Roulette, p.1
Roulette, page 1
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Copyright © 2021 by Carina Alyce
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First edition
Contents
. Chapter
Cast of Characters
Roulette
Early January
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
1. Chapter 1
April
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
2. Chapter 2
Wednesday before Labor Day
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
3. Chapter 3
Labor Day Friday
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
4. Chapter 4
Saturday
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
Sunday
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
8. Chapter 8
First game of the season - one Sunday later
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
9. Chapter 9
Second game of the season - Sunday
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
10. Chapter 10
Third game of the Season - Thursday night
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
11. Chapter 11
Monday after Thanksgiving
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
12. Chapter 12
13. Chapter 13
14. Chapter 14
First Friday in January
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
15. Chapter 15
First Sunday in January
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
16. Chapter 16
The following Labor Day
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
17. Chapter 17
A few years later
The Diary of the Chaplain
18. Epilogue
Afterword
About Carina Alyce
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Cast of Characters
Metro General Hospital Department of Emergency Medicine
Chief Manika Gupta-Carver
Dr. Ryan Yates
Dr. Jessica Steadman
Dr. Jacob Carver
Dr. Marcus Doyle
Amy Tanner’s Vegas Before Vows Bachelorette Party
Amy Tanner - bride
Larissa Samuels- maid of honor
Kyra Washington - bridesmaid
Cassie Odon - bridesmaid
Caroline Peters - bridesmaid
Monique Rhodes- bridesmaid
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Roulette
Noun
1. A casino game in which a ball is dropped on a spinning wheel and players predict in which numbered compartment it lands.
2. To take careless risks despite poor odds.
-Casino Insider by David Kuznetsov
Early January
First Energy Stadium, Cleveland
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
Early January
There are few things as depressing as the Browns football team for the last twenty years, but this might be rock bottom. We actually had an 0-16 season. It's terrifying and embarrassing and awful because we get the first first-round draft pick EVERY YEAR and somehow screw it up. Damn it!
Okay, maybe I shouldn't have written this entry after I went to the Parade around the Factory of Sadness.
Chapter 1
Medicine, like football, has rules.
Confirm the correct patient, dose, and drug. Take your own pulse first during a code. If you didn't chart it, it didn't happen.
Don't pass beyond the line of scrimmage. Keep a long snapper on staff because the tight end can't do it. Accept that the Factory of Sadness churned out twenty years of losing quarterbacks.
For nurse Kyra Washington, rules created order out of disorder and were necessary in a sea of chaos. Before she'd moved into the NICU, she worked in the ER and ICU. There were days when you lost more than you won, and order was essential to keep going.
This in no way explained why she was standing outside First Energy Stadium freezing her butt off and having a conversation with a man in an eight-foot Tyrannosaurus Rex costume.
In defense of the T. Rex, and a testament to Kyra's weather-related decisions, her face was completely covered with a Cleveland Browns Dawg mask. Zero-degree weather and a negative wind-chill outside the Stadium did not deter the Cleveland Brown's faithful. They were going to mourn their 0-16 season, as Chris McNeil had threatened on social media.
Cleveland fans were nothing if not practical. Paper bags over their heads were popular, as were signs for the ‘4-0 Preseason Champs.’ Thousands lined the circular '0' route to protest the decisions of the management and continued employment of a coach whose record was 1-31 in two seasons.
The dinosaur held a sign. 'I was alive when the Browns had a winning season.' Whoever was inside had a healthy sense of humor, since he insisted his sign was correct.
"Football didn't exist in the Jurassic era," Kyra said.
"It's the Cretaceous era. I'm a renaissance dinosaur." The T. Rex had a light tenor voice.
"I stand corrected. But football still didn't exist," Kyra repeated.
"Were you there? Didn't think so."
Kyra adjusted her mittens, hiding every patch of skin. "There isn't archaeological evidence that they didn't build skyscrapers, but it seems unlikely."
"True, there was no pigskin back then. We used pterodactyl skin with mammalian lacing. We also argued over forward pass."
