Storm Warning

Battle Field First Aid

                    It was two hours before we found a suitable rest stop that both offered the amenities that we needed and was secluded enough that all of the blood on me wouldn’t be raising any questions. How surreal is it that I never even questioned the idea of getting blood in the truck? This would have been a normal concern six days ago, but now, it is the furthest thing from my mind, the furthest thing from any kind of priorities. He pulled into the empty parking lot and picked a random space. There were no other cars in the lot, meaning we shouldn’t find anyone in the bathrooms and that there were also no staff attending to this particular rest stop… at least right now. To the right, there were two brown wooden picnic tables. To the left, there were two stone buildings the size of a small shed and were by an open space with three vending machines that were curiously empty. That’s a shame. I could use a pick me up right now. After whatever we do here today, I knew I wouldn’t be going back to town for any reason. The best part was that the entire area was clear of other people, meaning we could do what we needed to do without prying eyes and well-meaning concern. “Alright guys, let’s get cleaned up and figure out our next move.”                      Getting out of the truck, I walk over to the picnic tables. As good of a place as any to clean up, I guess. There was just enough light with the approaching dawn. I step up onto the bench seat with minimal difficulty. As I go to turn to sit on the table, my entire lower half nearly falls through the bench as my upper half attempts to find balance as I pinwheel, but to no success. Which explains why Maddie and Derek found me on the ground with one leg in a hole in the bench and the rest of me laying on the ground in a steep sixty-degree angle. Derek exclaims as much as he could in his current bone-tired state, “Whoa. What happened?!”

                     Maddie rushed past him. “Damn girl. Tonight is not your night! Are you okay?”

                     “No. I am not okay. I fell through this damn bench seat. I twisted in mid-air so I could avoid breaking a knee. So, yay me! But this is seriously not my best week. Hell, I could go as far to say that it is truly the worst week of my life! AND now, I can’t seem to get up to get my foot free because I have nothing to hold on to that will help me pull myself up.”

                     Derek doesn’t bother to reply. He tenses his forearms and puts the front side of his elbows directly under my armpits and lifts. I work to free my foot as he holds me in the air but find myself unsure of what my foot is stuck on and what has decided to hold me hostage here. AND I DON’T EVEN CARE THAT I AM BEING DRAMATIC!!! I huff as Maddie comes over and assesses the situation. Benevolent Maddie releases my show lace from its captor… a jagged piece of broken wood. I point my toes down as if I were doing ballet, and my foot slips free from the rotting bench. As I look at the bench, I shake my head at the hole in the bench with the jagged edges pointing haphazardly downward toward the ground like some trap in a faraway hidden cave that works to keep travelers away from its treasures. “Thanks guys.” Derek and Maddie nod. “Maybe we should clean up in the bathrooms… assuming it isn’t rotting through too.” Maddie smirks at Derek as I turn to walk to the other side of the rest area.

                     The women’s restroom was the farthest away. The outside of the rest area was clear of all trash and was well maintained, unlike the bench I just fell through. The other bench is most likely rotten through as well. As I push through the woman’s door, I hear Derek shout, “I can’t go in there.”

                     I turn around. “Why not?”

                     He huffs. “It is the ladies’ room.”

                     I walk back to him and use the only weapon at my disposal that wouldn’t actually harm my companions – logic. “Look around you Derek. There is no one here but us. It makes sense to go into a bathroom together to avoid a separation. This place may look and feel barren of all people, but that does not mean that some one will not come, making you vulnerable as the only person in the male bathroom. Additionally, we are stronger together, and right now, at our weakest, we need to stick together. It is safer, and you know that we have your back. And considering that two of us can’t pee standing up, it makes more sense to go into a women’s bathroom with all stalls versus a men’s bathroom with urinals. We don’t have the luxury to be picky anymore and must pick the most functional option.”

                     I push my way into the restroom as he mumbles under his breath. “Men’s rooms have stalls too.”

