another Adventure of Old Alice

One night, I received a call from our hospital here, asking me to come to the hospital to talk to a victim. So I got dressed and got on my way.  It was the middle of the night.  When I arrived there a nurse met me and escorted me to the person in distress.  As we walked she explained that the person I was seeing is a male, and had been beaten up by people who stole his bicycle.  Well this was something I wasn't trained to do, but I told her I'd try my best.  She warned me that he was pretty beat up and looked pretty bad, and that he had AIDS.  I said ok, I'm not scared by AIDS and I have a pretty strong stomach.  So I went in.  He had a police officer with him.  He had blood all over him, and open wounds on his face.  He was gonna need stitches and some medical care.  My heart went out to him.  I felt so bad for him.  He was obviously handicapped mentally and was very upset.  He was surprised to see me.  I got a stool and sat next to him.  He told me what happened, and he was crying.  I put my hand on his arm.  He got upset and told me he had AIDs and that I shouldn't touch him.  I told him that I knew about his illness and that I wasn't worried about touching him.  I showed him that I had no wounds on my hands that could transmit the disease, and I laid my hand on his arm.  I stayed with him while he was stitched up, and cleaned up.  Then after awhile the police took him home.  I did my report while still at the hospital, sitting at the nurses station.  All I could hope for was that he would be ok, and get his bicycle back.  It was a humbling experience.