Melinda and the Wild West (13 page)

Melinda awoke to howling winds. She
stretched and then hopped out of bed. As she opened the curtains to
her bedroom window, she was absolutely surprised at what she saw.
Snowdrifts were up to the tops of the windows at the main level of
the house. The wind was howling like a mad demon. She had never
heard wind like this before and snow was pelting down toward her
window so thick and large that she could not even see more than
eight feet in front of her.

When she heard a yell of agony downstairs.
Melinda grabbed a robe and ran downstairs to find Aunt Martha
stepping into the house, holding Uncle William’s arm around her
shoulders.

“He’s been hurt,” Martha said. “He just fed
the horse and was coming in when he slipped on the icy steps. I
think he’s broken his ankle because he can’t put any weight on it
at all.”

“Shall I get the doctor, Aunt Martha?”

“Yes, dear. Quickly.”

“What about school and the children? They
won’t know what to do since I will be late.”

Aunt Martha gently helped William down on
the sofa and then looked at Melinda. “Oh, dear sweet Melinda. This
is a blizzard. The children won’t be going to school today. In
fact, most people will be staying home if they have any sense at
all. But there will be those merchants who feel the need to open
their stores, which surprises me because who would want to go out
in this weather to buy something?”

“Aunt Martha, I will hurry as quickly as I can.
Don’t worry. The doctor will be here soon.”

“You’ll have to walk, dear. If you take the
carriage, this wind might tip you over and you’ll get hurt. The
wind is too powerful for that carriage. It’s too lightweight and in
no time the wind will have it toppled on its side.”

“All right, Aunt Martha. I’ll hurry.”

Melinda remembered when she was seventeen
years of age and the “Great White Hurricane” had paralyzed the East
Coast. In 1888, a blizzard hit the coast that was stronger than
anyone had expected. Telephone wires snapped, fires broke out, and
fire stations were immobilized because of the storm. They estimated
around fifty inches of snow fell. Winds blew up to forty-eight
miles an hour, creating snowdrifts forty to fifty feet high. Two
hundred ships were grounded and at least 100 seamen died. Overall,
more than 400 deaths were reported on the East Coast. Because of
the transportation crisis, this led to the creation of the New York
subway, which was approved in 1894.

Melinda quickly dressed and headed toward the door.
As she tried to open it, the wind fought against her and she tugged
and pulled on the door to open it. As she stepped outside, an icy
blast of wind greeted her. Melinda pulled her woolen wrap around
her head and neck and trudged through the blizzard.

The road was icy, but she stepped with
firmness so her feet would not come out from beneath her. The wind
blew so hard that she could barely keep her footing. As she leaned
into the wind, she trudged forward, breathing heavily as she fought
against it.

Melinda stopped to get her breath and held
onto a tree to rest. She cupped her hands next to her face and her
breath formed a small cloud around her mouth and nose as she warmed
her face, but as quickly as it formed, it whipped away instantly
with the storm.

Her muscles ached from struggling with the
mighty wind and her heart pounded furiously. She looked around,
trying to get her bearings, and noticed a fallen tree on the side
of the road. The snow was violently whirling around the tree and a
snow bank was blocking her path.

She edged around the snow bank. Her cheeks
and nose were stinging from the cold. The biting wind nipped at her
nose and she rubbed it with her gloved hand. Pulling her wrap even
tighter around her neck, she continued on her way.

The howling wind pushed against her, struggling to
lift her from the ground. She passed three people who were clinging
to one another as they headed home. She dodged debris that flew
past her, rolling and tumbling down the street. A carriage was
lying on its side and the owner was hunched over, fighting against
the wind, as he led his horse down the street. A woman, her scarf
and heavy coat crusted with snow and ice, struggled in the wind and
eventually slipped to the ground, landing on her backside. A man,
grasping his hat tightly with one hand and shielding his eyes with
the other, saw her fall. He came running to her aid, but as he
knelt beside her, his hat flew from his head and rose into the air,
twirling and whirling around mounds of snow, and then gradually
disappearing with the storm. Melinda noticed that his mustache was
crusted with snow.