"That was 1906," she said. "And I don't think it's physically possible for you to throw a pass."
"With a little stickum, I could catch a pass." The dinosaur waved his tiny arms.
"Illegal since 1986," Kyra said.
"Good point, but I'll still throw less interceptions than Kizer," he said. "And my pea-sized brain will coach better too."
"I'm not sure about that; you're here in a dinosaur costume." Kyra's gaze skimmed over the other three thousand spectators.
"So? You can't be that much smarter than me if you're here," the T. Rex said.
She rolled her eyes, aware he couldn't see them. "Didn't you die in the ice age?"
"I'm a Cleveland dinosaur. I pre-existed Modell. We're the hearty type that grew up on Ohio winters."
"You're a high schooler skipping Saturday school. Did your parents drop you off?"
"I came by ship from the tropics," he said. "Actually, the costume and my car are rented."
"Did you fly in for the parade?" she asked.
"Sort of. I had a job interview, and I couldn't resist swimming in the sadness of my fell ow Browns Backers." He named the Browns fan club, reportedly one of the largest and most active organized group of fans in the world. "Do you think dinosaurs dog-paddled before there were dogs?"
"I think you overcommitted to this dinosaur persona."
There was shouting up ahead, and Kyra stood on her tiptoes, unable to see much because of her five-foot-nothing height. Someone was announcing the start.
"Come on, it's a little bit fun. Something has to be. It is tough to get a date as a dinosaur. Not many lady dinosaurs out there."
"You definitely are crazy, which makes you one of us. Though I didn't know there were a lot of dinosaur related jobs in Cleveland."
The procession began with the lead car and its flashers, followed by the Rover Morning Glory Bus. Everyone from the Pre-season Champs to the rock band playing Surrender began to move.
"I'm pitching for the Cleveland Indians."
That was ridiculous. The Indians won 102 games the previous season. "You'd better have a back-up plan," Kyra suggested.
"I'm trying out for Kyrie Irving's spot," the dinosaur suggested. Kyrie Irving had left the Cleveland Cavaliers after winning the NBA championship.
"Only sports jobs?”
"I played lacrosse in college. Guitarist for Nine Inch Nails?" The T. Rex was committed.
There were floats and a brass band with a drumline and flag corp. Chants included 'Dilly-Dilly,' 'Zero,' and 'We suck.' Kyra recognized various fan-owned tailgating buses from her depressing regular attendance as a season ticket holder. Then they saw a car dragging a long cape covered with the long list of failed quarterbacks in the past nineteen years.
Since the Browns were reactivated in 1999, they had been to the playoffs once and had two winning seasons—2002 playoffs under Tim Couch and 2007 Derek Anderson, who was released by the inept front-office. They hadn't won a playoff game since 1994 when Bill Belichick and Nick Saban were coaches.
Hence, the Factory of Sadness.
Kyra noticed that same front-office had taken down the signs for University Hospital and the Cleveland Clinic. The two hospital systems had merged after years of bitter fighting. Kyra had determined the nursing staff were most likely on the chopping block, so she’d moved from the MetroGen ER/ICU to the NICU.
On that topic, MetroGen was out in force. They had their own ER float. 'We ain’t dead yet!' the sign proclaimed. The drivers of the Ford mustang were doctors Jacob Carver, Marcus Doyle, and Jessica Steadman, all bundled up.
Some firefighters from Firehouse 15 went behind them with an ambulance, handing out hand warmers. Kyra wasn't sure if she was supposed to call them Cleveland Fire or not since the suburbs had merged this year.
The parade tapered off after completing their single circuit. No one was tempted to linger and risk frostbite.
“Nice meeting you, Dawg Pound Lady!” the T. Rex said.
“Same to you, dinosaur.”
“Boyfriend picking you up?”
She laughed. “Not in this lifetime. He thinks this is crazy.”
Brad was a fair-weather fan, which essentially meant not a fan. He was nice enough, but if he couldn't understand her commitment to the Browns, their relationship was doomed.