                     Maddie shakes her head and follows me into the restroom. On the way by Derek, she grabs his hands and pulls him into the bathroom. “Come on he man. No one is revoking your man card because you entered the girls’ room to administer emergency care to a girl bleeding from a head wound.”

                     He nods. “You’re right.”

                     “I know. Now, come on!” I shake my head as he enters the bathroom. I just said that but whatever. “No, you didn’t.” Oops. Guess I didn’t think that.

                     “Not in those exact words, but I definitely said that.” Derek and Maddie smile at each other before rolling their eyes in my direction.

                     I take a minute to look around the restroom and am disappointed to find it is as small on the inside as it looked on the outside. I was hoping for some Doctor Who magic, but looks like I am out of luck on that front. Three sinks line the wall to my left and are sporting some unsightly brown stains that could be feces, blood stains, or rust. Shaking my head in horror, my eyes move up from the sinks to land on the mirrors. The mirrors are just as bad. They are covered in smudges, some of which look like handprints while others look like ladies were kissing the mirror. Um, unsanitary. I also spot more brown substance smeared across the mirror. I fight back a shiver and really hope that the foul-smelling brown stuff is not what I think it is. The stalls to the right are in better shape on the outside. All of the doors are still in place and in one piece and seeming to do what they were meant to do. I walk over to one of the stalls and find plenty of toiler paper in the dispenser as well as littered over the floor, but at least, the toilet is acceptable looking. The floor throughout the restroom is littered with garbage including several used condoms and pink lace panties. I arch an eyebrow, but focus on Maddie and Derek, who were likewise taking stock of our surrounding. Derek makes eye contact with me as I open my mouth to speak, but he cuts me off. “No. Arielle. We need to check you first. That head wound has me nervous. Stay here! I will be right back!” I nod as he runs out of the bathroom to the car and am surprised when he is back less than two minutes later. I come to stand by him as he finds a place for his haul that is a partially clean location. “I am so glad I thought about first aid kits when we went into town.” Putting the first aid kit down, Derek looks at my face as he pinches his brows together in critic. “Okay. Dizziness?”

                     “Not so much anymore.”

                     “Blurred vision?”

                     “Mostly gone.”

                     “Okay. First things first. I need you to clean your face. It is covered in blood, and I can’t see what I need to see in order to patch you up.” I nod. I strip off my jacket and go to wet it when Derek calls outs. “Wait! Use my top shirt. It is softer than the jacket. You also need to keep your clothes in decent shape, and you don’t have another jacket.” I nod and take the flannel shirt that he holds out to me. I wet the offered shirt and begin to meticulously wipe away the blood on my cheeks, on my nose, on my chin, under my eyes, and finally on my forehead. I wince as I brush the shirt in small circles closer and closer to the wound. This was a painstaking part of the process, and finally, I wince as I gently brush the shirt across the open wound. “That’s good. Your hair is red too; so, the blood in your hair won’t be that noticeable.” Other than the stiffness, that is. “Now, let me see.” I turn to face Derek as his nimble fingers delicately and purposefully probe my forehead. “I’m no doctor, but it looks like a small cut. No stitches but maybe dissolvable glue – if that’s a thing. I have some cut glue right here in my self-made emergency first aid kit. But you will have to see if it is dissolving over the next week. My guess is that it probably will as it gets wet.” Derek grabs an alcohol wipe from the kit and opens it. “This may sting.” He presses the square to my forehead, and I grimace as he starts to move it in small circles and then bigger ones until he gets the entire cut with it. “I know it hurts, but we can’t risk our heroine dying from some gruesome face infection. Imagine if you met a knight on this journey, and you were out here looking all dead and stuff.” I smile as he tosses the square into the sink. I was a nice thought that there could still be someone out there for me, but much like my college plans, I don’t have much hope for all the things little girls grow up dreaming about. “Now, time for the glue.” He unscrews the top and tests the glue by putting it on his left index and middle finger. He struggles to pull his fingers apart. “Oh! Sticky!” Awesome. Have the guy doing all the patching glue his fingers together. That seems like a PHENOMENAL plan. Shaking my head as the sarcasm percolates through my head, I pity that Derek and Maddie is missing some of my brilliance. Derek is back to all business as he uses two fingers to hold the wound closed as he used his right hand to guide the glue down the cut. He recaps the glues and admires his handiwork. Once satisfied, he grabs a piece of gauze and places the square onto the wound before gently tapping it down. “In theory, this is how it works. I hope the gauze doesn’t stick to the glue but we need to keep it clean, which means keeping it covered.”