A couple of young men passed her on snowshoes and
called out to her, “This is no time to be out in this blizzard. Are
you crazy, lady? You had better get home.”

As she plodded forward, Melinda noticed how
the mounds against the homes had drifted twenty feet high. She
noticed how the ice had created white lace on the windowpanes and
for an instant she thought how beautiful it looked. After a while,
she stopped beside a tree and held onto the trunk as she took a
breath and looked around. She felt lost and confused. Everything
was foreign to her. The snow was coming down so hard that she did
not recognize where she was.

The wind howled ferociously and a blast of
it struck her in the face. Melinda shivered and hugged herself with
her arms to keep warm. The cold was penetrating through her woolen
wrap and many petticoats, which were caked with snow and ice. She
had hoped that her petticoats would her keep warm, but apparently
it wasn’t enough.

She took another step forward and the snow swallowed
her up to her knees. She found it difficult to move her feet, but
she persisted and was able to pull herself out of the drifted snow.
Her frozen face stung as the wind whipped around her. As she
staggered against the wind, she fell into another snowdrift.
Melinda had been out in this freezing weather too long and her
senses were no longer clear. She could not think or walk normally.
What was happening to her? Where were her senses? Why was her mind
so foggy?

As she struggled to pick herself up, she
heard a buckboard pulling up beside her. A deep voice called out to
her with concern, “Hey, ma’am. This is no time to be out in this
storm. You had better go home. Do you live very far from here?”

Holding her wrap closely around her face,
she shivered and stuttered as she said, “S-sir, I’m headed for the
doctor. M-my Uncle William has been hurt badly, but I’ve lost my
way. I can’t s-seem to get my bearings with all this s-snow coming
down so thick around me.”

“Melinda, is that you?”

Quickly, Gilbert hopped down from the
buckboard and pulled the wrap away from her face. Her face was
bright red and she was shivering uncontrollably. His eyes widened
with shock as he saw her condition. “I’m taking my hired hand back
home, but I can’t leave you like this. You’ll get hypothermia, if
you haven’t got it already.”

Then he looked at the hired hand and yelled,
“Joe, take the rig and tell the doctor to go to William and
Martha’s, then take the rig home. I don’t want you out in this
storm more than you need to be. My home isn’t far from here. I’ll
take Melinda home and get her warm. Make sure Martha knows where
she is, all right?”

Joseph nodded, whipped the reins, and down
the road he sped. Gilbert tucked the shawl tightly around Melinda
and then wrapped his arm around her, leading her to his house. The
howling wind fought them all the way. They leaned into it to keep
their balance and soon they reached his home. Tugging at the door,
he finally pulled it open and pushed Melinda through as he pulled
it shut.

Melinda stumbled, but Gilbert quickly
grabbed hold of her to steady her. She was shivering uncontrollably
and when she tried to thank him, she could not speak. The only
words that came out were in the form of a stutter. Her mind was in
a cloud and she could not think. When Gilbert asked her a question,
she did not understand what he said and she felt confused.

Gilbert had seen hypothermia before and he
recognized the signs. He knew that hypothermia was not only caused
by freezing temperatures, but also by improper clothing, wetness,
and fatigue. Melinda had been struggling with the wind for quite
some time, and her body was exhausted. And a thin dress with a
couple of petticoats hardly constituted proper clothing for a
blizzard.

Quickly, Gilbert took her to the fireplace,
which had a warm and comforting fire blazing within. He pulled the
frozen and icy wrap off her shoulders and dropped it to the floor.
He noticed her dress was caked with icy snow. He knew that as soon
as it melted, she would be soaked to the skin if she weren’t
already.

Jenny walked into the living room and saw Melinda
shaking. Gilbert looked at his daughter and said, “Jenny, I need
your help. Quickly take Miss Gamble to my room and take off her
frozen clothes and put my robe on her. Then bring her back here and
we’ll lay her on the sofa near the fire. I’ll get some blankets to
wrap around her.”

Jenny did as she was told while Gilbert got
several blankets and a pillow. When Jenny came back with Melinda,
she said, “Pa, Miss Gamble isn’t walking too good. I think her legs
are frozen.”

“I wouldn’t doubt it, Jenny.”

