93 Seconds

Words are the tools of thought. I remember that from time to time. I remember it when I answer the phone, and the first words between two strangers are not my recorded, "9-1-1, what is the address of your emergency?" but rather a breathless exclamation, "I was just punched in the face by my husband!"

These words intrigue me. Did she carefully construct the words she would fling at me as soon as I picked up? I find that unlikely. There are children screaming and crying in the background—one so close to the phone that I can hear her sobbing through her snot-running nose. She is drowning out her mother, and I have to ask three times if anyone needs medical attention. I never get a proper answer. Yet in this chaos this woman called me, called 9-1-1, to sum up the exact situation in a complete thought in passive voice. Does she realize how competent and articulate her subconscious is? Unlikely.

But I am aware because it is with her subconscious that I seem to ultimately be conversing. In ten words I have been handed five vital pieces of information. I know who was punched. I know who did the punching. I know where has been punched. I know how recently it has happened. And I know the relationship between the assailant and the victim. One could hardly hope for better communication. But I know she is not paying conscious attention to me because questions she at some level deems non-vital go unanswered while she tries to calm her children. Yet questions she recognizes as important to herself getting help are answered immediately.

Three times I ask if she needs medical attention. The fact that I have to ask repeatedly while her vague response is drowned in the background din tell me well enough that none is immediately needed. A query about he location of her husband, though, brings her voice clearly through the mouthpiece of her phone and into my headset. She has deliberately brought the phone closer to her mouth to tell me he ran away down the street and she did not see which way. A further prompt for his clothing description receives similar results. We must know what he looks like in order to find him. But now a question of whether there are weapons in the home elicits only sounds of mom trying to comfort children. If there are weapons, they do not concern mom enough right now. How carefully her thoughts are prioritized in so short a time.

I am on the phone with her for 93 seconds.