All For Anna (30 page)

There was no immediate
change in his breathing. I checked his pulse again—
way too fast.
I
waited the five minutes necessary by counting in my head, and then gave him the
second dose.

It was then he took a
deep breath.

I no longer heard the
labored wheeze of seconds earlier. For a moment I was elated.

I went to his head
then, kneeling over the top of his. A large bump on the side of his temple
indicated that he had hit something hard on his way down. I pulled off my sweatshirt
and braced it around his neck, trying to keep him in alignment as best I could.

He was fortunate to
have been wearing long pants. They had most likely protected his legs from any
major cuts and gashes during his fall. I scanned the rest of his body. Noting
only bruises and scrapes on his hands and face, I found no other trauma I could
treat.

He just needed to wake
up.

I nudged and prodded
him trying to get a response, patting his cheeks with my hands, but he didn’t
stir.

Hopelessness ripped
through my heart like a rogue bullet, forcing it’s shrapnel to explode in every
cell of my body. I screamed out in anguish, the pain and fear overwhelming me
as my echo reverberated through the silence. I was all alone; no one had heard
my cry for help.

Kai could be dying, and
I could do nothing more for him.

My body ached and
burned, thawing itself after its adrenaline rush down the hill. I stroked Kai’s
forehead gently, ignoring the painful throbbing of my own body. Wishing he
would open his eyes and know what to do, I continued to stare at him.

Nothing changed.

 I thought briefly
about going for help, but I couldn’t leave Kai, not like this. I called out over
and over, until my voice grew hoarse. There was no reply. Watching the slow
rise and fall of Kai’s chest, I finally bowed my head.

For the first time in
over a year and a half, I prayed.

“I know we aren’t
close, but you know Kai. He believes in you…and he needs help right now. Please
help him! Help us get out of here so he can get back to safety. Please…just let
him wake up.” I looked again at Kai and whispered, “Just let him wake up.”

With my head still
bowed over Kai’s face, I felt a sensation that was almost as unique to me as
prayer: hot, streaming, tears. I couldn’t stop them. They rolled down my face
and picked up speed as they hit Kai’s forehead.

I sobbed over this man
who had become closer to me than anyone ever had. I couldn’t lose him. I
needed
him. I
loved
him.

Please don’t take Kai;
please don’t take him away from me.

I am with you.

My tears kept falling
as I focused on that voice inside me. I put every shred of energy I had into
one word now:
hope
. There was nothing else. I could either put my hope
in a God I wasn’t sure existed…or I could put it in myself.

I was all out of ideas.

I wiped Kai’s forehead
dry, though my tears still fell. Running my fingers through his hair, I began
to sing, quietly.

“Amazing Grace how
sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost
But now I am found
Was blind, but now I see”

I sang it again and
again.

On the fourth time
through, I saw his eyelids start to flutter.

“Kai? Kai, can you hear
me?” I asked.

“Wh…What happened?” he
mumbled.

“You’re okay. You were
stung by a bee. I found your EpiPen...and you’re going to be
okay
,” I
said, tears streaming down my face.

“You’re....crying?” he
asked, eyebrows narrowing slightly.

“Yes,” I laughed
nervously. “Congratulations...after a year and a half of having no tears to
cry, you brought them back to me.”

I leaned down and
kissed his forehead. He smiled for just a second before closing his eyes again.

Please let someone find
us soon!

I called out again for
help, but still heard nothing in reply. If I had to guess we’d already been
down here for close to an hour. I hoped someone would figure out we were
missing sooner or later.

I hoped for sooner.

Please Briggs, please
notice we’re gone.

Kai’s eyes opened again
after some time had passed—how much time? I had no clue. He was much more alert
now, and his breathing was steady and strong.

I finally exhaled. It
felt like the first time I had really taken a full breath since Kai fell. Kai
looked at me.

“How long have we been
down here?” Kai asked.

“A while, over an hour
for sure, maybe closer to two. It’s hard to say.”

Kai’s face was calm, no
traceable panic to be found.

“Briggs will come for
us, don’t worry,” he said.

“Okay, I won’t,” I
lied.

“Did you...did you
pray
for me?” Kai asked, as if looking back at a distant memory.

I nodded. “Yes, two big
things for me today: prayer and tears.”

Kai reached his arm up
and pulled my face down to meet his. Though brief, this kiss held new meaning
for both of us.

As I raised my head
back up he said, “You’re my hero, Tori. You saved my life today.”

My eyes grew blurry again, because I knew it
hadn’t been me at all.

I could see that Kai
was getting stronger, but I also knew the standard protocol of treatment for
reactions like his. He still needed an additional dose of antihistamine in his
body. That would help to prevent any longer lasting allergic reactions.

Judging by his current
state, the two doses of epinephrine he had been given had done their job. He
was recovering well, but there was no way to be certain he was in the clear
while on the forest floor. I wasn’t willing to take any chances.

“I feel well enough to
get up and start the climb to the top,” Kai said.

I stared at him, mouth
gaping. 

“You’re telling me,
that if a patient of yours had just been in anaphylactic shock, that you’d let
him climb up the side of a mountain two hours after treatment?”

Kai’s mouth became a
tight thin line, his eyebrows narrowed at me.

He wasn’t used to
feeling helpless, or being a patient. That much was obvious.

“I didn’t think so,” I
said crossing my arms over my chest.

