Delivering Medical Care is the Easy Part

Park La-Brea Towers is a huge apartment complex in West Hollywood. I’ve been there a dozen times. Inside, the buildings have numbers which follow a cryptic system that I have yet to decipher, and finding them is a chore. Since it’s an old complex with inadequate off-street lots, street parking is permitted.

You don’t want to visit Park La-Brea Towers during the wee-hours. Many streets are gated, and the gates are closed. Everyone is home, and so are their cars.

I went at 2 a.m. last week. I was in luck because someone was leaving as I arrived, so I could slip through the gate before it closed. Since the streets were empty, I was able to drive slowly and peer at the buildings to find the number. Then I searched and searched, but all street parking spots were occupied. I found spaces in the reserved lots, but signs warned of terrible consequences for wrongful parkers. I noticed a car parked directly in front of my building and decided to do the same.

Drawing near, I saw a ticket on its window. I wasn’t willing to take the chance. I couldn’t phone the apartment because the family didn’t have an American cell phone. I phoned the agency and woke up the person who sent me (it’s a boutique agency, so the owner sometimes takes calls). I told her to call the family and tell them to send someone down to watch my car and plead my case if parking enforcement arrived.

Someone duly appeared, and I went upstairs. As usual, delivering medical care was the easy part.