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Fire was rising along the car's underside, inching forward. Gage smashed the glass he could reach and he wormed his way inside the car quickly to reach their victim. The man started screaming when he felt the sharp heat of hot metal begin to sear the side of him that was still trapped under a twisted car seat and touching the door frame. He began to flail about, in a panic. Johnny grabbed his face to hold him still after snuffing out the intense sparks that were landing on them both. Roy struggled at the door with the bar with all of his strength, working above them. "Just take it easy! We won't let that fire reach you!" Johnny promised. The face bloodied, groggy older man in his grip just sagged, finally becoming quieter, moaning confusedly at the thought of actual rescue and from some overwhelming pain. He didn't even flinch when a sharp blast of carbon dioxide from Roy's extinguisher flooded in to cool the metal around him. "Hey mister. Can you hear me? Where are you hurting the most?" Gage shouted loudly, holding the driver's shoulders protectively with his gloves. Johnny ducked sharply at every flame that licked inside their tiny crumpled space. The man didn't reply and suddenly lapsed into unconsciousness. |
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At a particularly bad surge of fire, Johnny yelled aloud. "Ahh! Roy, where are they?!" "They're coming. I just got Stoker on the radio saying they're heading right for us." DeSoto shouted back. "This is stuck real good. I can't budge it!" "Looks like we have no choice. Roy get down here. We'll pull him out through the windshield hole. He's free!" he grunted, pulling the man's legs straight from where they were folded. A loud rumble of falling rock alerted them and the car lurched, suddenly teetering as a weak point in the storm loosened hillside gave way. Johnny shot out of the burning car and to his feet. Panicking, they gripped the edge of the car as it oscillated sickeningly on a cliff edge they hadn't been aware was nearby because of the smoke. Desperately, they hung on to the automobile's frame until its unsteady motion stopped. DeSoto gasped. "Now get him out! I'll stabilize this for as long as I can." he said, clinging to the steaming metal with his gloved hands. Gingerly, Gage let go of the side. The car shifted slightly, but then it held, with only falling dirt to announce its precarious position on the hill. Johnny scrambled, breathless, back into the car, this time getting in through the windshield that he had smashed open a few minutes earlier. An incoherent shout from Roy gave him a warning he couldn't ignore. Gage grabbed their victim gracelessly by the collar and hauled backwards, straining, until his dead weight began to slide out into the tall grass that was slowly igniting all around them. Johnny grabbed the rest of the folded man as his upper half cleared the car into a bear hug under the arms, pulling with every ounce of muscle he had, first freeing his head, then his shoulders. But in seconds, it happened. The car....fell. Roy shouted in frustration and worry, as he leaped backwards into the clear, calling for his partner. "I got him! We're over here!" Johnny yelled from a torn clump of towering pampas grass. A hissing sound of covering water began as a charging Chet met them on the slope with his fire hose. "Oh, my gosh. Are you guys okay? We saw it go!" |
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"We're fine." gasped Roy, thoroughly exhausted as he crouched by Gage as they checked to see if the driver was still breathing. "I think." "That guy must be pretty busted up inside after a tumble like that one, I'll bet." How is he doing?" Kelly asked as he redirected his stream to join Stoker's in combating the growing brush fire that had been started by the burning car. Johnny didn't answer, feeling sick to his stomach. "Roy, I had to pull him hard. I had no choice." "Worry about that later. If you hadn't, he would have been dead." DeSoto reassured him. "Cap? We need our stokes and spinal gear!" he yelled up hill. "On the way. 36's bringing just the basics. I want the three of you out of here before things get out of hand even worse." Hank said about the raging brush fire. Roy glanced up and into a wall of flame barely being held at bay by a double water curtain. "You don't have to tell me twice." he said wholeheartedly as he and Johnny worked carefully to straighten their limp victim into anatomical alignment enough for a guarded log roll to check for heavy bleeding. "He's still got a strong pulse." he told Stanley in an update. Leaning over, Johnny inserted an oral airway into the man's mouth so he could breathe unimpended on his back. "Roy, he's got multiple fractures. Left arm, lower left leg, right arm. And I still don't think I've found them all." |
