Show Your Numbers! – Michael Morse

I shine the spotlight onto one doorway after another as we slow roll down Pavillion Street. The darkness is like spilled ink on plain paper, swallowing the light in gulps. Inside one of these homes is our patient, unable to crawl to a light switch to alert us, unable to move at all, after falling in her bathroom.

I’m looking for 424. The last number I saw was 372. Now 406. We turn around and try to figure out which of the five between them is the right one.

I pick one. Ring the bell. Hope a shotgun blast doesn’t answer. I use the radio and request a callback. The lady answers on the first ring and cries. We’re at her door.

We gain access and take care of her, locking the door on the way out, and securing the window we had to breach to get in.

Years later, and after dozens of frustrating calls to numberless homes, I’m making home address plaques. People can get house numbers at any hardware store or online retailer for less than ten bucks, and I hope they do. They can also spend a little more, if they have it, and purchase one of my handmade, rustic, unique and visible number signs. Put it on your gate, on your door, under your porch light, on your fence – put it wherever you like, and where everybody can see it!

Order here:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheRepurposedFireman

___

Read more article by Michael Morse, here: https://rinewstoday.com/michael-morse/

Michael Morse, [email protected], a monthly contributor is a retired Captain with the Providence Fire Department.

Michael Morse spent 23 years as a firefighter/EMT with the Providence Fire Department before retiring in 2013 as Captain, Rescue Co. 5. He is an author of several books, most offering fellow firefighter/EMTs and the general population alike a poignant glimpse into one person’s journey through life, work and hope for the future. He is a Warwick resident.