A BETTER MAN THAN I

‘You called an ambulance?’ I said to the man was kneeling over the man lying on on the ground outside, at the bottom of the flats.
'Do you know the recovery position?’ he said.
‘He’s in it, already,’ I said. ‘Have you called an ambulance?’
But he was saying, 'Oi mate,' so I called an ambulance, described the scene, ‘He’s unconscious, drunk, drugs, or beaten up, we’re not sure,’ gave the address, walking around waiting for my lift. ‘They’ll know the way,’ I said, ‘They’re here quite often.’
The man had now put the other man on his back, ‘Are you supposed to do that?’
‘What happened?’
‘We found him in the lift so we dragged him out and he’s still breathing,’ he said.
‘You sure?’
The woman’s voice said, ‘Lie him on his back put your hand on his forehead and your other hand underneath his neck and pull his head back,’ she said. ‘Have you done that?’
‘Yes,’ relieved she hadn’t said do mouth to mouth.
‘Is he breathing?’
‘Yes.’
‘Normal?’
‘No, not normal but he is breathing, his eyes are closed but he is breathing.’
‘Tell me when he does...’
‘Now...Now...’ as he choked.
‘The paramedic's here,’ I said.
‘With you?’
‘I’ll deal with it now you can go,’ he said.
I walked to the bollards, ‘Almost at yrs,’ said the text, heard the paramedic say, ‘...Come on, wake up. Hey, wake up,’ quite a few times...and, ‘Is this your briefcase? You’re lucky not to have lost your laptop,’ and, ‘Look I know what you’ve done. I’m on your side so don’t bullshit me, alright?’ and, ‘You got any sharps on you?’ and, ‘If you’d been here much longer lying on the ground unconscious I’d’ve been giving you the kiss of life and jumping up and down on your chest to get your heart going,’ and, ‘Come on, wake up, stand up, come on,’ and, ‘Don’t you think I’ve got better things to do than deal with people who self-inflict?’ and he walked the man to the kerb as my lift arrived.
‘You search his pockets?’ said Eight Ball when I said what’d happened.
‘Well,’ I said, ‘if you’d put your hands in the pockets of a junky, you’re a better man than I.’