Still Smiling After All These Years

In my job working around a hospital emergency department I see many things.I see the light and the dark side of life. I see life begin and life end. I have seen and/or smelled every bodily fluid. But amid all this there is even time for laughter; it's the only way to keep your sanity in this business.

One summer day a mother come in with her teenage son in tow. He had visible scrapes and bruises, but he look non-to-pleased about being in the emergency department. At this hospital we record all accidents with a description of what happened and pass that information on to the state. (bureaucrats are keeping track of everything these days) Any way, when I asked him what happened, the mother looked at him with disgust and said, "tell him." The young man looked at me and told me that he and his friends, "X friends." mom says, were messing around with this shopping cart and he got the idea to get inside it and ride it down a hill. I could hardly keep a straight face. Instantly the Vonage telephone commercial popped into my head, you know the one "People do stupid things..." All I could visualize is this young mans facial expression going from cocky to utter terror once he realized that he was in a wheeled vehicle, going down hill, at the mercy of gravity and with no means of steering or braking. The next question I asked him, also required for statistics, "Were you wearing a helmet?" "No." he said. How come I knew that answer to that question?