Graveyard Shift
Page 18
My ears rang. I felt grit under my eyelids and microscopic blood cemented to my skin and clothes. I had to shower before I crashed.
Even so, I gave Tucker a loud smack through the phone, and he pretended to kiss me right back.
Afterword
I checked a research paper online during my emergency day shift. A headline popped up, something about an accused neurosurgeon, but I didn’t have a chance to process anything until after that shift on December 4th, 2016.
Then I realized that Dr. Elana Fric had been killed.
So many of my physician friends grieved openly. They knew and loved her as a gifted family physician, the devoted mother of three children, a leader in the Ontario Medical Association. They raised money for her parents and children. They wrote to the press and shifted headlines and news stories to focus on her achievements instead of her husband’s. They appeared in court during her former husband’s trial, where he eventually pled guilty to and was convicted of second degree murder.
My colleagues posted articles on intimate partner violence (IPV), the newer term for domestic violence which includes current and former relationships. I was most shocked by "Non-fatal strangulation is an important risk factor for homicide of women" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2573025/).
Bottom line: if he almost chokes you to death, and you manage to survive, he will probably kill you later.
If you’re African-American, it’s not as strong a risk factor—you’re "only" 4.65 times as likely to die—because your risk of getting killed in general is already four times higher than a white or Latina woman. And because your partner is more likely to abuse you by near-strangling, even if he or she doesn’t kill you.
I cried when I read that.
I cried for Elana, whom I had never met and now would never meet. I cried for the African-American women, and the Latina women, and the white women in that study. I cried because even without reading a Canadian study, I knew that indigenous women would be abused at a higher rate (and I was right. Here’s the proof. Reports of near-strangling decreased for the other Canadian groups, but went up for indigenous women: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4202982/). I cried for the Asian and African women who weren’t surveyed in either study.
Then I tried to figure out what I could do.
In the emergency room, I now ask all patients with an injury, "Is someone hurting you?" That applies to any gender, any age, with any signs of injury, since the Center for Disease Control estimates that IPV affects 1 in 5 women and 1 in 12 men. For a child, I ask the caregiver.
I get a lot of strange looks. More than one woman held up her fist and replied, "No. If anyone tried to hurt me, I’d give it to him." One said yes, but wasn’t ready to leave yet. We talked about safer ways to do this.
When IPV strikes friends of friends, as it crosses all ethnicities and walks of life, I have offered our home as a safe haven. We may have a loud Rottweiler, too many deer flies and too much clutter, but it is safe.
When the Canadian Women in Medicine asked for silent auction donations for the Fric family, I wondered if I should donate my Unfeeling Doctor non-fiction books.
"You should donate your Hope Sze series!" said the organizer, Dr. Jennifer Upitis.
Well. I didn’t want to seem insensitive, treating crime as entertainment, but she told me they wouldn't see it that way. I should go for it.
At the cocktail party itself, I felt too embarrassed to venture near the silent auction table, in case Hope and I didn’t raise any money, but a nephrologist at the snack table said, "Looks like your books are the high bid item tonight."
My books? Really?
I hurried over as the auction closed. Dr. Amie Padilla had made the winning bid: $400. "It’s a good cause," she said, and changed it to $500.
Hang on. I got something in my eyes for a second there.
When I recovered, I decided that if crime novels could raise money for a good cause, then I would dedicate Graveyard Shift to Elana. I'd donate some of the proceeds to help fund a scholarship in her name, as well as some to help people in my own area, especially indigenous women, through the Akwesasne Family Wellness Program.
As a reader, you’re helping to complete the circle. Niawen’kó:wa, which means thank you very much in Kanienkehaka (Mohawk).
Acknowledgments
Sgt. Scott Coulter of Cornwall Police Service, thank you for the story that inspired Graveyard Shift. Kudos for the hours you and your brothers and sisters serve, day and night, to make our world a safer place.
Canadian women in medicine, you make the world a better place, whether it's in the hospitals or at home or online. You work so hard, and yet you retain your sense of humour and generosity. Kudos to you and all physicians keeping our health care system afloat and sometimes even thriving.
Big ups to the nurses, the orderlies, the security guards, secretaries, and the rest of our team who toil day and night. I rely heavily on you, most especially during night shifts. I gave you more complicated roles in Graveyard Shift, which meant going to some dark places. As Ursula K. Le Guin wrote in A Wizard of Earthsea, "To light a candle is to cast a shadow..."
