When it cleared his mouth, Lane sat up some and lunged the upper half of his body over the bed and with an upheaval sound of regurgitation and cough, water shot from his mouth along with traces of blood.
“Oxygen,” Doctor Raya called out.
The nurse immediately, put oxygen on Lane’s face.
“Breathe,” Doctor Raya told him. “Take a breath. Better?”
Lane nodded.
“Good. Good. Now … watch how fast you get better.” Doctor Raya placed her hand on Lane’s wrist and glanced at the nurse. “Get him set up with an IV so we can move him into Intermediate Care.”
I don’t think she even knew I was there. She seemed genuinely surprised when I asked, “Will he be alright?”
Doctor Raya jumped a little. “Oh, you scared me. I … my goodness, we need to treat that eye.”
“My husband. He’s my husband. Will he be alright?”
“He will be.” She walked over to me. “I’m hopeful. He’s very strong. He had debris in his lungs, which also trapped water. I can’t believe he didn’t die. His oxygen levels were unbelievably low. But … we have him on steroids, trying to bring that fever down. But I think it will now that we’ve cleared his lungs. He needs to be on antibiotics for a few days. We’ll be moving him to an observation tent. Where he’ll get good care. Okay?”
I nodded and stepped toward Lane. “Can I just stay here until you move him?”
“You can stay here until we call you to treat you. Okay?”
I nodded again and walked over to the cot.
The nurse smiled at me.
“Thank you for helping him,” I said.
“Not a problem. I’m going to get him hooked up and then have someone get to you right away.”
I thanked her again. My eye could not have been that bad. Lane never said a word, nor really did Sturgis.
It didn’t hurt, so to me they were overreacting. Lane’s health was way more important. Besides, it was just an eye injury. How bad could it be?
✽✽✽
To say I was shocked was an understatement when Doctor Raya told me another day and I would have lost my eye. In fact, she wasn’t even sure I was out of the woods with it.
I argued with her about it, that I was fine and could see, until she covered my good eye and I saw how blurry everything was.
Was it my emotions, my adrenaline that covered the pain? It didn’t start hurting until they pulled the half inch piece of wood from my eye. It bled and the fluid buildup was released.
They put a patch on my eye and Doctor Raya wanted to hook me up to an IV with antibiotics as well.
“I can’t,” I told her. “I have family on the other side of the river. They’re waiting. I told them we’d be there tomorrow. We got separated and my radio died.”
“Well, you obviously can’t walk there, and you can’t drive.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Your depth perception is going to be off. You could crash. How about … trying to reach them by radio. You really should be under care like your husband.”
Radioing them was a good suggestion, but I could tell she was busy and didn’t really have a lot of time to babysit me.
She instructed a male volunteer to take me to the rescue workers tent to try a radio there.
He took me there in a golf cart, told someone inside what I needed, and the man handed me a radio.
There were police, fire fighters and others in there. They looked exhausted. Some sat in chairs, some laid on the ground. There was a small meeting going on in the corner and I sat at a small table with a radio.
I tried for at least an hour, every channel I could. There was no luck to be had. The radio probably died for Martin, too. I knew he didn’t have a charger.
I sat at the table, clutching the radio, feeling defeated.
“Hey,” the young voice called to me. “How’s your husband?”
I lifted my head. It was Den. “He’s better. Thank you so much.”
Billy walked in the tent after him. “Oh, good, you got that eye taken care of. How’s Lane?”
“He’s good.”
“What’s wrong?” Billy asked.
“I’m … I’m trying to reach my family. We got separated at the bridge. They made it across. We didn’t. Last I spoke to them by radio they were meeting me on the other side of the bridge south of here. Tomorrow and … I just don’t know how to get in touch with them or get there.”
He just stared at me.
“I’m sorry.” I waved my hand. “I know it’s not your problem.”
“No that’s not it,” Billy replied. “I was just thinking. Den, wasn’t someone saying they were headed across the river? She wanted to go today, but she’s still pitching in.”
“Oh, yeah. She did say she wanted to head out before tonight.” Den said. “Alice. Her name is Alice.”
Billy snapped his finger. “That’s it. Why don’t you find her? Go ask Alice. See if she’ll take her.”
I jumped up. “Alice. Her name is Alice?”
“Yeah,” Billy answered. “She arrived yesterday right after we got hit. She’s been pitching in.”
“Tall woman, around your age, long sandy hair. Kinda tough looking?” I asked.
“Sounds like her.”
“Oh my God.” My heart raced. “Can you take me to her?”
“Do you know her?” Den asked.
“Oh, God, I hope.” I placed my hand on my chest. “I hope it’s her.”
“Then I’ll go find her,” Den said. “Stay here.”
I agreed, feeling backwards, finding my chair and sitting back down.
Alice.
I thought she had left.
It would be a miracle if it were our Alice. I tried not to get my hopes up. Because what were the odds it was really her?
I sat there waiting for what seemed like forever, then finally I was impatient and decided to go look
