Making the call

This belongs on Ophelia Dreaming but it goes hand in hand with Trust Fall so here it is.

Today I called the Norwalk Police Department and stammering a bit explained that I had been rescued on Monday by a 911 operator and that I'd googled 911 to death but found no indication of how to reach any of them, other than dialing 911. I didn' t even know where they were or what government body directed them.

The woman who answered the phone started out brusk. She must take awful calls all day long, because, you see, the number I dialed belonged to the Chief (that's what's listed!). She asked me when and where and when I couldn't give a street name but could give a rough time she searched the case records until she found me. She gave me a case number but she didn't really tell me about 911. She gave me the name of the White Haired Superman but not the name of the operator.

She was starting to warm up when I kept pushing about needing to say thank you. Then she said she'd transfer me to Communications. I thought maybe I was getting PR or something and they'd at least give me a supervisor's name to contact. Someone to write to.

A man answered the phone and I told him what I wanted. I gave him the case number and he said...

that was me!

And I started to cry. I should have known that voice anywhere and having been told I fell right back into his virtual arms. I told him everything. I told him how I felt making the call and that I'd called once so many years ago when I thought I was going to die and gotten a recording saying the service was not in place. I told him how it felt when he mostly found me by GPS, he told me how the technology works and how happy he was about it. He asked me about Cletus and I told him about vaso-vagal and how it was all OK. He told me to tell her to be well and not scare Mommy like that again.

I told him he saved my sanity and that I'd never been so scared in my life.

I told him thank you and it was wonderful.

Then I talked to the woman in the Chief's office again and found out that 911 belongs to the Police Department and that they all roll up to the Chief and that sending a letter is a wonderful thing to do for them and now I have names:

Jonathan Williams - the disembodied voice who found me and held me together
Officer Mark Kucky - the White Haired Superman who caught me
Chief Harry Rillings - who will receive a letter for both.

God, that was wonderful being able to do that.