A Time in Heaven (21 page)

Katie went to Jesse.  He was conscious but on the ground moaning in pain.  She knelt down to exam his leg.  It looked bad!  Thankfully the bite marks didn’t seem to be near his femoral artery.  Still, there was so much blood.

“Can you get up?” Katie asked Jesse as he was trying to sit up.  “We’ve got to get back to the lodge to take care of your leg.”

“I can make it,” he said in a weak voice.

Katie helped him stand. 
He couldn't put any weight on his injured leg. 
With Katie almost totally supporting Jesse, it took what seemed to be an eternity to return to the lodge.

Katie got him to the couch near the fireplace.  She got his pants off before laying him down.   The leg looked awful.  She remembered that there was a medical
kit on the desk in the store. When Jesse was as comfortable as possible, she ran to get it.  She frantically searched through it and
was glad to see it was complete.

When she returned Jesse was unconscious from the pain and loss of blood.  Katie figured he was in shock and she needed to work quickly.
She covered him with one of the throws from the couch.
She found alcohol wipes in
the medical
kit and started cleaning the wounds.  She began to cry.  She told herself to stop it, that
she didn’t have time for herself;
gett
ing Jesse taken care of was the most
important
thing
to do right now.

As she was cleaning
Jesse’s wounds
, she found that there were more than just four puncture wounds from th
e bear biting down on hi
s leg
.  There were
several deep punctures from the canines and marks not so d
e
ep from its incisors.
  The punctures needed cleaned and some of them
needed to be
sutured.  She found what she needed in the medical kit. Katie had never stitched up anyone before, but figured that she had seen enough episodes of “Dr. Quinn” to be able to do it.  Then, she smiled a little
and shook her head
to think what goes through your mind in a crisis.

Her greatest
concern was infection.  Surely the bear’s mouth was full of bacteria from its own infection.  Katie had to stop it from spreading to Jesse. She knew if he developed an infection she had nothing to fight it.

The bite wounds needed flushed out with alcohol before Katie could suture them
.  Panic set in when she realized there
was no alcohol in the kit. She checked
all of the shelves in
the store and still none.  Then, she remembered the whisky Jesse had found.  But, she had destroyed all of it.  Or had she?  “Jess, I
’ll be right back. 
Hold on,
just hold on
, please.”

Katie went out of the back door of the lodge and looked down into the gully at al
l the junk and garbage.  She saw
one of the boxes she had thrown away.  Making her way down the gully to the box, she opened it but all the whiskey bottles had been shattered. She fr
antically looked around for an
other box. 
She saw one.
She slid over some garbage bags to reach it.  Inside were two unbroken bottles.
She scrambled out of the gully with what a few months ago had been a curse for Jesse, but now just might save his life.

When she got back to him, Jesse was still unconscious.  This worried her.  She had to get his wounds cleaned and stitched up. Katie opened one of the bottles of whiskey.  She apologetically told Jesse, “I’m sorry Babe.  This is going to hurt.”

She poured the alcohol into the puncture wounds. Even thoug
h he was unconscious, Jesse cried out
in pain.  Katie
tears started running down Katie’s cheeks
again.  Through the tears she was able to get his leg cleaned and the bites sutured.  When she was finished, the leg looked a lot better than when she began. She
carefully
bandaged
Jesse’s leg.

Knowing the throw wouldn’t keep Jesse warm enough,
Katie went upstairs and took several blankets off the bed along with a
couple of
pillow
s
.
Sadie had been locked in the bedroom all day.  Katie let her come with her as
she
returned to the lobby. S
he
carefu
lly lifted his head and put a
pillow under him.  She used the blankets to
c
over
Jesse, except
for his leg.
The second pillow was used to elevate the
injured
leg.
Then, she built up the
fire in the fireplace. 
Pulling a chair next to the couch,
Katie kissed Jesse on the forehead before
she sat
down to watch
her beloved
.  She prayed
that no infection would set in.
Sadie curled up on the floor beside Jesse.

Katie let Jesse rest for
a while
.  He had lost a lot of blood so he needed to get fluids back into his body.  She tried to get him to sip some water from a glass.  It just flowed down his chin onto the blanket.  She tried a soaked cloth and dabbed his lips.  He got a little water that way, but not much.

Dawn was just starting when Katie finally got Jesse to take some water.  It was only a couple of sips, but at least he got some liquids back into his body.  A short time later she could see his eyes moving under his eyelids.  Jesse was coming back to her.  He
slowly opened his eyes and smiled at Katie.

“Thank God,” Katie said softly. “Jess, how
do you
feel?”

“Not good.  My leg hurts like hell.”  He tried to sit up but K
atie gently pushed him back down by his shoulders
...
 

Katie looked at Jesse a little panic stricken
,
but she said calmly, “Stay still. I had to stitch up the bites, and you might rip them open.  You can’t afford to start bleeding again.”

Jesse looked up at her and said, “I love
you
.”  He closed his eyes.  Katie hoped he was sleeping and not unconscious.

She checked his wounds.  “So far, so good,” she thought.  There was no
swelling in Jesse’s leg.  The
areas around the sutures were red, but that was to be expected
after what he had been through
.  She bandaged his leg and covered him with a couple blankets.

