Angels on the Night Shift by M.D. Robert D. Lesslie Read Free Book Online Page B

didn’t think he was crazy.
    Gee just looked at him, smiled, and nodded his head. That was all Rob needed.
    “It’s hard for me to put into words. But heck, here it is. From the first moment I got to the ER, when Greg brought me in on our stretcher, I can remember everything.”
    Johnny Gee’s eyebrows rose, but he said nothing. He only shifted a little on his stool. This man had been unconscious—completely unresponsive.
    “I can remember the whole thing,” Rob continued. “I could hear you talking and giving orders, and I could hear Angie Weathers over in the corner. ‘Flatline,’ she kept saying. And I can remember somehow seeing the cardiac monitor, and it was flatline. But somehow that didn’t bother me. It was all so peaceful, and I just watched and listened. It wasn’t like I was floating on the ceiling like I’ve heard other people talk about. It was more of…more like just being in the room, but not in the room. Does that make any sense, Doc? I told you this was hard to understand.”
    Johnny nodded again and said, “Go on.”
    “Well, that’s when it got stranger. I could hear you and Angie talking and then your voices started to sort of fade away. Not completely, but you were getting harder to hear and understand. And the room started to get sort of hazy, or cloudy. And it was getting darker. That’s when I saw the light. It seemed to be over near the doorway, and I thought someone else might be coming into the room. But the door was closed, and I remember thinking, It’s just like they all say, you know, the light and everything. And I laughed at myself a little for thinking that. Funny, but I remember laughing.”
    He paused, put his hand to his chin, smiled faintly, and shook his head.
    “Then your voices got louder,” he continued. “And the room got brighter and the light started to fade away. It was about that time that Angie hollered out that there was some electrical activity on the monitor, but she still couldn’t feel a pulse. Things started getting darker again, and then there was the light. After a minute or two, it faded away again and I could hear you guys plain as day. This happened a couple more times until finally things got dark, really dark, and you guys were gone and I couldn’t hear anything. It seemed like I was all alone.
    “And the light…well, it really got bright. The brightest yet. I found myself being drawn toward it, walking straight at it. Not like a magnet or anything like that, or something I couldn’t resist. It just feltcomfortable, and…like something I was supposed to do. It was the only thing in the room, the only thing in the world right then—this bright light.
    “Then all of a sudden, there he was, right smack in the middle of it. I could see the figure of a man, clear as you are right now. He just stood there, watching me. I remember being surprised, and I must have stopped, ’cause he raised his hand and motioned for me to come to him. I started walking forward again, thinking of all the times people had talked about something like this, and now I understood. I knew they weren’t crazy, or making stuff up. It was just natural, and peaceful. And I began to remember the things people had said about heaven and about meeting Jesus and their loved ones, and it was…it was like I was just floating toward him—completely at peace.”
    Rob stopped here and looked down at his hands, and Johnny thought he saw tears in his eyes. Then the paramedic trembled a little. It was a slight movement, and passed quickly.
    He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and looked up again at the doctor.
    “Then there I was,” he continued, his voice now subdued. “I was standing right in front of him. I looked up and into his face, and it was…it was the face of a wolf. And Doc, I have never been so scared in all of my life. Those eyes, they were mean, and bright red, and it was like there was all of this hatred behind them. And then the feeling I got was that