Do or Di (30 page)

“You’re going to lose your bet,” Avita said.

“Yeah. Well. You win some, you lose some.”

“I would have thought you would have pushed on.”

“So I come down here and you insult me? Careful or I’ll leave you here.”

“I didn’t mean it that way. I just meant I know how important the show is to you,” Avita paused. “This might be one of those things you do without thinking about it first.”

“The term we agreed on was spontaneous. Besides, I know this might be shocking, but this is actually something I’ve decided after some thought.” I sat next to her on the side of the trail, tilting my face up into the rain. It felt good to rest. I felt Avita start to shake. I opened my eyes to see if she was crying. I realized she was laughing.

“Would you look at us?” she said. She held out her scraped and bloody arm. Her long hair was slicked down with rain and her eye makeup crawled down her cheeks in thick black lines. I couldn’t see my face, but I suspected I didn’t look much better. My pants were completely covered in mud. I had broken a grand total of six nails and the four that weren’t broken had clearly seen better days. It looked like I had tried to dig my way free.

“Colin is never going to let me live this down, you know.”

“I don’t know. He might cut you some slack. He’s a good person.”

“Are we talking about the same Colin?”

“All right, I give up on you two. Get me out of here.”

“You still want to make it to the top?”

“I didn’t come this far to stop here.”

I stood up first and held my hand out so I could pull Avita up into a standing position. The rain had picked up and was coming down in thick fast drops.

“Okay, follow me.” I started up again, pausing every couple of feet to take a deep breath and to point
to the best route for Avita. I felt rather wise. If I didn’t hate every minute so much I would have to take up mountain guiding. I turned to tell Avita that we had just a few more feet and my foot came down on a smooth stone. It slid for a second before catching. I spun my arms back and for a moment, I found the perfect balance point. I held it, almost poised and then fell. I smacked the ground, cracking my elbow and started to slide down on my ass. The trail was steep and slick with mud, my feet couldn’t find a place to catch and stop my decent. My mouth was full of dirt and leaves. My arms kept shooting out trying to slow my pace as I grabbed at branches, dirt, and rocks. The four surviving nails gave up the fight. It seemed that I was at a real risk for sliding down the entire side of the mountain, if I didn’t sail off the edge of a ravine first. It was a tree that stopped my fall. I didn’t see it coming. I heard my ankle snap before I felt the pain. I lay there in the mud, my heart slamming into my ribs. Everything hurt. My ankle felt explosively hot and brittle.

I could hear Avita yelling my name and thundering down the hill after me. I tried to answer, but I couldn’t seem to pull enough air into my lungs. The rain fell onto my face.

“Oh, my God! Are you okay?”

I gave a cautious nod.

“Your ankle,” Avita said, putting her finger exactly on what I was fairly sure was the heart of the problem. I sat up slowly and looked down. I don’t have much medical knowledge, but it was swelling up and looked floppy. I carefully unlaced my boot and slid off my socks. My stomach rolled over.

“Oh my God, look at your foot.” Avita’s nose wrinkled.

My blisters had blisters until they had all broken open. The back of my heels looked like uncooked meatloaf. I turned my leg one way, and then the other. My ankle appeared to be put together with nothing more substantial than broken uncooked spaghetti noodles. I could feel the bone slivers sliding around. I suddenly felt cool and lightheaded as the blood rushed out of my head and down to my leg.

“Okay, this is not good.” I took a couple deep shaky breaths.

“You need to stabilize your ankle.”

“I’ll wrap my sock around it. I’m going to need you to help me get out of here.”

“What about your foot?”

“What about it?”

“It looks like it needs to be amputated. It must really hurt.”

“I think it’s safe to say I won’t be wearing sandals anytime too soon. However since I lost the bet I have to give them up anyway.”

“Do you want me to go get search and rescue?”

“No, but I’m going to need your help. Let’s finish getting to the top and get Scott to help us. Maybe there’s an easier way down.” I wrapped the sock around my ankle in my best Girl Scout wilderness healthcare badge imitation. I could hear Avita suck air in quickly as I tied it. With Avita’s help I stood up, one leg bent up behind me flamingo style. I took a couple of deep breaths and we started up. Avita stood on my injured side and I leaned on her.

We managed to hobble up the rest of the trail together. There was only one near fall and we somehow managed to hold each other up. When we got to the top I heard a cheer go up. There was a smattering of fitty types raising a toast of water bottles. Scott came running over when he saw us. I turned around and looked out. The rain was clearing and from that point you could see forever. I was pretty sure I could see into Oregon from here. I walked to the top. I took a deep breath. If I’d had any energy left, and two functioning legs, I would jump up and down. Instead I had to fight the urge to lie down on the large boulder and just let the remainder of the rain sprinkle down washing the mud off of me. I could tell I had mud ground into my bra and panties; it was gritty between my teeth.

“I had to make the final call in without you, but don’t worry. You lost a bet, but you climbed a mountain! Colin and the whole crew are impressed you did it as fast as you did. The first round at the bar is on me as soon as we get back to town. I called ahead, the whole bar has been listening to the show so I’m pretty sure you can drink for free as long as you like,” Scott said.

