Ordinary Players ©

        Steve and Yvette had been friends for a few years. Tonight their friendship took them to the Old World Restaurant in Westwood, California. Westwood is just outside of Los Angeles, where the summer Olympics were to start the very next day. The night before the games, the streets were bustling, the sidewalks packed with pedestrians.
        Sitting deep inside the restaurant, Yvette and Steve talked about their futures.
“So you are going to Spain,” Steve said as he handed his menu back to the waiter.
“Yeah. I’m going to be there for a year, studying and brushing up on my Spanish.” Yvette replied.
“What’s next for you?” Yvette asked.
“Well, …” Steve began.
But before he could finish his sentence it started. Bamm! Whump! Thump!
Yvette and Steve looked toward the front of the restaurant just in time to see the whole front wall of the restaurant bow inward like a waist high wave was about to burst through the wall. Steve’s eyes grew big. “What could this be?” he thought.
        Then in a split second all of the windows blew inward with a thunderous pop. Steve thought it must be a bomb. Yvette started to scream, joining a chorus of other restaurant patrons.
        Steve, still trying to figure out what this was, listened. Fading into the distance he continued to hear the same sounds. Whump! Thump! Bamm!
        As the patrons at the front of the restaurant were running towards the back of the restaurant, Steve stood up. “I’m going outside,” he said to Yvette, and then he was gone.
        Stepping outside, Steve encountered a long second of silence. As Steve looked around he saw bodies. Bodies everywhere. Less than one minute earlier Steve was just an ordinary guy having dinner with a friend. But now he had stepped across a threshold into a totally different world. As his eyes focused and his senses began to recover, he heard for the first time the faint eerie cries. Gentle moaning pleas began to reach his ears. "Help me.” “Somebody, please help me.”
        Steve didn’t know it at the time, but fifty-eight people had been mowed down by a single demon induced man driving his car down the sidewalk packed with pedestrians. Now all Steve could see were injured people strewn across the sidewalk and street pleading for help.
        Steve took the small amount of medical knowledge he had and put it to use.
“Can you get me some clean table cloths and cloth napkins” he quickly asked a stunned looking waitress standing behind him.
“Sure,” she said as she ran back inside the restaurant.
Steve bent down to assess one of the victims.
“Help me. Please help me,” came her voice.
Steve could tell she was going into shock. Her leg was probably broken and it was bleeding badly.
“Here,” the waitress returned handing Steve some table cloths and napkins.
Other onlookers were milling around the door of the restaurant not knowing what to do.
“You there. Help me over here.” Steve commanded, as a stunned onlooker came over.
“Bandage this. Take this and keep her warm.” He instructed.
Then Steve went to another victim. He was unconscious but breathing. A lump on the head. Facial abrasions. Maybe a broken arm.
“You there Come help,” he said to another onlooker.

Tying napkin bandages and enlisting helpers, Steve made his way down the sidewalk. Years later Steve recalls, “I didn’t have any training as a paramedic, but I knew it would be a little while before the real paramedics would arrive, and these people needed help right away. So I did the best I could. I knew I was there for a reason.”

Meanwhile, back in the restaurant, Yvette got up and decided to brave going outside.
“You don’t want to go out there, honey. It’s not a pretty sight,” said a waitress as Yvette passed by.
“Just think of it as ketchup,” came a thought inside Yvette’s head. She took a deep breath and crossed the doorway out onto the sidewalk. A tingling feeling pulsed through her body and Yvette felt courage well up in her soul. Looking to her left she saw a young woman, blood all over, stretching out her hand pleading, “help me. Please help me.” There was no turning back now. Yvette bent down and clasped her hand.
“You’re going to be all right. Hang in there.” Yvette said softly.
The young woman gripped Yvette’s hand tightly.
Yvette went from victim to victim, led by intuition and responding to the pleas. Giving comfort as best she could, Yvette tried to encourage these wounded and shocked people to hold on, knowing that medical help was coming soon. Several times Yvette found herself praying out loud. “Oh God, please help this one. Give them comfort, give them Your peace. Heal them and help them live.”
Telling about the incident later, Yvette remembers. “You know, praying over people isn’t something that any average pedestrian would necessarily be real comfortable with. But at this time, in this critical, surreal world of pain and horror, not one person seemed the least bit bothered. In fact, I think most of these hurting people welcomed whatever prayer I could muster.”

It seemed like forever, but within twenty minutes the ambulances and paramedics began to filter into the scene of this emergency. Most of the onlookers and non-emergency personnel were cleared back from the victims, except for Steve and Yvette.

As Yvette was comforting a young teenage girl whose leg was badly damaged, a paramedic walked up laying his equipment down next to the hurting girl. “Ok, I’ve got this one. You need to go now,” he said to Yvette without even looking at her.

Yvette didn’t move but continued her mission of comfort.
“I said you can go. All unofficial personnel need to clear this area,” the paramedic said more firmly.
Yvette looked up and met the paramedic’s eyes. “I need to stay here,” she said with quiet resolve.
The paramedic hesitated for a moment as he saw the strong confidence in Yvette’s eyes. “Ok, fine. Very well, keep doing what you’re doing then,” he said getting back to his equipment.

For nearly five hours the paramedics, police and ambulance drivers treated and transported fifty-eight wounded people, with the help of two ordinary players.

This article is a true story account of what happened back in the summer of 1984 on the eve of the Summer Oympic Games in Los Angeles. In the end, although many were seriously injured, miraculously only one person of the fifty-eight died. As for our ordinary heroes Yvette and Steve: Steve was encouraged by this fateful incident and by a good friend to pursue a career as a paramedic, realizing his gift for calm under pressure in emergency situations. He has been a fireman / paramedic for the Los Angeles City Fire Department for the last 15 years. Yvette not only traveled to Spain, but has since traveled to over 15 foreign countries as a missionary. Most recently she has obtained her Doctorate of Ministry from Oral Roberts University and has been a requested speaker on the subject of prayer in conferences and churches throughout Spain.

Written by Michael Ambrosio
Copyright 2003
 

Michael Ambrosio is author of the I Don't series of children's picture books (ages 4-8) and the upcoming Destiny series of chapter books (ages 8-12). He makes author appearances at Sacramento area elementary schools and lives in Folsom, California with his wife and five children. For more info, visit www.lionxpublishing.com