A Brief Shot Of Excitement In The Waiting Room

(I am about eight years old, before mobile phones. I’m at the local hospital emergency room with my mum and brother after my brother broke his arm playing hockey. It’s packed and the wait is around four hours. A man in his 60s patiently waits in line to check in. He waits about twenty minutes with no visible injuries.)

Nurse: “Can I help you?”

Man: “Ah, yes, I guess. I’ve been shot.”

Nurse: “Sir, we’re extremely busy here.”

Man: “I’ve been shot. I think I need to see a doc.”

Nurse: “Sir, we’re extremely busy and I don’t have time for jokes. Please leave.”

Man: “No joke. I need to see a doc.”

(He turned around and lifted his jacket and shirt up to reveal a gunshot wound in his back. The nurse went pale and called for help, telling the man to sit in a chair. It turns out he’d been driving along a bumpy dirt track with a shotgun in the tray of his ute. One of the bumps must have knocked the trigger, because the bullet went through the tray and the driver’s seat into his back, the tray and seat slowing it down a fair bit but still causing problems. He then drove himself almost 50 kms to the hospital and waited in line.)