by Rada, J. R.
“Mr. Purcell, if you don’t calm down, I’ll have to have the nurse sedate you. I’d rather not have to do that. You’ve already forgotten the past five weeks; do you want to add a few more hours to that?” Dr. Haskell warned him.
David relaxed and lay back on the bed. He was actually glad he didn’t have to try and get out of bed. His entire body felt as if he had just gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson. The fall must have really banged him up. It was a wonder he didn’t have any broken bones.
“You can’t be right. I would remember being in a cave for that long,” David insisted, slowly shaking his head.
Dr. Haskell pushed his glasses up on top of his head and rubbed his eyes with one hand.
“The search-and-rescue team didn’t find you until this morning, which, for your information is August fourth.”
“No,” David objected, “It’s only July first.” He shook his head. His neck didn’t feel quite as stiff as it had before.
Dr. Haskell let the comment pass. “From what I’ve been told, you were conscious when a county deputy found you in the cave, but you were delirious. You apparently passed out as the deputy approached you, and you’ve been unconscious since then. Except for a brief moment when you went into cardiac arrest.”
“I had a heart attack?” David asked.
“Yes, only an hour after you were admitted. There’s no physical cause that we’ve been able to determine so far. You’re in good health, and your body wasn’t under any type of physical stress. However, you were having some extremely violent dreams when you arrested. The nurse,” Dr. Haskell nodded toward Venus’ twin sister, “observed your body twitching and very quick eye movements just a few minutes before you arrested. So it may be that your body could not keep up with what your mind was telling it you were seeing.”
“You mean a bad dream caused me to have a heart attack?” David suggested.
Dr. Haskell shrugged. “It’s unlikely, but for now it is the only possibility we have.”
David tried to think of what he could have imagined that would have scared him so badly. It must have been a horrible nightmare. But horrible enough to cause a heart attack? He doubted it. He remembered the whine of a heart monitor in his dreams. Had that been when he had his heart attack? That was another part of his dreams he realized wasn’t a dream. What about the other parts? Had something been waiting for him in the dark? Had he been running from something? Would that have been enough to cause him to have a heart attack? David shivered and tried to think of something else besides the dark.
“Other than the heart attack, am I all right?” David asked almost afraid of what the answer would be.
Dr. Haskell smiled broadly. “You’re in excellent health. That in itself is a small miracle.”
“Why?”
“It’s not uncommon for someone who has been in complete darkness for as long as you have to temporarily lose their sight. The complications result when a person spends a month or more in that darkness. Then the blindness can become permanent.”
“I was in the cave for over a month,” David interrupted. His voice revealed his anxiety. “Does that mean I’ll lose my sight?”
Dr. Haskell shook his head and his glasses slipped down onto his face. He straightened them and said, “If you were going to lose your sight, it would have happened in the cave. You would be blind right now. The fact that you can see is amazing. I would have expected you to have at least some blurry vision until your eyes adjusted to the light again. It’s almost as if there was some light down in the cave that your eyes adjusted to using so the muscles that control your irises wouldn’t atrophy.”
“I can’t remember much about being in the cave except snatches of what might have been dreams or they may have been real. Either way, I don’t remember any light. Everything was pitch black,” David added quickly.
Dr. Haskell patted him on the shoulder. “The other factor besides your eyesight which surprises me is your general health. You’ve just spent five weeks in a cave, David. You had no food or water. You had no way to see where you were going. And yet, even after all that, you don’t appear dehydrated or emaciated. You don’t even seem to have any wounds from your initial fall or from stumbling around in the dark. It’s remarkable.”
But David did remember light. At least he had seen light in his dreams when he saw the dead man.
Dr. Haskell continued talking, “We took x-rays of your entire body while you were in the emergency room. We were looking for broken bones or cranial pressure, which might have been caused by your fall. Except for some recently healed breaks in your legs and an old break in your arm, your bones are perfect. I may get cocky about my own ability to heal someone, but not enough to not recognize God’s work. The only reason you’re alive, David, is because God wanted you to live. By every medical standard, you should be dead or at least in critical condition, but you’re not. That’s divine intervention in my book. If you’re a praying man, you should thank him.”
David guessed that Dr. Haskell was Mormon, which wasn’t unusual to find in Utah. David was also Mormon.
“Why would God step in on my behalf when so many other people die every day?” David asked.
“I’m a doctor, not your bishop. I can’t tell you why. I can tell you you ought to be grateful.”
David nodded. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful. I’m very grateful. Not only to God, but to you, too. I’m sure you helped him a bit.”
Dr. Haskell’s eyes looked younger for a few moments as he accepted the compliment. “I did my best.”
David shifted his weight trying to find a slightly more comfortable position on the bed. Something Dr. Haskell said struck David as odd.
“What did you mean before when you said I had recently healed breaks in my legs?”
“Didn’t you have casts removed from your legs around February?”
David shook his head. Shaking his head hurt him more than nodding. He guessed he would have to agree with everything everyone said until he worked the kinks out of his body. “I’ve never had any broken bones in my life except for my right arm, but that was when I was thirteen.”
