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Last night was kinda busy. Not bad busy, just frustrating busy. I had been dealing with a family that tried an "intervention" with a drunk-ass relative. They look good on TV, but in real life usually involve a lot of shouting and a 911 call. And nobody ends up sober.
But anyway, that's not what the problem for the night ended up being.
See, there's this chick that came in with her parents during the chaos ... enough chaos that several of us didn't even know there was a new arrival. One of my cow orkers is working with her, gets her evaluated, and the doc doesn't think she needs us, she needs rehab. He's working on making that happen.
Meanwhile ... I'm spending the night fielding phone calls and talking to the stupid intervention family ... after a while the dust seems to have settled, the other guys are all off the phone, and I decide it's time to step out onto the veranda to check the weather and have one of the two or three cigarettes that I have per night (I've tried quitting several times, but it seems that two-to-three helps me maintain my customer service friendliness better). I'm about three or four drags in, and I was starting a conversation with the environmental services fellow that was wheeling the trash to the dumpsters.
Then I heard it.
Yelling and shouting.
Yelling and shouting is never good, and was completely unexpected. We only had the one girl out in the lobby, and she was voluntary and calm. The guy who thinks aliens have landed on his roof was already tucked into his bed on the secure unit, and the Eagles football game wasn't really good enough for yelling and shouting of the type I was hearing.
I dash up the steps to find a dogpile in the doorway ... little junkie girl, two ambulance guys, a crisis worker, and the girl's mom shrieking, "What are they doing to my daughter?!"
Since there wasn't any room on top of the girl, I ended up taking charge of the mom, telling her that she had to return to the lobby and stay out of the way.
Mom mumbled about contacting an attorney and demanded the doctor's name.
On learning it, she spat out, "He's a Muslim!"
No ma'am, actually he isn't.
But apparently she decided in that instant that his failure to believe her beloved baby girl's bullshit story to try to get three hots and a cot was the result of his being Muslim.
Cops were called, the girl was hauled off to jail, and order was restored.
My cow orker (not the dude who was working with the girl) who seems to take the brunt of such things had his shirt ripped off him and was bit on the thumb.
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