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"How's his head?" DeSoto asked, quickly tying off a blood stopper around a fast flowing wound on their patient's foot. He didn't ask the other questions that usually followed the first. They both knew that movement probably had already risked the man's spinal cord if it was injured anywhere along its length. "No depressions. But he's got a deep bruise behind both ears." Johnny replied. "Battle's sign?" "Yeah." Gage said. "Okay, let's get him outta here pronto." Cap gestured, shouting over the roar of the growing fire. Marco, and a team from the other fire truck companies quickly immobilized the driver with a cervical collar, and longboard on top of an uninflated mast suit swiftly, so they could make good a strategic escape from the hillside fire that was beginning to blow fiercely with spreading thermal effects. It quickly outgrew the two fire hoses. "Everybody, let's get out of here on the double!" Cap ordered. "We're out of time." |
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the side of the freeway, Hank made for the biophone while a very sooty Chet ran to grab out the resuscitator, and other medical gear, for Roy and Johnny. Cars were already absent as the cordoned off section of the highway was buffered away from danger by the Highway Patrol. Nearby, Ponch and Jon stood by their motorcycles and a semi they had shanghai'd into being a wind block for a flames created gale that was effecting the rescue squad site. Far below, the fire continued to rage. But soon, its chaotic destruction was being met with swift water drops from two fire department choppers. Captain Stanley spoke aloud into the phone receiver. "Rampart, this is Engine 51. How do you read?" |
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************************************************** From: "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com> Date: Thu Aug 16, 2007 1:05 pm Subject: Ties That Bind.. ##Go ahead, Engine 51.## said Dixie McCall from the hospital. "Rampart, we've a male victim aged in his middle fifties. He's been extricated from a rollover crash over an embankment. Stand by for vital signs." said Stanley. ##I'm standing by, 51.## she replied. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rubbing her chin, Dixie thumbed a silver button on the wall to hail an operator on intercom. "Yes, this is Miss McCall in Emergency. Page a doctor to the base station. Stat. We've a multiple trauma case coming in. Thanks." she said. A few seconds later, she heard her announcement read overhead as she moved Station 51's status board magnets to the 'on scene' square of the hot board. ##Dr. Brackett to Emergency at the base station. Dr. Brackett to Emergency at the base station. Stat.## said the operator. Kel hurried to McCall's side a minute later, still in the scrubs he had worn for another procedure. "What is it, Dix? That sounded urgent." "It is, Kel. A multiple trauma with 51's. They've got a man they've just rescued from an automobile after it tumbled down a cliff." she replied, handing him the time stamped notes she had begun. Brackett made a face and a noise of sympathy. "Rough. Okay, I got this from here. Would you go meet Vince and sign some paperwork concerning the Yellowbird girl? There are some state agencies looking for her information. And nice job learning who she is. We had her medical records in our greedy little hands in no time at all." he grinned, as she turned to go out of the glassed in communications room. "How'd you manage it?" "I got lucky. Someone decided to step forward despite getting a possible rap." "Anybody she knows?" Kel asked. Dixie hid her reaction, tightly. "Probably." she answered noncommittally as she closed the door behind herself without looking at him. Her evasion escaped him completely. Brackett turned to wait for a reply back, leaning on his hands in anticipation. |
