Blue Christmas
Page 3
Law enforcement agents and the health department investigate the case as a possible terrorist incident. No chemical or biological weapons are found in the building.
Within 48 hours, the lab results come back. Every patient tests positive for methemoglobin at 21.1 to 87 percent (normal is 1 to 3 percent).
Now the investigators examine the household meal of meat, rice, and and vegetables. The meat was boiled in water. After adding herbs, the same water was used to cook the rice and vegetables.
It wasn't plain water, of course. They salted it with a bag labeled "Refined Iodized Table Salt" in both English and Arabic.
Except, instead of salt, the bag contained 100 percent sodium nitrite.
Sodium nitrite is often used to cure meat and fish, so it's easy to buy. It's also used as an antidote for cyanide poisoning, and a cyanide shipment has recently disappeared in Mexico.
Local and federal law enforcement agents begin to research the possibility of bioterrorism.
That all didn't come out in Grand Rounds, of course. The presenter concentrated on the medical details. But even if you'd figured out the methemoglobinemia and remembered the cure during the presentation's lightning pace (I didn't), we all gasped when the presenter showed a picture of the sodium nitrite mislabeled as table salt.
Was this attempted murder?
I buttonholed the presenter afterward. How did he know all this? Who went to the apartment and found and tested the "table salt"?
He stared at me. "It wasn't my case. I read about it in a journal."
Wow. Even better. I found the article and realized this was an actual case in New York in 2002 (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5129a2.htm).
"This incident was associated not with criminal activity but rather with improper storage," the authors concluded.
But what if it had been criminal activity? I left that to percolate in my brain for almost a decade and a half.
When I write a novel, especially a mystery, I want to stump everyone, including myself. I give my brain free reign and type almost without thinking. I basically vomit out a first draft and then have to assemble it into a novel afterward.
The fifth Hope Sze novel, Human Remains, takes place in a stem cell lab. I found myself writing this case into the novel. Hey, I already had a character of Middle Eastern descent! This was meant to be!
"Blue Christmas" practically wrote itself. I was proud of Hope for figuring out both methemoglobinemia and G6PD deficiency (to stump the 0.001 percent of doctors who knew and remembered the case) and a romance angle and other deft twists.
The only problem was that it was a world unto itself. Poisoning Dr. Wen and altering Samir's life in the middle of Human Remains—it meant that these minor characters needed more real estate during the arc of the novel.
I couldn't afford to do that. Human Remains is already complicated enough, and the core story has to focus on Hope. So, gritting my teeth, I excised "Blue Christmas" and recreated it as an independent short story, which I submitted to Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, one of two major mystery magazines.
The editor, Janet Hutchings, rejected it.
Boo. I submitted it to Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, the only other big kahuna. I had never had any luck with AHMM, only receiving form rejections.
Over a year later, I received a note from editor Linda Landrigan. The subject was "story submission," which is usually a generic reject subject line, but it actually said that she liked "Blue Christmas" and was editing their Christmas issue right now (August first), so she wanted me to make changes right away.
Mainly, I had to remove a reference to a prior case, so that any reader meeting Hope Sze for the first time wouldn't feel left out.
I could do that! I sat in the parking lot at our local grocery store, editing madly.
"Blue Christmas" broke me into AHMM, after years—no joke, years—of zero encouragement. Admittedly they use to require postal submissions, so I was lazy about sending them stories, but even so. I posted a triumphant note on my Facebook wall, and AHMM shared that, too!
@dimesleuth tweeted about reading my story over chicken tortilla soup in New Jersey. NJ is next door to New York, which is where the original true case occurred.
And so the story comes full circle.
Top of the season to you. Merry Christmas, baby.
Afterword
You know what's awesome?
You are.
How about some imaginary tourtière if you leave a review, the memory of fresh green salad if you let your friends know about "Blue Christmas," and a hint of chocolate raspberry torte if you join my mailing list at www.melissayuaninnes.com?
Join Melissa’s mailing list at www.melissayuaninnes.com
Thanks for supporting the arts. Have some virtual eggnog on me.
And if you're on a diet or don't like that kind of food/interaction, don't worry. Just keep on reading.
Best of the season to you, no matter what season it is.
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 Through 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
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