What if I ain't no violinist?

19. Twoset First Aiders

"...yes..?"

"After your 30 compressions, you're supposed to do 2 breaths, remember ?"

Eddy ran his hand through his hair in frustration.

"Oh no, sorry, I forgot!"

"That's okay, in a real-life situation, you can actually get someone to do the breaths while you focus on the compressions if you can find someone to do CPR with."

"Okay."

"Btw, nice choice, Bach's Violin Concerto in E Major is spot on 100bpm! But the classical pieces are too long so you can end up doing more than 30 compressions if you're not mindful."

Eddy's eyes widened as he saw Brett wink at him as he moved on to the next student.

"OK, now that you guys know how to do CPR on an adult, let's try it on an infant.  Everybody, please pick up your infant mannequins.. um.. Eddy, not by it's leg, let's pretend it's a real baby."

Eddy blushed as some people around him laughed.

"Make sure you also support the neck as you lift them up, like this."

Brett looked rather sweet holding the infant doll in his arms.  He then somehow managed to hold the baby against his body with just one arm as he waved the other around pointing and explaining things.  Unfortunately, Eddy was too flustered at the time to savour the moment.  He was trying so hard to focus on the task at hand.  He was already feeling quite bad about messing up bandaging, CPR and now children's first aid.  He had to focus.

Eddy looked around the room and noticed that the handful of younger students looked just as unsure of how to hold the baby mannequin.  The older people who may have already had their own children seemed so much more at ease holding the baby and when Brett said to "check for response by tickling their feet", Eddy was amazed to see how many knew how it was done.  Eddy fumbled around with the baby's foot, mindful not to accidentally snap it off or drop the whole thing to the floor.

"Okay guys don't rush your assessment, you have 40 multiple choice questions to answer, you may start now."

40 minutes later, Eddy stepped out of the building. He was one of the last ones to leave but he was relieved to know that he had completed the course successfully and that he should expect to receive his first-aid certificate in an email.  He looked up into the grey sky and remembered he'd forgotten his umbrella in the classroom upstairs.  He quickly rushed back.

"Hey Eddy, so was that your umbrella?"

"Hi Brett, yeah, thanks."

"No worries, I'll head out with you.  Are you catching the train ?"

"Yeah."

When Brett and Eddy stepped out of the building, it had started to sprinkle.  Eddy felt awkward using his umbrella if Brett didn't have one but he thought it would be a bit weird to share an umbrella with him for very light rain.  So he decided to walk in the rain.

"..So what subject do you teach, Eddy?"

"I'm a high school music teacher."

"Oh I see.  I love classical music, too.  I used to play the violin."

"Really? That was my instrument too!"

What happened next happened too quickly.

Without any warning, Brett collapsed. There was no noise nor screaming. The streets were getting dark but Eddy noticed they were walking past a construction site.  Eddy then heard some men yelling.  Then a woman shrieked.