Gilbert helped Melinda onto the sofa, tucked
the robe around her freezing legs, and wrapped her in a blanket. He
took another blanket and wrapped it around her head and neck. Then
he grabbed a pillow and gently placed it under her head.

After Melinda had settled down comfortably
on the sofa, Gilbert went into the kitchen and prepared some beef
broth. One of the things he had learned was never to feed a
hypothermia victim solid food or alcohol. Many times, people had
the mistaken idea that they must feed the patient solid food so he
can get his strength back, but that was a big mistake. And the idea
that alcohol warms the victim up was the biggest mistake of all. In
fact, Gilbert was well aware that alcohol did quite the opposite.
Only warm liquids, such as broth, were appropriate.

Gilbert had learned a lot about hypothermia,
simply because he lived in an area where most people needed that
knowledge to survive. Survival in the West had a lot to do with the
knowledge one gained and Gilbert was very much aware of it.

As he stood beside the stove making beef broth, he
realized how worried he felt. The only other person he had ever
worried about was his own daughter. It had seemed as if Jenny were
his whole world, but for the first time in eight years, he found
that he could open his heart up to another person. He found that he
could even worry about someone other than his own daughter. This
was a new feeling for him.

Gilbert looked at Jenny and gave her a
loving smile. He loved her dearly and she knew it. When they rode
side by side on their horses, she was his companion. But now, he
wondered if he could have another companion as well. Jenny loved
Melinda and she had hinted at the fact that she wanted her in the
family. So, if he made the choice to marry her, Jenny would be
happy, too. And that was very important to him. Jenny had to
approve or he could not do it.

“Pa, shall I rub her arms and legs to warm
them up?”

Gilbert shook his head. “No, dear. That
would be the worst thing you can do. When someone has hypothermia,
the first part that needs to get warm is the body. You could do her
harm if you did that.”

“All right, Pa. What should I do?”

“How about if you give her this broth that I
made. It will warm up her insides.”

Gilbert scooped the broth into a small bowl
and then handed the bowl and spoon to Jenny. Gently, he pulled the
covers away from Melinda’s face so Jenny could feed her. Her face
was still bright red and Gilbert moaned silently, feeling so
worried. As he watched Melinda, she shivered uncontrollably and his
heart went out to her.

Jenny began to spoon-feed her as she talked to
Melinda, but she did not respond. Jenny looked up at her father.
“Pa, she’s not listening. Is she all right?”

“Yes, she’ll be all right. One of the signs
of hypothermia is not being able to speak and comprehend what is
going on. A person may be able to walk with hypothermia, yet not
have their senses clear. But after she swallows enough broth, then
she’ll begin to warm up and her mind will become clear again. Just
give her time.”

After Jenny fed her, Melinda slipped into a
deep sleep. Her body was exhausted from fighting with the wind and
from struggling to get warm. Gilbert went out to check on the
animals and make sure the barn door was still shut. With a wind
this powerful, the door could be blown open and even fly off its
hinges. The last time they had a wind like this, it had taken
someone’s roof right off the barn.

Jenny stayed with Melinda and silently read
a book. Every now and then, she would look up and check to see if
Melinda was all right. When Melinda awoke and found herself with
Jenny, she did not even remember how she had gotten there.

Jenny quickly put Melinda’s mind at ease.
“Oh, don’t worry, Miss Gamble. My pa told me that when one gets
hypothermia, your brain can’t think and you don’t know what’s
happening. That’s why you didn’t know how you got here. You have
hypothermia. I was really worried about you. You kept shivering and
wouldn’t stop.”

Melinda smiled at the maturity of Jenny’s
voice. “You certainly know a lot about hypothermia.”

“Pa taught me. He knows everything.”

Melinda smiled again. “I’m sure he does. But
how about the doctor? Did he get to Uncle William on time?”

Gilbert had just opened the door as she spoke
and he answered her question. “Yes. I sent Joe on ahead to get
him.”

“Joe? Who’s he?”

“My hired hand. When I noticed that you were
shivering and stuttering, I got real worried and brought you here
immediately. I’m sure the doctor has taken care of William by
now.”