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roy DeSoto looked up from the blood pressure he was taking on the rescued driver. "It's down. 68 over 40. Get those mast trousers on. His pelvis and femurs aren't fractured." he ordered the gang hovering near him. "Cap, pulse is 46 and regular, respirations are shallow." Poncherello stood watching Hank as he wrote down the vital signs Roy was relaying to him. "Any sign of alcohol?" he asked. DeSoto looked up, startled. "What? Uh,..no. None." "Well how about needle marks? He must have been on something if he crashed his car without even braking. There're no tire marks over there." he shrugged, pointing. Gage lost his temper. "Listen, Ponch. I don't want to be rude or anything. But please stop interfering with our medical call. We'll try to get all the information everybody needs just as fast as we can. All right?" "Sure. No problem. I thought I was helping out again. You know me." Frank smiled amicably, but then his smile disappeared. "How about looking for his wallet?" "Later." said Roy, without turning around, quickly cutting away the man's shirt and pants for the team quickly fastening up the mast suit's velcro straps and stop cocks. "His back's clear, Johnny. I don't feel any dislocations." Gage nodded, letting out the breath he was holding as he connected up the EKG monitor. "Let's keep on hoping. He's built like an ox." Then he leaned over and peered a light into the man's nose, eyes, ears and mouth around the airway and mask Marco was monitoring with suction. "There's cerebral spinal fluid in the right ear. It's staining yellow." he said, holding up the testing 4 X 4 he had used to clean up other cuts he had found on the man's head. "Pupil is dilated on that side and he's doll's eyes negative. They didn't track at all when we rolled him. He's ipsilateral." "I'll get his lung sounds. Marco, is he breathing okay?" Roy asked. "A bit slow. But his color's still good." Lopez answered. "Watch for vomiting. He may have an occipital skull fracture." Roy told him. "Once the others get through pumping up that last chamber on the suit, go ahead and elevate the head of his longboard onto a gear box or something high. His brain's starting to swell. See how his eyes are getting swollen?" "Yeah." Lopez replied, frowning. "What are his chances?" "That'll depend on his surgeon and just how bad that crack in his head reacts inside. If he develops just an epidural hematoma, we're in luck. But if that bleeding's gone deeper, into the subdural layers.." his voice trailed off. |
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"I'll vent carefully once he needs it." Lopez promised, repositioning the demand valve over the man's mouth and nose a little tighter so he could draw in better breaths of pure oxygen on his own. Gage quickly palpated the man's large sized abdomen and found a hot pulsing mass under his fingers just below the navel. "Whoa.. Roy. I think I got something else." Quickly, he motioned for the others to stop pumping up the mast suit. "I've found a huge triple A. Right here. I can feel it overlapping his spine right behind his liver." Reaching lower under the suit, Johnny quickly compared both of their patient's femoral pulses. "They're grossly different, Roy, by far." Cap overheard the news about an unruptured aneurysm and sighed. "So he's no longer a flight candidate. Okay, cancelling the helicopter. L.A., this is Engine 51. Respond an immediate ambulance to our location. Our patient has been flight contraindicated and limited to ground transportation." he reported over HT. ##10-4. Mayfair is giving an E.T.A. of three minutes.## L.A. responded. "Copy that." Hank answered. Then he looked up Johnny. "Is this why his pressure's so low with that skull fracture?" Gage met his eyes grimly. "Yeah, he's hemorrhaging out somewhere. Either at his descending aorta inside a few membranes or around the sites of his limb fractures. His shock right now, is probably saving his life. Such a large AAA that's leaky or having a basal skull fracture alone, is usually bad enough to kill someone in a few hours. But having both these problems..." "Keep breathing, man." said Poncherello, crouching by the driver's head. "You've got your kids to live for." he said, passing over the wallet his partner had just located on the hillside in a fast search. The medical history card inside listed hypertension as one of the man's pre-existing conditions. He tossed the photo section open and the firefighters winced when they saw pictures of a three year old boy, and his six or seven year old brother, playing baseball in a yard, along with a portrait of the driver's wife. "Now you know why I was hurrying so badly down there. I saw a baseball glove in the back seat." he glared at Johnny. |