Nicole Spahich not only answered all my questions, but prepared notes and took me out to lunch at Family Circle Restaurant! It doesn't get any better than that. Next one's on me.
Permanent thanks to Ed Adach, forensic detective at the Toronto Police Service, who does his best to respond to my e-mails, even while in the Netherlands, taking a course on clandestine graves.
The Writers Police Academy introduced me to good people who give me good advice, including Paul M. Smith, Colleen Belongea, and Mike Knetzger.
Shihan Tom Bellazzi, 7th Dan, and Sensei Dan Desjardins, 3rd Dan, at the Ken Sei Kai Academy of Martial Arts, weighed in on my fight scenes.
RN Margaret MacDonald sought out my editorial gremlins.
SF Canada is a treasure trove of kind brains.
Maggie Lynch, at Windtree Press, always goes above and beyond, even as she builds her own writing career.
Graveyard Shift took me on a complicated journey, as I wrote it partly during National Novel Writing Month and between trips to Ecuador and Egypt. It was originally twice the length before ruthless cutting, so I truly appreciated my husband, Matt, saying, "It's good. I look forward to reading a version that's more than 89 pages."
All errors are my own. Can't be a doctor or a writer without taking full responsibility.
Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed Graveyard Shift, please let your friends know and post a review. Join the Kamika-Sze mailing list at www.melissayuaninnes.com for a free book. And stay tuned for Hope #8, which is set in Egypt!
About the Author
Melissa Yi is the pseudonym for an emergency physician and a proud finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award (best crime story in Canada) and the Derringer Award (best mystery story in the English language).
Also by Melissa Yi
Code Blues (Hope Sze 1)
Notorious D.O.C. (Hope Sze 2)
Family Medicine (essay & Hope Sze novella combining the short stories Cain and Abel, Trouble and Strife, and Butcher’s Hook, which are also available separately)
Terminally Ill (Hope Sze 3)
Student Body (Hope Sze novella post-Terminally Ill; includes radio drama No Air)
The Sin Eaters (Hope Sze short story and Arthur Ellis Award finalist)
Blood Diamonds (Hope Sze short story)
Stockholm Syndrome (Hope Sze 4)
Human Remains (Hope Sze 5)
Blue Christmas (Hope Sze short story)
Death Flight (Hope Sze 6)
Graveyard Shift (Hope Sze 7)
More mystery & romance novels by Melissa Yi
The Italian School for Assassins (Octavia & Dario Killer School Mystery 1)
The Goa Yoga School of Slayers (Octavia & Dario Killer School Mystery 2)
Wolf Ice
High School Hit List
The List
Dancing Thro
ugh the Chaos
Mr. Chef & Ms. Librarian
Unfeeling Doctor Series (Melissa Yuan-Innes)
The Most Unfeeling Doctor in the World and Other True Tales From the Emergency Room (Unfeeling Doctor #1)
The Unfeeling Doctor, Unplugged: More True Tales From Med School and Beyond (Unfeeling Doctor #2)
The Unfeeling Wannabe Surgeon: A Doctor's Medical School Memoir (Unfeeling Doctor #3)
The Unfeeling Thousandaire: How I Made $10,000 Indie Publishing and You Can, Too! (Unfeeling Doctor #4)
Buddhish: Exploring Buddhism in a Time of Grief: One Doctor's Story (Unfeeling Doctor #5)
The Unfeeling Doctor Betwixt Birthing Babies: Poems About Love, Loss, and More Love (Unfeeling Doctor #6)
The Knowledgeable Lion: Poems and Prose by the Unfeeling Doctor in Africa (Unfeeling Doctor #7)
Fifty Shades of Grey’s Anatomy: The Unfeeling Doctor’s Fresh Confessions from the Emergency Room (Unfeeling Doctor #8)
Broken Bones: New True Noir Essays From the Emergency Room by the Most Unfeeling Doctor in the World (Unfeeling Doctor #9)
* * *
The Emergency Doctor’s Guide Series (Melissa Yuan-Innes)
The Emergency Doctor's Guide to a Pain-Free Back: Fast Tips and Exercises for Healing and Relief
The Emergency Doctor’s Guide to Healing Dry Eyes