Log Cabin Chronicles


Hell's Elongated Bells
(Fiction in progress)

DAVID SHATH SQUARE

Chapter Forty-two

When we re-entered the cabin, Lee Chang and my grandfather were kneeling beside Thoreena who lay rigid on her bed of grass. Beads of perspiration covered her face, which had lost the look of cool ivory and become flushed. She had bitten her lower lip until it bled.

I was amazed to see her voluntarily relinquish Hilda to Lee Chang, who cradled the baby in his arms.

My grandfather stood up, handed me the vials of morphine, penicillin, and the syringes.

"This is your job, Hardy. She's feverish as hell an' in a lot a pain."

My hands shook so badly I was afraid I would drop the precious glass vials on the floor. My father took my arm, guided me toward one of the coal oil lamps Lee Chang had lit. The lantern emitted enough light for me to see the needle and the vials clearly.

My father showed me how to hold a vial upside down, puncture the rubber diaphram with the sharp needle, and draw liquid morphine into the syringe's barrel by pulling back the plunger. When the syringe was half full, he said "that's enough, we don't want to give her too much."

Then he showed me how to tap the barrel lightly a couple of times with my finger, while, at the same time, depressing the plunger just far enough to expel any air trapped in the barrel.

"Well done, son," he said, when I had filled two syringes, one with morphine, the other with penicillin.

We walked over to Thoreena and knelt beside her. My grandfather had placed a lantern on the floor so we could see what we were doing. I pulled back Thoreena's cover to expose her left arm. Her whole body was tense with pain. When I touched her arm, it quivered like a plucked string.

I was shocked to see that the arm had become thin and fragile like an old person's. When I looked at her face, it too had diminished; the flesh no longer full and supple, but tight and stretched over her cheek bones like parchment. Little lines of pain snaked out from the corners of her delirious eyes.

"Hardy, is that you? Someone has stolen the baby. I have to get up and find the baby."

She tried to raise herself from the bed, then screamed in agony at the effort and fell back.

"Oh, God, it hurts! Why does it hurt so much, Hardy? Having a baby isn't supposed to hurt this much."

"Don't try to move, Thoreena. I'm going to give you some medicine for the pain."

As soon as she was still, my father quickly isolated a vein in her arm.

"Do you want me to give her the first shot?" he asked.

"No. I'll do it. Tell me how."

"Okay. Just slide the tip of the needle gently into the vein. Get it in far enough so the opening is completely enclosed and the morphine flows into the bloodstream and doesn't spill out onto her arm."

I took a deep breath. My hands were calm, but it still took me several tries to insert the needle into the vein my father had isolated. When I finally succeeded, my hands were slippery with sweat and I had trouble keeping my thumb on the plunger.

"You're doing fine, son. You don't have to press hard. Just keep steady pressure on the plunger."

His reassuring voice gave me confidence to continue. As soon as the morphine began to enter Thoreena's bloodstream, there was a change in her appearance: her face softened, the pain lines receded and her taut body relaxed like an uncoiling spring.

"You did a good job, son. Do you want to give her the penicillin?"

"No. I think I'll let you do it. I just don't feel up to it now."

I watched as my father located another vein, slid the needle in, and deftly injected the drug. I guessed he had done the same for my mother many times.

Most of the men had gone outside to allow us some privacy. Only Lee Chang, Myron Mann, and the Swede stayed in the cabin.

The Swede approached his ailing daughter, knelt beside her on the floor, stroked her forehead with his bony hand.

"Oh Gott, my beautiful daughter, you must forgive an old man his stupidness."

Thoreena looked up at him. Her eyes were glazed, very far away.

"Who are you?"

At this, the Swede began to cry, rocking back and forth on his skinny knees.

"Thoreena, by Gott, I am your father."

"I don't have a father. Only a mother. I saw her. She's an Indian woman. A kind, forgiving Indian woman who beckoned to me from the other side."

Thoreena looked away, as if she expected her mother to appear on the opposite side to the Swede. After a minute, she turned her head back and looked at the Swede.

"Why are you so unkind, old man? Why did you forsake me and my baby? Where is the baby...someone has stolen my baby? I must get up and find her!"

The Swede tried to kiss her on the forehead.

"Forgive me, Thoreena. My beautiful, Thoreena. You must forgive an old, stupid fool."

"You stole my baby. You nasty old man. It was you. Give her back now!"

"No Thoreena, no, no, no...."

My father pulled the Swede to a standing position, moved him gently away from his daughter.

"Don't try to talk to her now, Swede. She's delirious and doesn't know what she is saying."

The Swede slid to a sitting position on the floor with has back propped against a wall. His eyes were opaque, the light of consciousness extinguished forever. The breath of God had left his body. He was alive, but beyond redemption.

To Chapter Forty-one
To Chapter Forty
To Chapter Thirty-nine
To Chapter Thirty-eight
To Chapter Thirty-seven
To Chapter Thirty-six
To Chapter Thirty-five
To Chapter Thirty-four
To Chapter Thirty-three
To Chapter Thirty-two
To Chapter Thirty-one
To Chapter Thirty
To Chapter Twenty-nine
To Chapter Twenty-eight
To Chapter Twenty-seven
To Chapter Twenty-six
To Chapter Twenty-five
To Chapter Twenty-four
To Chapter Twenty-three
To Chapter Twenty-two
To Chapter Twenty-one
To Chapter Twenty
To Chapter Nineteen
To Chapter Eighteen
To Chapter Seventeen
To Chapter Sixteen
To Chapter Fifteen
To Chapter Fourteen
To Chapter Thirteen
To Chapter Twelve
To Chapter Eleven
To Chapter Ten
To Chapter Nine
To Chapter Eight
To Chapter Seven
To Chapter Six
To Chapter Five
To Chapter Four
To Chapter Three
To Chapter Two
To Chapter One



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