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Gage nodded a silent apology, stunned at the reality of a young family, still waiting at home for their husband and father. Hank grabbed Roy's notes and got on the phone, quickly. "Rampart. Vital signs are.." and he listed off those and his paramedics' medical findings, one by one as fast as he could relay them. "...and Rampart, he has a Glasgow coma scale rating of three." Stanley concluded. Dr. Brackett responded. ##Okay, 51. Everything we're going to do will be strictly preventative. Start a large bore I.V. of normal saline, TKO. If his pulse rate remains below sixty beats per minute, inject 0.5 mgs atropine I.V. push. And if his intracranial pressure rises significantly, with an onset of Cushing's syndrome, administer lidocaine 1.0 mg/kg slow IVP to counteract his ICP immediately. Premedicate him for a rapid sequence intubation. Use Etomidate, at 0.3 mg/kg IVP and have someone apply a Sellick maneuver while you intubate. If your tube placement is confirmed and the patient shows signs of increasing consciousness, administer 2 mg's midazolam in slow increments to sedation, then use 0.1 mg/kg vercuronium to regain paralysis. We'll have mannitol and Lasix standing by pre-surgery. Monitor his vitals signs, heart rate and overall reactivity and give me a new update every five minutes in transit. Also use the standard dose of phenobarbital if he starts developing seizure activity.## Hank faithfully recounted Kel's orders to his paramedics, word for word. And soon, all preparations and necessary care, were provided. |
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Jon Baker looked up. "Traffic's still real bad out there. It's just past the lunch rush." he said to Captain Stanley. "How about we provide an escort for your ambulance? He'll get there faster by whole minutes if we lead the way. Cars are used to yielding to us." he said as his partner cracked his leather gloved knuckles in emphasis. "Of course they are. You're their ticket writers." Hank grinned. "All right. Let's load him up." Cap said to everyone working over the man as the Mayfair rig finally arrived from an off ramp. Ponch was so worried about the driver, that he helped carry the stretcher himself over to the open doors. |
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brackett and Dr. Early met 51 at the entrance. "Okay, Carol, skip the CT scan. He's going right into surgery for that dissecting aneurysm. I want a type and cross, for whole blood and a full skull series while he's getting prepped." "Right away, doctor." said Ms. Evans. Reluctantly, the dusty Squad 51 pair finally let go of his stokes and longboarded gurney as orderlies took over and handed them back their oxygen and ekg equipment. One of them spoke. "We'll wash off your board and stokes and leave them by the entrance in about a half an hour once he's cleared on X-ray." Nearby, the two highway patrol officers watched them soberly as they traded information and updates. Finally, the pass-off happened between the paramedics and the hospital staff. "Is there any hope for him at all, doc?" Johnny asked Kel as the doctor rapidly turned to follow the driver's bed. Dr. Early stayed by the man's head, assessing his breath sounds and the endotracheal tube's placement as they hurried away. "A slight chance. If any. As you know, patients with basilar skull fractures are also very likely to get meningitis, an infection a man in his condition probably wouldn't be able to survive. I give him, maybe two chances in ten that he'll still be alive by morning. After that..." Kel trailed off. "Excuse me, gentlemen, I'm off to guarantee that he'll have those odds even as they are, regardless." |
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"Of course. Don't let us delay anything." Johnny mumbled, stunned. The worried doctor disappeared through the surgical doors after his trauma team and they soon shut behind him. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It was Vince's voice in quiet discussion with Officers Baker and Poncherello that distracted Roy and Johnny where they mulled over cold cups of tasteless coffee in the cafeteria. They couldn't help but overhear the conversation. "So she's got a clean M.O.? No crimes?" asked Ponch of Vince Howard. "That's right. Joy's rare that way as far as runaways go. And she tested negative for drug or alcohol abuse. So that's why we've placed her in the camp retreat up north until her grandmother comes to pick her up. There's minimal police presence there but enough security to keep her from getting away again." Howard admitted. Johnny's face twisted into an unidentifiable emotion as he spoke aloud. "She was bored. And feeling useless. I mean there are no jobs back at home to take for summer work. And school's out until fall." he said softly. "Summer's always a bad time when you're on the reservation." But it was enough to be heard by the highway patrolman. Ponch startled. "Mr. Gage. Do you know Joy Yellowbird?" "I do. She was