Dr. Haskell was quiet. David knew what the doctor was thinking because he was thinking the same thing, too. What if he had forgotten more than just his five weeks in the cave? What if he had broken his legs and simply couldn’t remember doing it? But how could he not remember hobbling around in a cast for at least eight weeks, which was how long he had had to wear the cast when he broke his arm? Then again, how could he forget walking around in a cave for five weeks?
Dr. Haskell chewed on his lower lip as he thought. “Nurse, can you bring me Mr. Purcell’s x-rays?” he said finally.
The red-headed nurse left the room. David watched her go, wondering if she was as beautiful as he thought, or if he thought she was beautiful because he hadn’t seen a woman, beautiful or otherwise, in five weeks.
Five weeks!
He had lost over a month of his life. What had happened to him? What had gone on in the world while he was underground wandering around? His mother must be in a state of panic if she hadn’t already given him up for dead. She would have been the last person to give up on him. After five weeks, though, everyone might have given up.
“Where did you break your arm?” Dr. Haskell asked.
“I fractured one of my forearm bones in my right arm. I couldn’t play on the summer baseball league that year because I had to wear a cast for eight weeks,” David told him.
The nurse came back in the room and handed Dr. Haskell a set of x-rays. David heard the sound of soft thunder as the x-rays buckled when Dr. Haskell held them up to the light. The sound scared him for some unknown reason. It sounded like something else, something dangerous.
Dr. Haskell stared at the first x-ray and quickly exchanged it for a second film. He studied this second x-ray more closely.
“David, I see the old fracture of the radius that you mentioned. It was on the first x-ray.” He brought the second x-ra
y over to the bed and held it in front of David’s face between David and the ceiling light. “I can also see three, no four, fracture points on your legs.” He pointed out the breaks as he spoke, and David saw the breaks for himself. The areas Dr. Haskell pointed out looked like thin, white scars running across the entire width of the bone. “These were not hairline fractures either. You must have been in a lot of pain when you broke your legs. Judging by this x-ray, I would say the breaks are probably four-or five-months old. It probably happened in early March or late February.”
“It can’t be, doctor,” David insisted. “I can remember what I was doing five months ago and even further back than that. I don’t remember ever wearing casts on my legs.”
“These x-rays are labeled with your name.” He pointed out the name in the corner of the x-ray film.
David could hear the doubt in Dr. Haskell’s voice. “Well, wouldn’t I remember if I broke my legs?” Dr. Haskell said nothing. “And it’s not the amnesia, either. I can remember everything, everything, except for those five weeks in the cave.”
Dr. Haskell stepped away from the bed and handed the nurse the x-rays. The nurse took them and left the room. “Okay, don’t get yourself worked up, David. I believe you. I’ll check around and see if your x-rays somehow got mixed up with someone else’s. If I can’t find anything out, we’ll just retake them. I’ll develop them myself if I have to.”
“Thanks.” David paused. “Doctor, does my girlfriend know I’m here?”
What did Terrie think about all this? Would she still be mad at him for missing their dinner date? It was bad enough to be an hour late, but five weeks late? He had a good reason for missing, of course. But there had been other times he’d had good reasons to be late or cancel dates, and Terrie had liked none of them.
“She’s the reason you’re still not down in the cave. Apparently, you had a date with her five weeks ago. When you didn’t show up or call, she tried to call you at your apartment. Obviously, she didn’t reach you so she called the police later that night when she still hadn’t heard from you. One of the sheriff’s deputies found your car on the highway, and he began searching for you starting at that point. He found your sports coat only a foot or so away from the hole you fell into.”
“Will you bring my girlfriend up to my room when she shows up?”
“Of course. What’s her name? I’ll have the nurse at the front desk keep an eye out for her.”
“Terrie McNee.”
Dr. Haskell smiled. “Okay. When Terrie comes in, someone will make sure she gets up here.” David thanked the doctor. “I’m going to leave now, but I’ll be in to see you tomorrow. We’ll give you a complete physical to verify you’re as healthy as you look.”
David raised his arms over his head to stretch. It felt like an alien motion to him as if the pathway from thought to motion had slowed down.
“Doctor, can you leave my light on?” he asked.
Dr. Haskell paused at the door and turned to face David. “Are you a little leery of the dark after all this?”
David hesitated unsure if telling the truth would make him look foolish or not. “I’ve always had a problem with the dark. The cave probably only made it worse.”
“We have a staff psychiatrist here. If you want, I can have him come up to talk with you while you’re here. After the ordeal you’ve been through, it is almost a standard practice.”
David shook his head quickly even though it hurt. “No. I’ll get over it. I’d rather not talk to a psychiatrist.”
“Well, if you change your mind, he’s always here. I’ll leave the lights on for you.” Dr. Haskell opened the door and then stopped again. “Oh, for your information, you made the national news while you were missing. Like the woman who broke her leg in Carlsbad Caverns years ago. Just about every newspaper and radio station in the country must have picked up on the story about the search for you. There’s been a pack of reporters in the lobby ever since word went out that the rescue team found you. They are all waiting for the chance to talk with you. What do you want to do about them?”