Which was not the business of a random dinosaur.
“He doesn't know what he's missing. Makes me think of home, the upper nosebleed section in Cleveland Municipal where I was hatched from an egg.”
Kyra sighed. “There is something wrong with you.”
“My girlfriend said that. She doesn't get football, or the Browns. This could be our year. We've got the two first round draft picks.”
“Again,” Kyra said. “Last year, we had three!”
“Well, it this wasn't a good year. Neither were our draft choices in 2012, 2014, 2015…”
“Myles Garrett's good,” Kyra said.
“My point is—every year is a new year. The odds could be in our favor. Eventually, we’re going to hit the winning combination. I believe that, and that's why we keep coming back.”
“That's right. We keep coming back. Even after Red Right 88, and the Fumble, and The Drive, and The Move.”
“After the Decision, we had the Block.” The dinosaur referred to LeBron James's monumental block to win the seventh game of the NBA finals. “If the Cavs can win a championship, the Browns can too.”
She nodded. “It doesn't matter how many times we lose, I come back. Eventually, we'll win. Ideally before we die, or you go extinct.”
“I knew you were funny.” The dinosaur turned toward the opposite direction of Kyra's car. “Hey, I don't suppose we could…”
“Never see each other again?” she suggested.
“Follow each other on Twitter? I promise no creepy weird stuff. My Twitter is strictly Browns football.”
“Mine too.” Kyra hesitated. “Look, Mr. T. Rex, you seem nice enough for a dinosaur.”
“I'm making a sad face because you understand the pain. You're a real fan, a believer, and that's special.”
She sighed. “Strictly Brown's talk? No dick pics? No naked chest?”
“I promise. You will never see an inch of my skin, anywhere.” He sounded sincere.
Kyra felt bad enough, “My Twitter handle is KWBrown19.”
“The Bernie?” he said, because the legendary Bernie Kosar had been number nineteen. “I'm 19BrownsBacker19. No underscores.”
“I'll see you later then… or not.” Kyra turned away and went back to her car.
It had been 378 days since the last Cleveland Browns victory.
April
Arlington, Texas
The Diary of the Chaplain at MetroGen
April
You really can't not look forward to draft day. Hope springs eternal in April that this year we won't pick a quarterback that can't win or a defensive line that doesn't know how to tackle. Take this year for example. We have two first round draft picks - number 1 and number 4. Then we have two second rounders, a third round, a fourth round, a fifth round, and a sixth round draft pick. If we can't win with this type of options, I'm going to eat my Book of Common Prayer with Salt and Ketchup and become a Pittsburg Steelers fan.
Okay, I take that back. I will never become a Pittsburg Steelers fan.
Chapter 2
NFL Draft Round 1
KWBrown19: OMG, we got Baker Mayfield. And he hugged his mom first!
19BrownsBacker19: Oklahoma flag guy!
KWBrown19: OSU fans will get over that. They went for Urban Myer after he beat them in the national championship.
19BrownsBacker19: There is some pride that he walked onto Oklahoma after leaving Texas Tech and sat out a year.
KWBrown19: Must mean he's patient.
19BrownsBacker19: It means he's hungry. Won't like losing.
KWBrown19: I don't like losing either. But really good at it.
19BrownsBacker19: Why so glum? We had a ton of picks. Can't be worse than last year.
KWBrown19: True. Sorry… broke up with my boyfriend.
19BrownBacker19: I'd tell you I was sorry about that, but I'm not.
KWBrown19: What does that mean?
19BrownsBacker19: He wasn't a believer.
KWBrown19: Jesus Christ, what does that mean?
19BrownsBacker19: He complained about your lucky Browns T-shirt. And your phone case. And your Dawg Pound makeup.
KWBrown19: My lucky Browns T-shirt isn't lucky if we went 1-31.
19BrownsBacker19: Luck changes all the time. Any guy who doesn't get your love of the game, even if we lose, doesn't deserve you.