a friend. A kid I knew once." Ponch didn't know what to do, ..smile reassuringly or stay completely serious. So he just spoke softly. "I've signed up to be her Big Brother in the state chaperone program. But if you have any problems with that I can always.." "I don't." said Gage, still not turning around. "In fact, getting to know someone in authority might be a very good idea in this stage of the game. I know I appreciated getting a mentor like that when I was her age." "All right." said Frank. "Do you want me to tell her you're around?" "No, I'll do that myself. I know where to find her." "Things have changed a little since you were a teenager." said Jon. "The retreat's now at a camp, in the mountains above Station 110, near the river." "What's the name of the place?" Johnny said. "Elders Field Retreat. It's non denominational." "It would have to be." murmured Johnny. But then he turned around and regarded Frank with a sober expression and he slowly offered his hand to shake. "Thanks for looking out for her,.. officially. Unofficially, you'll probably be a better friend than I ever was while she was growing up." And with that, Johnny left the room, heading for the squad. |
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"What's that supposed to mean?" Ponch asked Roy. "I don't know. But I'm sure as h*ll going to find out." said DeSoto. "Give me that address of yours, okay? I want it, too. She was a patient of ours not too long ago." "Here you go." said Baker, offering up a business card from his uniform's pocket. "The address is on the back. And a phone number. The camp director's named Millie, an ex judge, retired. She'll allow a visitor for Joy only if she wants one first." "Has she been discharged from the hospital?" DeSoto asked. "Yes, a half an hour ago for an overnight stay at the retreat's clinic. She left for the camp with Bonnie Clark, one of my officer co-workers from the department." Baker replied. "Can I speak with her for a moment?" asked Roy. "Sure. Call that second number at the bottom. That's hers. We'll be over here, out of earshot." said Jon, drawing Ponch away from the phone on the wall that Roy was regarding seriously. Slowly, Roy DeSoto picked up the receiver, dialed the woman police officer, and asked her about Joy Yellowbird's state of mind. |
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*************************************************** From : patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> Sent : Sunday, August 19, 2007 4:17 PM Subject : Windows Of The Soul.. "Hey, Joy. I really believe you're gonna like it here. Just look at the view! And the air. Take a deep breath. Isn't it beautiful?" asked Bonnie Clark of her legal charge as they left the squad car to enter the main lodge of the state run foster camp. Joy Yellowbird flung her duffle bag on the floor and eased herself onto the porch sofa. She let out a huge sigh and winced at the still continuing sting of aches in her muscles and chest from her ordeal of the night before. "If you say so, Officer Clark." said the quiet teenager. "So Roy said that Johnny was coming? For sure?" "Joy. I can't guarantee the actions of a man whom you claim is your friend, just based on hearsay." Bonnie insisted softly, setting down her folder about Joy. "Is it because you've read that I have a record a mile long in my files?" Bonnie chided her gently and tried to touch her shoulder reassuringly. "You've committed no big awful crimes. At least not technically. I wouldn't call running away a felony, but it is a continuing problem. Especially for your grandmother." "I don't want to talk to her." said Yellowbird fiercely. "You don't have to. At least, not today." Bonnie smiled gently. "Today is for regrouping and healing. There's a nurse coming shortly who'll make sure you're still doing fine. Then we'll check you into your cabin that you'll be sharing with the other girls who will be coming to join you tomorrow afternoon." |
