MISOPROSTOL
Form: Thank a Tucson Police Department Employee
This form is to compliment a member of the Tucson Police Department. If you'd like to make a complaint, please go the Complaint Page. If this is an emergency, call 911
Has an Officer done something that made the community a better place? Please let us know about it here.
Date: July 6, 2033
Your Name: Carl Schweikert
Address: 1549 S Camino de Oeste, Tucson, AZ
Phone: 520- 555-5555
TPD Employee’s name: Yvonne Zepeda
Your Email Address: Schweikert.Ph4:13@cox.com
Your Message:
Dear Office Zepeda,
This message began as a complaint to your supervisor. I hated you for accusing me of causing my daughter’s overdose and I wanted you fired. But as I composed that angry message, I realized you were right, and I owed you deep gratitude, not only for saving Madison, but for opening my eyes as well.
You saw Madison in the bathroom, same as me. But it wasn’t the only time you’d seen the uterine and gastrointestinal ruptures of misoprostol overdose or the first time you’d witnessed a teenage girl lose her chance to be a mother forever.
I had never heard of misoprostol before last week when I found Madison unconscious in a pool of coagulating blood. I had no reason to believe she would commit suicide, but I grabbed her wrists and looked for cut marks.
When the EMTs said Madison had taken an abortion drug, my first reaction was fury. MY DAUGHTER! ABORTION? How dare they? We raised Madison to trust in the Lord. Our household scripture motto has always been Phillipians 3:14 – I do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
How had I overlooked that Madison was three months pregnant? The traditional part of me wants to blame my wife, Susan, because it’s a mother’s responsibility to handle sex talks with a daughter, not a father’s. But you didn’t say she’s “better off without her mother.” You said, “the girl’s better off without him.” Without me.
You saw me frantically calling Susan, but she wasn’t picking up her phone. They leave their phones in a basket during Bible study to better focus on God. I remember praying for the end of Roe v Wade, thanking God when the courts over turned it and Governor Gosar signed the ban.
Madison took three times the recommended dose. The kids thought the pills were 100 mcg but they were much more than that. The ER nurse said that black market pills are often designed to be crushed and dosed, not ingested whole.
Officer Zepeda, please know that the girl you saved is a wonderful person. She’s on honor roll, starts for the volleyball team, and takes Advanced Placement classes. She loves animals and she spends hours training our dog, Max. She volunteers with Produce on Wheels Without Waste. She’s never even had a detention.
Madison met her boyfriend, Daniel, at church. We attend Victory Chapel, which is a large congregation, and our whole family, including Madison, is very involved. She even teaches Sunday School for kindergarten kids on the first Sunday of each month. Or she did. It’s unclear if they will let her now.
Daniel’s brother was supposed to attend the University of Colorado, but his parents refused to send him after they found condom wrappers in his bedroom trash. Now he works at Bookmans. Daniel was scared of losing his future, too, and, undoubtedly, Madison felt the same fear of Susan and I.
That horrible afternoon, while I wept into Susan’s voicemail, I overheard you talking to someone outside. They said someone should sit with me because I was a suicide risk. “I’m not staying,” you said. “Enough with these religious nuts. He wants to kill himself? That’s his choice. The girl’s better off without him.”
At the time, I assumed the reason you thought Susan and I were “religious nuts’ was because you saw Christian décor in our home, but it was because of the overdose, wasn’t it? Did you even notice the crosses?
Officer Brown stayed with me until Susan arrived home, followed immediately by my in-laws. That day, I revered Officer Brown as much as I hated you. I still admire him, but I no longer hate you.
You saved my daughter’s life, so you deserve to know that she is home and recovering. Madison is leaning on her faith to get through this. People from the church keep calling, stopping by, offering support. I hear your voice calling them “religious nuts” and I want to avoid them, maybe forever. Yet, for Madison, I cannot. Harder still, I have to agree with her that God saved her and it’s a miracle she’s alive. She says she has forgiven me and her mother, but how could that be?
Sincerely,
Carl Shweikert
by Eric Aldrich
Eric’s work has recently appeared or is forthcoming from Terrain.org, Euphony, Expat Press, and Weber: The Contemporary West. His novella, "Please Listen Carefully as Our Options Have Changed," is included in Running Wild Novella Anthology Volume IV.