16. Emergency.

'Child choking!' I had just begun my working day in San Diego, California, when these words came through the radio of the police car I was driving. I flipped on the red light and siren and sped off as the radio gave me my directions. 'Just my luck!' I thought. I did not know this area well and my first call of the day was a life-and-death emergency several kilometres away.

The main highway was full of traffic and I knew that if I took it, by the time I got there it would be too late. So I decided to go by an unfinished road. Just ahead and below was the street that would take me to the child's home. Then I jammed on my brakes. Between the unfinished road and the street I wanted, was a wide, deep ditch. I got out, light still flashing, and looked at the street below. 'God help me!' I cried silently. 'What am I going to do?'

'What's the matter, officer?'

I looked up, and saw a man sitting on top of an earth-moving machine. He must have been two storeys high!

'Child choking to death! I have to get down there but there's no road. If I go around, I'll be too late.'

'Follow me, officer. I'll make you a road.'

The huge scoops on either end of the enormous machine were full of earth. He dropped the earth into the ditch and started off down the long sloping hill. I followed him, covered in clouds of dust. It seemed like hours but in a few short moments he was in the street, blocking the other traffic, while I raced off to the address I had been given, siren screaming.

As I burst through the door, a terrified mother handed me her baby, his face already blue. Was I too late? God help me! I did what I had been taught to do in cases like this. A small object flew from the baby's throat on to the floor. It was a button. Mercifully the holes in it had let a little air through. A fireman rushed into the room. He had with him precious oxygen. The child screamed, turned red and began to cry. He was angry but very much alive. As I drove by the place where the machine was working, I looked up. 'Thank you,' I thought.

The next day I saw the earth-mover again, and I stopped by it to thank the driver. The driver ran towards me and stammered, 'The... baby… the baby.' He was almost crying. 'It's all right,' I said. 'The baby is safe — thanks to you. You helped to save his life.'

'I… I know,' he said. 'But I didn't know then that…' He bit his lip and turned away — then he added in a whisper, 'The baby was my son.'

Words and expressions:

to choke — задыхаться.

ditch — траншея.

Questions:

1. What is the writer's occupation?

2. What did he do to let everyone know that there was an emergency?

3. Why did he not take the main highway?

4. Where was the street he wanted?

5. Why did he stop?

6. What did the driver of the earth-moving machine do to the ditch?

7. When the policeman arrived, the baby's face was blue. Why was this?

8. How did the policeman know what to do?

9. What had caused the baby to choke?

10. Why had it been able to breathe a little air?

11. Who arrived next and what did he bring?

12. Who was the oxygen for?