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Yellowbird's eyes glittered defensively. "So when's my next session with a shrink? I keep telling everybody that I wasn't trying to kill myself. I was tired from walking so far from the bus station. I only fell asleep outside the fire station by accident. I wasn't even sure I was even at the right one." she insisted. "And I didn't want to embarrass myself by asking my stupid question of those inside right away. Just picture what they would have thought seeing me at the door asking for Johnny Kaulope Bear. I didn't want to get him into any trouble." Joy began to study her small, journey scraped hands, fidgetting. Her face betrayed nothing of her conflicting, vulnerable emotions, at least, not openly. But then a little of her bravado, cracked, and she slumped lower into the cushions. Bonnie smoothed back Joy's long black hair in a mothering way. "We know you aren't dangerous to yourself. That's why you've been brought here, Joy. Nothing in your evaluation demonstrates anything alarming except for the fact that you're growing up and seeking some roots of your own." Joy sighed and coughed deeply, splinting her ribs, from the soreness there. "It's not easy being a half blood. Especially back at home. I just needed to talk to someone who's like me who understands what I'm going through." Yellowbird said urgently. "Grandmother keeps telling me to not think about it so much. But she can't see how everyone treats me. She's gets blind sometimes in more than just her eyes. I felt so alone, I couldn't stand it." "So that's it. Roy told me Johnny Gage mentioned you were from his reservation." said the lady officer. "He changed his name?" Yellowbird asked incredulously, disappointed. She grew bitter. "What? Don't tell me he's afraid of the color of his skin, too, living out here away from the People." she said angrily. "That isn't it at all, Joy. Unlike you, Johnny had a record as a juvenile delinquent. I know. I used to ferry him around from place to place whenever he was in department custody. He changed his name as a sign of finally taking on a new life. And his first break, was the fire department, eight years ago." Joy's eyes finally twinkled. "So, what did he do that was so bad? Can you talk about that?" Bonnie grinned widely. "No. I'm pretty sure I want to leave divulging that part, up to Johnny himself. I respect his past and his privacy. I have to. Just like I'm protecting you now from your own nosy tribal Elders. They don't need to know all your details other than the fact that you're all right and located safely." "I'm a disgrace to them." "How? They were worried about you. Enough to notify us that you were missing after Nurse Dixie McCall contacted them. Doesn't that count for anything?" Bonnie wondered. "The leaders were doing that to preserve grandmother's honor. Having a disobedient child is a black mark that stains a parent publicly, whenever it is witnessed, in their eyes." "Then why do you keep running away?" Clark asked quietly, holding Joy's hands. "Because I'm hurting. He- he suddenly went away." she declared, tears finally rising. "After he promised me." "Who promised you? Was it Johnny?" Bonnie guessed. Sobbing, Joy Yellowbird fell into Bonnie's arms miserably, and nodded yes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Johnny Gage was with his prayer sack, praying in the bunkroom. Roy DeSoto was taken by surprise when he saw his partner occupied in something obviously religious. But his worry and concern finally made him intrude enough to disturb Gage's solitude. So he picked up his laundry basket full of the gang's clean uniforms and walked over to his own bunk, to fold them. He had sorted out all the different sizes when he finally spoke. "I'm here if you want to talk about it." "I don't want to talk about it." Gage said instantly, still fiddling with the beads on the bag in his hands. "At least, not until we get up there to see her for ourselves. I'm... inviting you to come along with me when we get off in a few minutes. At times like these, it's kind of nice having a best friend to fall on when something ugly from the past finally catches up to you." Roy merely nodded, not saying anything even though he was burning up with curiosity about everything that might have gone on between Johnny and the young Yellowbird girl. "I'll go. You don't even have to ask." DeSoto smiled. "Thanks." Johnny said, without looking up at him from where he was sitting cross legged on the bunk. He put the prayer sack back inside of his uniform shirt with reverent respect. Then he rose to his feet and left the room. |
