May I Help You?
Seventeen-year-old high school senior Susanna Rodman worked at the Burger Heaven fast food restaurant in Whitewood, Massachusetts, two evenings a week and a full, eight-hour day on Saturday and Sunday. Like all Burger Barn's employees, she began by flipping burgers and deep frying shoestring potatoes in the kitchen. Then, after eight months as a line cook, she was moved to the front counter to wait on customers.
On most weeknights, Susanna worked at the busy drive-thru window. It was a difficult job during peak hours, one most workers disliked since they frequently had to simultaneously take an order from one customer while delivering food and drinks to and collecting payment from another. During off-peak periods, drive-thru attendants had the added responsibility of filling the orders as well.
One early Wednesday evening during the third week of December, when the traffic on Main Street was congested with commuters and last-minute Christmas shoppers on their way to or from the shopping mall, the temperatures dropped to below freezing, and the rain that had been steadily falling all afternoon turned to a wintry mix. Normally, Susanna loved the snow but not when she had to drive home in it. She looked at her watch and saw that it was only five o'clock. There were still more than three hours until the end of her shift. Thankfully, business was brisk, and she could keep her mind off the worsening road conditions.
A bell rang, signaling the arrival of another customer.
"Welcome to Burger Heaven. May I help you?" she said into the microphone attached to the headpiece she wore.
When there was no reply, she repeated the question. There was still no answer, so she looked up at the monitor of the video camera that was pointed at the speaker of the ordering station on the drive-thru line. There was no car in sight.
A few moments later, the bell sounded again.
"Welcome to Burger Heaven. May I help you?"
"Yes," a woman's voice responded. "I'd like a grilled chicken sandwich, medium fries, a small Diet Coke and a Farmer Brown kiddy meal with chocolate milk."
"That will be $12.48. Please drive up to the window."
As Susanna handed the customer change from a twenty-dollar bill, she heard the bell announce the arrival of another car.
"Welcome to Burger Heaven. May I help you?"
"Help ... me ...."
The voice was so faint that Susanna could barely hear it.
"I'm sorry, could you please speak up?"
"Help ... me ...."
Susanna looked up at the video monitor. Again, there was no one there.
What's wrong with me? she wondered.
She spoke to the restaurant's assistant manager, Brian Carmody.
"Has anyone been having trouble hearing the drive-thru speakers?"
"Not more than they usually do. Why do you ask?"
"I thought I heard a customer at the order station, and when I looked up at the monitor, there was no one there."
Brian chuckled.
"Probably someone in the parking lot had his stereo turned up too loud."
Brian did not seem too concerned, so Susanna shrugged the incident off.
Soon the snow was coming down harder. The anxious teenager saw several cars on Main Street slide and fishtail as they attempted to stop for the traffic signal at the intersection with Kennedy Road. Conditions would improve, though, once the snow plows and salt trucks went into action—or at least Susanna hoped so.
Meanwhile, there was no shortage of customers at the fast food restaurant.
"Welcome to Burger Heaven. May I help you?"
"Please ... help ... me ...."
Susanna's eyes darted to the monitor, but this time she saw a late-model Honda Civic stopped in front of the speaker.
"Excuse me. Is anybody there?" the elderly man behind the wheel asked, as if unsure that anyone was listening.
"Hello. Welcome to Burger Heaven. May I take your order?"
"A bacon double cheeseburger, a large fry and a chocolate shake."
"That will be $10.85. Please drive up to the window."
The next two customers placed large orders, and Susanna, fearful she would fall behind, quickly filled them. As she handed two bags of food to the driver of the second car, she spoke into her microphone to the next customer.
"Welcome to ...."
"Help ...."
"I'll be right with you."
"Please ... help ...."
It was the same voice as before, only this time it was louder. Susanna could now distinguish it as feminine.
"I'll be right with you, ma'am," she repeated politely.
"Please ... help ... me ...."
"What would you like?" she asked, as she made change for the customer waiting at the drive-thru's pick-up window.
A man's voice startled her.
"I want a seafood sandwich, a side salad and a large coffee."
"How's it going, Sue?" Brian asked her, as she was pouring the customer's coffee into a Styrofoam cup. "Kelly just phoned. She won't be coming in tonight because the roads are getting too bad, so I'd like to keep Diane, Judy and Rachel at the counter. Do you think you can continue to work the drive-thru by yourself?"
"I suppose I can," Susanna said without much conviction.
"Well, if you get backed up, just yell and I'll give you a hand."
"Brian," she said uneasily. "I keep hearing a woman asking for my help, but there's no one out there."
"Don't worry about it! It's probably some kids playing a joke on you. They could be standing behind the speaker, where the video camera won't pick them up."
Susanna doubted anyone would stand out in a freezing cold, snowy night to play such an immature prank. Still, she opened the pick-up window and leaned out, hoping to catch a glimpse of someone loitering around the order speaker. Unfortunately, the window was small, and she could not lean forward far enough to see the area.
As she was pulling her head back through the open window, she saw a minivan full of carpoolers drive up to the speaker. The driver and each of his five passengers placed a separate order, and four of the six were bringing dinner home to their families. Under normal circumstances, Burger Heaven drive-thru attendants were supposed to ask such customers to come into the restaurant and place their orders, but in bad weather, the rules were less rigid. After all, the owners did not want to alienate paying customers by asking them to leave their warm cars and trudge through the snow.
