“Mariel. It’s Pia. I’m calling from my cell phone. I was on my run, and I came across a man dressed in Nano running gear collapsed on the road.”

“A man? Who is he? Is he conscious? Where is he now?” Mariel sounded surprisingly anxious.

“I don’t know his name. He’s conscious, but he doesn’t speak any English. He has no identification with him. We’re in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.”

There was silence on the other end of the phone. Pia checked the screen to see if they were still connected. It seemed they were, since there was a good signal.

“Mariel, are you still there?”

“Pia, listen to me, this is very important. Where are you going?”

“Hold on, Mariel. David, where are we going?”

“Boulder Memorial in Aurora,” said David.

“Boulder Mem—”

“Right, I heard. Boulder Memorial. What’s the man’s status right now? Is he conscious?”

“He’s conscious but confused and paranoid. The problem is, as I said, he doesn’t speak a word of English.”

“Okay! Here’s the plan: I’ll meet you at the hospital. I’ll try to be right behind you. Listen. Pia, don’t let the ER staff touch this man. They’re not qualified. I repeat, no one is to try to examine him, do you understand?”

“I heard you, Mariel, but, no, I don’t understand. When I came upon him he’d been in cardiac arrest for God knows how long. He wasn’t breathing with no pulse. He’s breathing now, but they’re going to have to examine him. It would be malpractice not to do so. What exactly do you want me to say?”

Mariel didn’t answer Pia’s question, so Pia again pulled her phone away from her ear and looked at the screen. The connection had been broken. Not sure why the call had been terminated, Pia tried to call back, but it went directly to voice mail. Mariel had apparently ended the call abruptly.

Pia strapped her phone back on her arm. Did Mariel really say that the man shouldn’t be examined? Pia looked at the runner, who was still acting fearful. While Pia had been on the phone with Mariel, David had tried to run an EKG, but the man had pulled off the EKG leads. The man wouldn’t even let David take off his sweatshirt or start an intravenous line. On the positive side, at least he wasn’t trying to get off the gurney or loosen the buckle across his abdomen.

David sat back down on the chair next to the man. For the moment he was content to complete the ride to the ER without trying to do anything else, as the man wasn’t in any obvious medical distress, other than his extreme anxiety. The ice pack must have felt good to him because at least that was still on his head.