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************************************************** From : patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> Sent : Thursday, August 23, 2007 6:19 PM Subject : The Dawn Warbler.. Dixie McCall left Kiowa cabin at Elders Field in the police and firefigher run state retreat for runaways. The teen camp was privately nestled in a rich stand of a sequoia redwood tree forest within eyeball view of Station 110, located along the highway, on the beach by the ocean. Immediately Johnny Gage met her on the porch and started asking questions. "How's she doing?I- I mean. Is she still in pain?" "Very little if any of the physical kind right now." she admitted honestly. "She's sleeping." said McCall, putting back her stethoscope into her nurse's carry bag. She specifically angled on not reporting her patient's current medical condition, going for a distraction instead by addressing the emotional one that had brought Joy Yellowbird to Los Angeles, feeling lost and alone. "And that's the best thing for her right now despite having such a devoted pair of visitors. Bonnie's in there with her right now with her in case she needs anything. I gave her one of the sleeping pills Dr. Brackett ordered for her. She'll probably sleep out the rest of the night." Johnny frowned, still nervous, worked up. "You what?" he exclaimed, not believing. He finally stood on the top of the pinewood stairs and hung his head, hands on hips. "Okay, thanks." he finally said, visibly wrestling with the weight of a very old emotional ghost that they could see was suddenly bogging him down. To Roy's eyes, it was a stress Johnny did not carry well. And DeSoto knew Johnny's mood wouldn't improve while he still held out on what was bothering him on the whole deal concerning himself and Joy. ::But I'm a very patient man like I am, a paramedic. I'll just wait him out. He'll talk about her soon, I think.:: he thought. DeSoto changed the subject, knowing the golden value of deflection whenever he found his partner letting himself get into a funk. "Say, Dixie, when was the last time you were out in the Great Outdoors like this? I can't remember ever seeing you getting away from it all. The air's pure pine. Take a deep breath. Isn't it terrific?" "If you say so, Roy." she rubbed an itchy nose. "Frankly, I'd rather find a comfortable hammock somewhere and let a coma take full control of my body. My allergies are flaring up. And I worked a double yesterday." Dixie shared. "Ouch." Roy mumbled in sympathy. |
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Johnny finally stopped pacing, only half listening to their conversation. "To dream about home I suppose." he guessed, looking up at Dixie. McCall smirked. "Yep. I've two very good doctor friends there attached to the largest supply of anihistamine known to man. And I plan on rubbing their elbows about it, as soon as I get back to Rampart with my followup report on Joy." She grimaced, locking her knees as a huge sneeze rocked her almost off of her feet. Roy and Johnny both grabbed her by the arms to steady her, handing her a twin pair of handkerchiefs from their shirt pockets. Dixie accepted one of the cotton offerings, miserably. "Oh, pine pollen's the worst." she sniffled. She used one, heftily. Then she pocketed it. "You don't want this back. I've gotten my mascara all over it. I'll buy you a new one. Soon." "Forget it. I've plenty." Roy smirked. "Both my kids share the same affliction. Try to relax a little, maybe that'll help. Say, Johnny, we could always go for a walk and check out the sunset from the ridge." he tempted. "Nope. I'm staying right here." Johnny said firmly, parking his jeaned butt onto the pine log swing hanging from the porch roof. "Dixie's idea of a nap sounds just perfect. I've a lot on my mind that I have to think about. And.. and...and you already know I only slept a couple of hours last night because of the rain storm. I'm actually tired all of the sudden." he said, stretching out awkwardly on the swinging seat as he covered his eyes with one plaid shirt sleeved arm. "I really want my bunk." DeSoto's eyebrows rose as he chuckled. "Come on, stop being such a stick in the mud. Let's go find the stream and do a little fishing. We're finally in the middle of nowhere again with no phone, no electricity... well at least in this cabin anyways. And no Chet Kelly for Pete's sake. And there you are, wanting to take a snooze in order to dream about being back home at the station. Besides, after Dixie leaves, I'd sure enjoy your company so you can point out all the hidden fishing holes using your instincts honed by living on the reservation." he added, offering once again to be an ear. "I'm still too city slicker to manage it." Snores met this touching speech. Roy was snapped out of the spell the vibrant sunset held over him. He looked down and laughed. As did Dixie. Gage had pulled his fishing cap over his eyes and he wasn't pretending to be asleep. McCall threw up her hands, realizing that getting Johnny to unload his mysterious emotional baggage, as least for that day, was a futile effort. She gave up trying for both Roy and herself dramatically. "All right, all right. So you wanna be a clam. Okay. Fine. We can live with that. No doubt Roy'll be back with a humongous brownie for your supper before too long. Maybe food'll soften you up. Sweet dreams, Johnny." she said, departing and heading for her sports car that was parked in the red rock gravel parking lot down the path. "See you later, Roy. Call if she needs anything." she gestured at the cabin window. "I will." promised DeSoto, grinning, watching her get inside the car to turn the ignition. Once Dixie had gone, Roy finished unpacking his and Gage's overnight things into the main lodge's two lone guest rooms. He grabbed a fishing pole, and soon, he was hiking down to the rock strewn stream a quarter of a mile into the valley, under what little light remained of the day. