that. The woman at the desk, apologized, said the morning crew was supposed to come in at 6:00, but nobody had arrived. She said she hoped they’d come soon because she was having an asthma attack and would have to call an ambulance shortly. Between each sentence now she raised a little mechanical misting device toward her mouth and inhaled.#
- Call the ambulance now, the other guest said. I can’t, she said, because they’ll put me on one of those gurneys and take me away, and I can’t leave the motel unsupervised. Somebody’s supposedly on the way for the morning shift, she said. I’m sorry the food’s not ready, they’re supposed to be here to start making the breakfast at 6:00, she said. The misting continued.#
- Don’t worry about the food, we all told her. Call the ambulance now, we said. She made another call. It sounded like another employee was only ten minutes away now. So she finally called 911, gave the location, and rehearsed with the 911 operator the medical steps she’d already taken during this attack of asthma.#
- So there you go. Maybe she couldn’t risk losing her job, couldn’t afford to get fired for locking up the office and heading off to save her own life. It was a very bright wintery morning outside. After a time, I went out and caught the attention of the two red emergency vehicles just arriving, so there was no question where to focus their protective and saving energies. Over here, I waved, inside the tidy motel office, in the shadow of capitalism.#