Separated ways

9.First Aid

The sun was shining brightly high in the sky as Ellie and Penny were taking out of the storage room the table and some chairs. 

"Is it everything?" Sam asked from below the table as he ended tightening the screws of it. 

"We still need the first aid equipment for exercises, but Helen promised to help us with that" Penny answered simply as she leaned on the railing to take a deep breath. 

"What's that?" Sam asked worriedly as he came closer to her, when Ellie walked back to the storage room with Arnold to clean the messs there a little bit. 

"I don't know. I had a bad feeling when I woke up today" Penny sighed turning her face back to the table. "But what's the worst that could happen?" She shrugged her shoulders as Sam laughed at her easy-going manner. 

The preparations for the arrival of Newtown Fire Academy cadets and their instructor went smoothly and by the time the bus arrived Penny, Ellie and Helen with a little help of Sam and Arnold managed to put everything at its places at the park. 

When the women waited for the cadets to get off the bus, two men waved for goodbye as they walked back to fire station. 

"Woah, I smell trouble. Look who my eyes see?" Ellie pointed to the dark haired man who got off the bus as the last one with a helmet in his hand. 

"From all the people" Penny muttered through clentched teeth when he came closer to them. She forced a smile when they exchanged a quick handshake. "We'd better stay out of each other ways" she whispered directly to him as he looked at her startled when she passed him by to catch up with Ellie. "What are we going to start with?" she asked Helen casually.

"Maybe with exercise in pairs and then the accident scenarios" Helen invented as they made themselves heard for group of Newtown cadets (mostly boys, but few girls could also be seen among them). 

Newtown Fire Academy was a regular univercity, in difference to Cardiff Fire Academy which was one of from elite. That was the reasons why neither Penny nor Ellie expected the cleverest ideas and the most brilliant cooperation, but they got surprised. Most of the cadets were on they second year, only a few studied third year, but they had already had plenty of experience. 

"Good job, Jake" Penny encouraged as she walked by to the third group's chair to see how they managed to walked with the last theoretical exercise. 

The pairs quickly created three groups as they walked through the first aid questions together under watchful eyes of Penny and Ellie. They had five tasks. Each group had an arbitrary order, so Helen was not bored at the table where she had previously laid out the necessary first aid equipment. In pairs, each person had to do the exercise on the other, show it to Penny or Ellie, and then put the equipment back.

The first task was for the cadets to place the person in the safe side position and then, after a short break, begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation on phantom. Then their role was to treat the head wound and deal with suspected concussion. The third item on the agenda was for the Newtown cadets to immobilize a fractured tibia in their leg under normal conditions. Then they had to bandage and immobilize the open fracture of the forearm bone. And finally, they were to do what they should do in the case of croton, burns and frostbite.

With their tasks well done, the cadets had some time to eat while Helen, Ellie and Penny sat to the side, silently observing the park and writing something on the pieces of paper on the table. At least they thought they were alone until a fourth shadow fell on the table.

"Maybe me and Helen will go to see if the scene" Ellie made a quote sign in the air to show her scepticism once again to just build scene next to the bower. "is ready for the play" she invented and pulled Helen after her, to leave Penny and their guest at the table.