 
DAVID SHATH SQUARE Chapter Nineteen
A dark void within a dark void. This may sound crazy but it's how I felt when I regained consciousness after falling through the roof into the root cellar. My head was just clearing when I was confronted with another dark space -- the cellar walls. In my confusion, I thought I could feel Thoreena lick my face and Shadow ask if I was okay.
"Hardy, are you okay?"
Thoreena shook my right shoulder. I nearly passed out again from the pain. Thoreena used a fireman's lift to haul me out of the cellar and place me on a deep pile of swamp grass we used as a bed. She hovered over me like an angel of mercy.
I wanted to tell her she a was remarkable woman, but the pain in my right shoulder was so intense that I couldn't form the words. Instead, I rolled onto my left side and wretched into the grass mattress.
I kept slipping in and out of consciousness. From the edge of my agonized dream, I watched Thoreena probe my right shoulder with her long, cool fingers. After a short examination, she drew a homemade knife out of a sheath at her waist. She cut away my shirt exposing my right arm and shoulder. She contemplated the wound for several minutes. There was no bleeding, but the skin around the shoulder was deep purple and the arm hung loosely at my side.
"Hell's bells," she said to herself, "a dislocated shoulder."
She got up and lifted a braided rope she had made of wild hemp from a peg on the cabin wall.
"I hope this doesn't hurt too much, Hardy. But I've got to relocate that shoulder before swelling makes it difficult to set."
I closed my eyes and sought safety in darkness. I didn't much like the sound of the phrase "I hope this doesn't hurt too much."
Thoreena wound a length of rope around my wrist and then sat on the mattress near me with one foot under my right armpit. She wound the other end around her hands and yanked hard on the rope. I heard a pop as my arm snapped back into position in the shoulder joint.
There was a moment of relief before the pain clamped like a fanged serpent injecting every nerve with pure poisoned misery. I began to scream out loud and kept screaming until Thoreena lifted my head and knocked me out with a round-house right to the jaw.
The next day I awoke in the late afternoon. My shoulder was in a sling and my jaw was swollen, but otherwise I felt pretty good. The serpent-pain had subsided and the cabin smelled of herbs and roast meat. A pot of boiled herbs on the mattress near my head exuded a sweet-smelling vapour that soothed my body and calmed my mind. I suddenly realized I was starving. Thoreena was busy at the cookstove with her back to me.
"Now I know how Ravin' Craven felt after you decked him," I called out, rubbing my jaw with my good hand.
She turned around and walked over to the mattress.
"Forgive me, Hardy. I couldn't stand your pain."
"I forgive and thank you. Have you ever been in so much pain you'd rather shoot yourself than live? That's how it was. You probably saved my life by punching me out."
"Well, it was a desperate situation," she said.
"And desperate situations call for desperate measures," I said.
I started to laugh. I don't know why. Maybe it was the healing vapours that issued from the cook pot by my head, or maybe it was just the relief of being alive with Thoreena beside me. Whatever the cause, my laughter got Thoreena started and suddenly we were both convulsed.
"I must have looked pretty funny when I fell through the roof."
"Ya, Hardy, you looked pretty funny. I saw the whole thing. I knew you were done for when you stepped on that thin pole. You should have seen your face when it broke under your weight," laughed Thoreena.
"Once I started to fall, it was like everything happened in slow motion," I said. "I saw you look up at me in amazement, and I heard Shadow bark. I remember shakes scattering like cards in the wind; and then I floated in the air for a long time before everything went black."
"It was a scene out of Laurel and Hardy," said Thoreena, wiping tears from her eyes. "And you were damn lucky."
"I guess I was," I said, contemplating my injured shoulder.
Now that the hysteria had dissipated, the truth reared like a snake in a garden devouring all the humour with it.
"Hardy, you could have broken your back, or your neck, or you could have been...," Thoreena said, suddenly breaking into tears.
"But I didn't and I'm still alive."
"What about next time? Our luck can last so long. Look what we've been through since we started this insane adventure."
"It's not an insane adventure. It's two people trying to survive and make a life for themselves and their child. Or have you forgotten the baby?" I said.
"Of course I haven't forgotten the baby, Hardy. The baby's the main reason I agreed to this scheme of yours."
"Oh, so now it's my scheme. I thought you agreed because of your feelings for me?"
"I did, partly...but I also want to keep my child."
"Your child. It's my child, too!"
"I know that, Hardy. But I don't think the baby is your main motive for leaving."
"Just what the hell is it then?" I screamed at Thoreena.
"I don't know, Hardy. Why don't you tell me?"
I turned me head angrily away from Thoreena and stared at the floor. Outside it had started to rain and the cold drops began to leave pock marks on the rough pine slabs.
"Hardy, I want to go home. Winter is coming and we don't have a decent roof over our heads. And now that you're injured, how are we going to survive?"
I continued to stare at the rain drops on the floor. Pretty soon the whole floor was wet.
"I never thought of you as a quitter," I finally said to Thoreena.
"I'm not a quitter, Hardy. I'm just realistic."
"Realistic or scared?" It was a mean thing to say and I regretted it.
"Screw you, Hardy." Thoreena walked out of the cabin and slammed the door with such force that it fell off its remaining hinge and crashed to the ground. to be continued...
To Chapter Twenty
Copyright © 1999 David Square/Log Cabin Chronicles/2.99 |