"Hey, Brian," Susanna called. "Could you give me a hand with these orders?"
As the two of them began piling burgers, chicken sandwiches, prepackaged salads, French fries and soft drinks into bags, Susanna once again heard the woman's voice.
"Help ... me ...."
"Did you hear that?" she asked.
"Hear what?" Brian replied.
Susanna immediately realized how foolish her question had been. Of course, Brian could not hear the woman's plea for help. She was the one wearing the earphones, not him.
"Nothing."
Brian looked at her with concern. Perhaps the stress of manning the busy drive-thru window and worrying about the worsening snowstorm was getting to his young employee. Maybe he should send Judy over to cover the window and let Susanna help out behind the counter. But then, quite suddenly, business slowed down.
With no customers currently waiting at the drive-thru, Susanna was able to take a break. A hot cup of coffee was just what she needed to warm her cold hands and ease her frazzled nerves. She grabbed a cup with her left hand and the hot coffee pot with her right. When she started to pour, a frightened voice seemed to scream in her ear.
"Please! Help me!"
Susanna was so startled and shaken by the woman's cry that she spilled the hot coffee over her hand. Then she jumped back and dropped the coffee pot. The glass shattered, and the hot liquid splashed up onto Susanna's legs.
Brian ran to get the first aid kit, and Rachel grabbed a wet mop to clean up the mess.
"Are you okay?" Brian asked as he sprayed Solarcaine on Susanna's burns to help deaden the pain. "It doesn't look too bad to me, but would you like me to drive you to the hospital emergency room and have a doctor examine you?"
Susanna shook her head and sobbed, as she continued hearing the woman's voice through the earpiece of her headset.
"Help me! Please, help me!"
Suddenly, the stressed teenager reached up and pulled the microphone and earpiece off her head.
"I can't stand it anymore," she cried.
Brian looked helplessly from Diane to Judy and then back to Susanna.
"Why don't you go home now, Sue? We can handle it from here on in."
Susanna nodded.
"Are you sure you can drive?" Brian asked as she buttoned her jacket.
Again she nodded.
"Okay. You go home and get a good night's sleep. When you come in on Saturday, you can fill out an accident report."
"Thanks. Goodnight, everybody!"
"Take it easy on those roads," Brian cautioned as she put up her hood and walked out the door.
* * *
Susanna had little difficulty driving on Main Street since the snowplows and salt trucks had done a good job of keeping it clear. Such was not the case when she turned onto Mountain Avenue, a steep, winding road that was sparsely populated and less traveled. Susanna gave her Subaru Impreza the gas and climbed up the hill. There were several instances when she could feel her car temporarily lose traction, but she never took her foot off the gas. The teenager sighed with relief as she crested the top of the hill. But when she saw that the road beneath her had not yet been plowed, she put the automatic transmission into low gear, eased up on the gas and prayed that she would not have to apply her brakes.
As Susanna slowly inched the Subaru down the other side of the hill, she spied a Ford Focus up ahead that had slid off the road and crashed into a tree. She carefully pulled her vehicle off the road, got out and walked through the deep drifts toward the Focus. Its windshield was covered with snow, so she opened the driver's side door, looked inside and found a semiconscious woman behind the wheel, moaning and mumbling incoherently. In the passenger seat next to her was a baby strapped safely in an infant seat, but the passenger side front window was broken and snow was blowing in.
"Help ... me ...," the woman moaned. "Please, help me."
Susanna stiffened with shock. It was the voice she had been hearing all evening.
"I'm here. I'll help you," she assured the injured woman.
She removed the infant from the car and secured its seat in her Subaru where the child would stay warm and dry until help arrived. Once the baby was safe, Susanna took her cell phone out of her purse and called 911. She then waited in her car with the baby until the responding officer pulled up in his police cruiser.
* * *
The next day Susanna's hand and legs were still red and tender from being scalded by the hot coffee, but she saw no reason to stay home from work.
"I didn't expect to see you until Saturday," Brian said. "Are you sure you're up to working?"
"I'm fine," she assured him.
No longer bothered by phantom voices or threatening snow, Susanna manned the drive-thru window with her usual efficiency.
"Welcome to Burger Heaven. May I help you?" she repeated for the umpteenth time that day.
"Thank ... you ...."
Susanna looked up at the monitor. There was no car there.
Not again, she thought, but then she heard a knock on the pick-up window.
A young man was standing outside, leaning forward.
"May I help you?" Susanna asked politely.
"Are you Susanna Rodman?" he asked.
"Yes, I am," she replied cautiously.
"Officer Charles gave me your name and told me where you worked. It was my wife whose car struck the tree on Mountain Avenue last night. The doctor at the emergency room said if it hadn't been for you, my wife and daughter might have frozen to death. I just wanted to stop by and thank you in person for saving them."
"You're welcome," the girl replied.
The grateful husband and father then walked toward the post office on Main Street.
Susanna never understood how she had heard the woman's calls for help from so great a distance. She simply accepted the event as an inexplicable miracle that had enabled her to save the lives of a young mother and her baby. Just the same, she hoped she would never hear strange voices from the drive-thru speaker again.
It's not easy to lose a black cat in a snowstorm. Believe me; I've tried!