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A cold shiver drove sleep away from Johnny's eyes. The smell of smoke frying fillets coming from the lodge across from the cabin wrung a growl of hunger out from deep within. He peered out between cracked lids. "Night already? Roy, why didn't you wake me up?" he said aloud. DeSoto stepped out of the nearby main entrance of the lodgehouse with a steaming pan of freshly caught trout. "Oh, hi sleepyhead. I was going to in a minute. But I had to flip these first." he held up the skillet and pointed to it with a mitted hand and spatula. "They're ready." Gage stretched uneasily as his private nervousness returned fully. He tried to yawn. A piercing stare from his chum caught Johnny with his guard down. There was no backing off. "Okay. Okay. You've succeed in making me feel guilty." he sighed. "Got anything left that has to be done around here?" Roy smiled broadly. "That's mighty big of you to offer, junior. As a matter of fact, yes, I do. We need some firewood. Not only for Joy's cabin. But for the lodge fireplace, too." said Roy, peering out into the dark forest. "Now?!" Johnny asked. "Sure. You asked, and I accepted." Roy beamed. He paused for emphasis, "..but I saved you a heck of a lot of trouble by cutting some dead poplar tree limbs down for you. They're about twenty yards down the same path that I took to get to the stream." Gage grumbled indignantly as he started marching irritatedly out into the night. DeSoto spoke aloud. "Ah...Johnny?" Roy called out after him."The axe is in the outhouse." he said, pointing. Johnny winced, only barely hesitating in his stride before storming off. Roy's twinkling eyes were hidden in the enveloping darkness. The wind had been building slightly, little by little through the course of a few hours. Now, a huge bolt of lightning flashed as a dry thunder cracked and a gale force gust of wind suddenly began twisting the tree tops in the pine tree canopy above their heads. DeSoto recovered first from his startled reaction and he teased. "Better hurry, or you'll get wet." He ducked back into the sanctuary of the warm lodge before Gage could retort back. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Aghhh!" A sopping wet Johnny blurted out in disgust as he entered Joy's cabin through the screened door with a bundle of split logs. A raised finger, abandoning a fork a over steaming dinner plate, greeted him, and it shot over a pair of pursed lips. "Shh!" Bonnie hissed. "Quiet or you might wake her up. She cried herself out only a few minutes ago." That brought Johnny up short and the expression on his face went from annoyance to one of vulnerability in an instant. "S-she did?" The room got so quiet, the others could hear the water dripping off of Johnny's face onto the floor. Sobered, he abandoned his pile of wood and got busy lighting a fire in the fireplace across the room. "What was she talking about?" he asked in a small voice. Before the highway patrol officer could reply, Roy stepped out of the bathroom, dabbing shaving cream on his neck and chin. "How's the weather looking out there?" "It's shaping up into a repeat showing of last night." Gage replied, grabbing a kitchen towel to dry off his hair and most of his skin. "Oh, yeah?" DeSoto remarked. Clark left her fish and peeked out the window. "It certainly isn't the typical autumn shower out there. That's for sure. I'll go make sure the generator's gonna stay working for us in the lodge." She grabbed her raincoat, and left. Roy went over to the door and opened it a crack after she was gone. The sight was enough to make him gape in disbelief. The massive hundred foot sequoias were swaying and the younger trees at their bases were bowed low to the ground under the onslaught of a hurricane force straight line wind. It took considerable strength to shut it again. He latched it snugly, but left the door window ajar so they could see when Bonnie returned. |
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