                     In the fifteen or twenty minutes it took, Maddie didn’t say a word, but now, she asks, “how do you know how to do this?”

                     Derek chuckles at her affectionately. “TV! Where else?” He switches his attention back to Arielle as he gives her instructions. “Alright Arielle, you are going to need to change your clothes. The blood on them will draw too much attention. I brought in your suitcase; so, you didn’t have to use the change in your book bag.” I nod as I hop up off of the sink. I forgot how I got up there or when. “Okay. Arielle, does anything else hurt?”

                     “Um. I have a headache.”

                      He nods and retrieves Advil migraine medicine from the kit. “Take this with water. It should help ease things a little bit. I don’t think you have a concussion but be careful about sleep just in case.” I nod. “Oh. Before I forgot, do you have any memory loss?”

                     “I mean, I don’t remember getting on to the sink, but that may just be because none of us has slept since yesterday.”

                     Derek looks at me intently as his eyes sparkle with alarm. “Possibly. But if that happens for anything else, go to the emergency room.”

                     “Isn’t that dangerous? What if my information is put in the system, and they catch up to me?”

                     “Get in and get out.” I nod my acquiescence. “Alright Maddie, your turn. Can you tell me what hurts?”

                     She laughs. “Sure, Dr. Derek.” I keep the sadness to myself that I won’t get to see what he makes of himself or what Maddie will do during the next phase of their lives. More importantly, I hide my sadness that I will never get to find out what I want to be and don’t have the opportunities to make it happened. I was pigeon-holed from the day I was born. Destined to be alone and fight for my own right to live. I grab a water that Derek had set to the side and quickly down my Advil. I grab a change of clothes from the suitcase Derek had thought to bring into the bathroom. I walk into a stall to change as Maddie says, “I ache all over but don’t think I have any open cuts or broken bones. I do see that my hands are still a bright red, but thankfully, it is starting to fade.”

                     Her statements are followed by a brief silence. I can only assume that he was nodding in response. “That makes it harder to treat you; since, we don’t have one area that hurts more than the others. I am going to ask you to do a series of things to assess if there are broken bones.” I walk out as Maddie nods. “Move your left ankle. Good. Right ankle. Nice. Hips. Okay. Hmm. Bend your right knee. Good. Left knee. Good. Roll your right shoulder.” I come out to see him nodding and a side profile of him in a thinking pose. “Left shoulder. Okay. Bend your right wrist. Good. Left. Okay. Bend your right elbow. Nice. Left elbow. Good. Nothing broken it seems. Roll your head. That’s good. I don’t see any problems, but we will have to keep an eye on it.” Maddie nods.

                     I move forward from where I stand near the stall. “Your turn, Derek.”

                      He smiles over his shoulder at me as I near and as he closes the first aid kit and cleans up his trash. “Not necessary. I was thrown into a tree, and I landed on my leg weird, but I am walking fine now, so, not an immediate concern, and I already took Advil for any lingering aches and pains. Oh! Maddie, you should do the same.”

                     He reaches back into the first aid kit and hands a single packet of Advil to Maddie. As he does that, I go get the bottle I drank from earlier and hand her the last of it. “You’re really good at this Derek.”

                     Derek smiles at me. “Thanks. I think.”

                     Nodding, I move us into the next part of our plan. “Now, we need to figure out our next move. We should be quick about it too.”