Katie wiped his lips with a wet cloth again, before pulling
up a chair beside the couch.  H
ere is where she sat watching him take each breath that afternoon. She was thankful each time his chest rose as he inhaled. Occasionally she would kiss his forehead to make sure he wasn’t developing a fever.

Probably around midnight, Jesse woke up
again
.  Katie could tell by his face that he was in some serious pain. 
There wasn’t anything she could do for him but
give him a couple of Tylenol
from the medical kit
and
make him comfortable.  S
he plumped his pillow and straightened the blanket
s
. 

She asked him to take
a few more sips of
water.  He did but it took all his strength.  He almost immediately went back to sleep.

Katie sat up with him all night. She would take his hand when he would moan in pain. 
She thought that the sound of her voice calmed Jesse, so she softly talked to him as she stroked his face and ran her fingers through his hair.

The night seemed forever.
Morning couldn’t come fast enough.
Katie
had sat beside Jesse all night and
was exhausted
. S
he was
so
afraid she would fall asleep.  She wouldn’t let herself do that in case Jesse needed her.

With the first light of
the
day, thunder could be heard rumbling through the mountains.  The air was heavy with a cold drizzle.
Katie gently put her lips on Jesse’s forehead. His temperature felt normal.  She let out a sigh of relief.

Katie decided that she should change the bandage on Jesse’s leg. She carefully pulled the dressing away from the wounds.  She was
pleased to see that they
d
idn’t look bad for as mangled
as
his leg
was yesterday.  Jesse was
sleeping and seemed
a bit restless, but she decided
she could be away from Jesse a few minutes so she decide
d to feed Sadie and take her out
for a short walk.
With all that had happened in the past twenty four hours, Sadie hadn’t been fed or taken out but still she hadn’t made a fuss.

They weren’t gone long.  When they returned
,
Jesse was tossing
around
on the couch
and groaning.
Katie raced to him, not even taking the leash from Sadie.
When she felt his head,
this time,
he felt warm.
She quickly removed the bandages.  It wa
s her worse nightmare
come true.  Jesse
was showing signs of
an infection.
Besides his fever, his leg was very red and swollen
.  Katie had to do something, but what?  She had no antibiotics
-
all she had was some whiskey.

She quickly got the whiskey and thoroughly cleaned his wounds.  It hurt him so much that tears
from his closed eyes
ran down his cheeks. Seeing this, Katie knew that he wasn’t
just
sleeping but unconscious.

She was almost yelling at the man she loves, “Don’t you leave me, Jesse Danvers!  You
are part of me and I need you.  Do you hear me?”
She touched his face and kissed him.

She was crying as
she fini
shed cleaning the bite wounds. By now t
he infection had made Jesse’s
entire leg red and swollen.  She thought if she left the bandage off, the air might help him heal faster.  She didn’t know, b
ut prayed
it would help.  All she could do now was to try to get him to take liquids and the keep his wounds clean.
She had no antibiotics so Jesse was going to have to fight this battle.

Katie
helped combat
Jesse’s infection
the best she could
for two more days.  His temperature went very high.  She used some of the whiskey to sponge him to help bring down the fever.
  At this point Katie hadn’t slept for four days.  She wasn’t going to stop her vigil. 
She would make Jesse well again
.

Four days after the bear attack, Jesse opened his eyes and asked for a drink of water.  Katie was ecstatic. She felt his forehead.  He was still warm but not “burning up” like he had been these past days.  When she checked his leg, most of the swelling had gone down, but it was still very red.

After she gave him some
water, she
apologetically
told him that she had to clean the wounds again.  She got the whiskey and poured some on the bites.  Jesse clenched his teeth but didn’t make a sound.  “It’s ok to scream if you want.” He just lay back and closed his eyes.  She decided to leave the bandage off for now.

She let him rest for
a while
, before asking him if he thought he could eat something.

“Maybe some toast,” he said weakly.

Jesse was able to eat about half a piece of toast before falling asleep.  He slept most of the day.  Katie, being exhausted, curled up on the chair beside him.  While she napped she kept her hand on his chest. She was afraid the infection might flare up again.

As the sun was setting, Katie wished that Jesse was well enough to sit
with her
on the porch; something they loved to do
in the early evening chill
. But for now, she had to be happy that he was still alive and seemed to be getting better.

Jesse awoke just after dark
.  Katie kissed his forehead. She
could feel that his temperature had gone down
even more
.  He was still a bit warm but so much better.  She checked his le
g and it looked better too. Almost all
of the swelling was gone.  Some of the redness had faded but in its place was dark bruising.  The wounds looked dry enough
that Katie felt it was safe to lightly bandage them again
.

Early the next morning Jesse was awake before Katie.  His stirring under her protective hand woke her.
“Good morning,” he told her.  With Katie’s help, h
e slowly was able to sit
up.  As he looked around at his leg and the things sitting around him, h
e became aware of what all Katie had be
en doing for him.
He looked lovingly into her eyes and said,
“Katie, I owe
my life to you, but can I ask one more thing?”