David nodded slowly. “I’d like not to have to talk to them. I don’t want to be famous for being a klutz. However, if they want to get in, they’ll probably find a way. I guess I might as well get it over with. Would you tell them I’ll meet with them tomorrow? Today I just want to rest and catch up with the world.”
Dr. Haskell smiled. “I understand. I’ll let them know.”
The doctor left the room, and David was alone. But at least there was light. He could see what was around him. Not that there was much to see in the sparse hospital room, but it was more than he had seen in a long time.
He tried to remember the past five weeks of his life. Where had he been? In a cave, obviously. A very big cave since it had taken the rescue team so long to find him. He remembered the ground collapsing under his weight and falling into the hole near the highway. Dr. Haskell said the police had found him in the cave. But between David’s final memory and the police finding him, what had he done?
Five weeks.
Thirty-five days.
He heard thunder outside and shivered. It was unusual to get rain in Blanding, but it was always nice to have water. The thunderclap raised the hair on the back of his neck.
Was he afraid of thunder?
He had never been afraid of it before. In fact, he usually enjoyed the rain since it was so rare in this part of the Four Corners area.
The rumbling sounded like something else, though. Something he couldn’t remember like the sound of the x-rays rippling. He tried to recall it, but the sound was buried somewhere in his memory. Maybe he did have amnesia about other things besides being in the cave.
David gave up trying to remember and lay back on the bed.
Other sounds came to him even through his closed door. He could hear the nurses at the nurses’ station mumbling to themselves. As someone passed by his door, he heard the rubber soles of the nurse’s shoes squeak slightly against the tiled floor. From the room next door, he could hear David Letterman reading off his “Top Ten Congressional Travel Tips.”
If he closed his eyes, the darkness would return. He didn’t want the dark to return now that he could see light, no matter how unattractive his surroundings. At least he could see that they were unattractive. The solution was simple: He wouldn’t close his eyes. There was something in the darkness that meant to hurt him. He had been lucky and escaped it once. He didn’t want to give it a second chance.
CHAPTER 5
It was ta´supi, twilight, before Adam returned to the rooms in the pueblo. According to tradition, the three living rooms and one storage room Sarah and her grandfather lived in belonged to her. Unlike the white world, the Hopi world was matrilinear. Children belonged to the clan of their mothers rather than their fathers.
Having lived most of her life outside the reservation and growing up in a white man’s world, this was something Sarah had never been comfortable with. Adam had been living in these rooms for nearly sixty years. He had been living in the rooms before Sarah, or even her mother, had been born. Sarah had only lived on the reservation for the ten years since her mother had brought her to Oraibi and left her with her grandparents, whom she had never met before that day. When her grandmother Connie had died two years later, the ownership of the rooms had passed to the next woman, sixteen-year-old Sarah.
As the sun set, it cast long shadows surrounded by a rich, red light across the sides of the pueblo. Sarah lit the oil lamp on the small square table next to the chair and continued painting the clay pot sitting on the board across her lap. Not having been brought up on the reservation, her designs and choice of colors differed from the traditional style. However, the quality and attractiveness of the finished piece was just as good as any full-blooded Hopi’s.
Occasionally, Sarah glanced out the window hoping to catch sight of her grandfather walking up the street. He had been in the sacred kiva since the rising of the sun. He had eaten a littl
e before he left this morning, but he hadn’t been out of the kiva all day.
It didn’t matter to her that Adam was a Hopi and that Hopi men were active into their eighties and nineties. When Sarah looked at Adam, she saw an old man. It did not matter to her that he could climb down the steep trail leading from Third Mesa to his field in the wash, work all day, and make the return climb up to the mesa. Adam was at least eighty-four years old. He could not continue to bypass the effects of old age by ignoring time itself.
Though Adam said he didn’t know his age in the white man’s years, Sarah had some idea of how old her grandfather was. Adam said he had been born three summers after the Great Division, which had been in 1906. That meant her grandfather was eighty-four years old.
A white man would not have believed it. Though Sarah had not made a habit of checking the ages of white men who died, she knew it was commonly in the seventy-to eighty-year-old range. When white men grew old, they grew frail and weak. Hopi men had no calendars to remind them how old they were. They continued working the same as they had when they were young men. However, Adam had not been himself the past five weeks. His visions drained him of the strength and energy that he normally possessed. For the first time in his life, her grandfather looked and acted his age.
Sarah heard footsteps outside and turned to look out the window. She saw her grandfather slowly approaching slowly shuffling up the street. She closed her eyes and sighed. Thank goodness! Quickly turning back to her painting, she didn’t want her grandfather to think his granddaughter thought him frail. It would shame him.
It seemed took an eternity until Adam opened the door. It opened slowly under his touch as if it were too great a weight for him to push. He stepped into the room and pushed the door closed behind himself. Leaning with his back against the door, Adam slid slowly to the floor.