“I think Erin has to go to the hospital,” Avita said. Scott looked down at my ankle and his eyes widened.

“Wait here.” Scott jogged back to talk to a group of people and came back with some other hikers who had emergency training. Perfect. Now that we were at the top he sent out the cavalry. They took one look at my ankle and Avita’s arm with the gash taken out of it and determined that they were going to carry us down and have an ambulance waiting. Now that we were safe and sound and even starting to dry out, Avita started to get teary. The ambulance crew was waiting for us at the bottom. The cluster of hikers waiting to go up watched us with keen interest. I think they were hoping one of us had been chewed by a bear so they could catch it on their camera phone. It wasn’t clear if it was blood loss or the overall trauma of the event, but Avita was in real danger of passing out. She kept swaying back and forth. The ambulance crew took a quick look at Avita and then loaded her up on the gurney, determining that she needs stitches and a chance to lie down.

“Now let me take a look at you.”

“I think I’m okay,” I mumbled.

“Sit down.” The ambulance guy motioned to the bench. He didn’t look like the kind of person who was up for a discussion. I sat. He pulled on rubber gloves and lifted my foot into his lap. It would have been a real Cinderella moment except for the fact that my feet looked like I had put them through the Kitchen Aid meat grinder. “You bound your ankle with a sock,” he said, cutting it off with a pair of sheers.

“There was an appalling lack of medical supplies up there.” As he turned my foot I could feel white-hot knives stabbing into my ankle. I took shallow breaths.

“A real Florence Nightingale, aren’t you?” he said and I gave him a shrug. I was afraid I might throw up on him. “Let me guess, this is the first time you’ve worn these boots?”

“And the last.”

“I suppose I should be grateful you aren’t wearing flip flops. What beginners like you are doing on the side of a mountain is a mystery to me. Okay, back of the wagon with you two. We’re going to take you both in.”

“Honestly, I really would rather go back with Scott. He can drop me off at a medical clinic.”

“Uh-uh. Back of the wagon.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but I could see the discussion was already over. I crawled into the back buckling myself into the seat next to the gurney Avita was on.

“Are you coming too?” she asked.

“The Red Cross goon says I have to go.”

“I didn’t think you were coming. I called Darsh to meet me at the hospital. He’s going to take me to our doctor instead of waiting there. Do you want him to see if we can get you in too?”

“It’s okay. I suspect I’m going to need x-rays, so I’ll just wait there.” The ambulance started up the siren giving a single whoop. I was hoping for the full ambulance experience racing through traffic sirens wailing, but instead we seemed to be driving a speed best described as lethargic old lady. Granted neither of us had a liver hanging out, but I still would have liked to see a bit of hustle for my first ambulance ride. Avita also looked upset and sweaty. I guess it was a letdown for her as well.

“Thanks for coming back down for me,” Avita said. “Sorry it cost you the bet.”

I shrugged. “Lately nothing is turning out how I expected. Why should this be any different?” I patted her hand. “Apart from the whole ankle thing, I’m glad I came down for you. You’re my best friend.”

Avita’s eyes filled with tears. “You’re my best friend too. I’m sorry I keep shoving my nose into your life. I just want you to be happy.”

“I know. Believe it or not, I want to be happy too. Not that you would know it from my choices.”

“How about we make a new BFF pact?” Avita raised her palm as if ready to swear an oath. “I vow to stop acting like just because I’m married I’ve got it all figured out. I promise to stop trying to fix you up”—she paused with a smile—“unless you ask me to.”

I raised my hand. “And I vow to listen even when you are telling me something I don’t want to hear. I also promise to always to a patch test if I decide to self-tan ever again.” We high fived over her gurney and I felt a tight band around my chest loosen. Things between us were good.

The ambulance pulled in front of the emergency department of the hospital. The back doors of the ambulance swung open. Darsh was waiting at the door.

“Avita,” he cried out, moving to the side of her gurney. He had soap opera looks to go with his expression. I fought the urge to point out that the odds of amputation were low. He murmured into her ear and then held her hand. Their group moved off without a look back.

“All right. Last stop. Everyone off,” the ambulance driver said, holding out a rickety wheelchair that looked like it was last used around the time of the Second World War.

“Should I wait for a gurney?”

“It’ll be a long wait. You made it to the top of the mountain, I think you’ll make it to the chair.”

“They teach empathy as a part of your training program?”

He gave me a smile and a short bow and waved me inside. I shuffled out of the ambulance and into the chair. He rolled me in and parked me off to the side of the registration desk. I gave my name to the receptionist. As I was clearly not at risk for near death I was motioned to the waiting area. My ankle was throbbing, but I no longer felt like chucking my granola bars up.

I sat reading an outdated issue of
In Touch
magazine for a few minutes before I saw him. Jonathon entered the waiting room and was looking around wildly, a sense of panic on his face.

He came.

He must have heard the show and rushed to the hospital. I stood up and hobbled at a quick rate toward him. It wasn’t quite the romantic cliché of two people rushing toward each other through a flower-strewn field, but it was close. The only problem was that I wasn’t the only one rushing toward him. I seemed to be racing with a tall dark-haired woman who would perfectly fit the description of Republican Party campaign wife.