“I know Briggs will
find us, Tori. I just think we could be a little more proactive than just
sitting down here, waiting,” Kai said.

“Then let me go...I’ll
start the climb up,” I said, zipping up my hooded sweatshirt that Kai had
forced me to take back from him.

“Absolutely not. If I
don’t go, you don’t go,” he said.

I sat down hard, wincing
as my sore backside made contact with the ground. I pulled my knees up to my
chest. Kai turned slightly now to lie on his side. Apart from some bruising,
his slide down the mountain hadn’t seemed to affect him much. I was grateful he
didn’t have any broken bones, that would have made our rescue much more
complicated. I laid my head down on my knees, feeling Kai’s hand wrap around my
ankle.

“I still can’t believe
you flung yourself off the side of a mountain for me?”

I lifted my head, “Well
you were going down it pretty quickly yourself, there fireman.”

He laughed softly. “I
was unconscious. You did it willingly and you
hate
heights,” Kai said.

I looked out again at
the forest that was our makeshift home and thought about his words. I knew
why
I had done it, and nothing short of God himself could have stopped me.

I could sense he wanted
to say more, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear what
more
was.
More
would complicate things,
more
would come with expectations.
More
would
change us.

I pulled out of his
grip and walked to a place with good footing, calling out again for help.
Finally, it was met with an answer.

“Briggs! Briggs! We’re
here...can you hear me?” I called.

I heard a faint reply
and tried again. Soon the sound drew closer, cutting the tension in my body
with the sweet knife of relief. About five minutes later, Briggs appeared with
Andrew, Skyler and Caden.

I ran to him and hugged
him the second he was steady, dismissing my usual inhibitions.

“Hey there good
lookin’, glad you called out. We passed this place on the trail several times
already,” Briggs said, lowering me down and looking at Kai.

“What happened to you,
bud?” Briggs asked, going to Kai’s side and kneeling down beside him.

“Bee,” Kai said.

Visibly alarmed, Briggs
turned to look at me. He swallowed hard. “Did you use his EpiPen?”

“Yes, but we need to
get him some Benadryl, or some other kind of antihistamine back at camp. He was
in full anaphylactic shock by the time I got to him,” I said.

Briggs looked to Kai
again, “Must be nice having a trauma nurse for a girlfriend, eh pal?”

“She’s a hero, Briggs.
She threw herself down the cliff after me and then had to figure out what had
happened. I was unconscious,” Kai said.

The three guys with
Briggs all had a comment or two regarding Kai’s statement, but I busied myself,
trying to find a good walking stick for the climb up. I didn’t respond to their
praises. There wasn’t time for that.

“How should we move
him?” I asked, looking at Briggs.

I tried to ignore the
look in his eyes when he answered me, “We’ll do our best to carry him. There
are four of us, so it will just be a matter of footing issues, not strength.”

“Okay...well let’s go,”
I said, standing with my new walking stick in hand.

“Alright gentlemen, you
heard the lady, let’s get on with it.”

**********

Kai argued and grumbled
all the way up the cliff, not wanting to be carried or helped. This was a side
of him I had never seen. Finally, though, Briggs put an end to it. He
threatened to drop him right then and there if he didn’t shut up and let them
do their job. Kai was quiet after that.

My new walking
companion proved to be a great help and I found myself almost enjoying the
climb up—almost. My backside, which had taken a beating on the way down, burned
something fierce with each step.

Finally, we were at the
top.

Kai stood on his feet
then. He seemed to be pretty steady now, but he remained supported at all times
as we headed down the trail to camp. I walked behind them.

After Briggs rotated
out of the mix, taking a break from bearing Kai’s weight, he waited for me to
catch up. We walked together quietly for some time. As we passed the lake,
Briggs finally spoke.

“You saved his life.
You know that, right? He would have died if you hadn’t done...if you hadn’t
done what you did for him,” he said.

“You would have done
the same, Briggs,” I said.

Briggs stopped me, his
grip firm on my shoulder. Looking at my face, his eyes grew intense.

“What you think someone
else
might
have done doesn’t matter. They weren’t there...
you
were. You chose to go after him at the risk of your own life and it was you who
saved him.”

I wasn’t sure what to
say to that. I swallowed hard, refusing to cry any more tears now that Kai was
safe. I stared at the ground waiting for the moment to pass.

“Thank you, Tori. If
there is anything I can ever do for you-”

“You’re a good friend,
Briggs. He’s lucky to have you, and we’re both lucky to have
him
,” I
said.

We walked to the end of
the trail and into the campground.

All kinds of chaos was
unleashed the moment Kai was spotted. Mrs. Julie cried out in relief at the
sight of him, busily working to prepare a spot for him to rest in his tent. I
found something even better than the oral antihistamine I had hoped for in the first-aid
supplies—these EMTs didn’t mess around. They had the steroid shot that Kai
would have received at the ER. I was more than relieved.

He was propped into a
sitting position by several donated pillows, when I entered his tent. He smiled
as I went inside. He rolled his eyes at the sight of the steroid shot, but was
a good sport as I administered it. I nestled into his chest and listened to the
strong beat of his heart.

It was the best sound I
had ever heard.

“That’s gonna knock me
out for the night,” he said, regret filling his voice.

“It’s better that way,
you need to rest. We’ll still have some time left here tomorrow.” I wrapped my
arms around him and squeezed him tight.