Sweet Water

by Lena North

  “Jinx Sweetwater, quite the celebrity if I’m not mistaken?” he murmured, and continued, “Read some of the stuff you’ve published.”

  “Yeah?” I repeated, wondering where he was going with this.

  “Didn’t understand half of it,” he chuckled.

  Aha. He wanted me to tutor him.

  “I’ll talk you through it,” I said.

  He started laughing outright then.

  “Why would you want to do that?” he asked, and went on, “And what would I do with the knowledge?”

  “But –”

  I cut myself off, not understanding what he wanted from me and not knowing what to say.

  “Not everyone wants a piece of you,” he murmured.

  I turned and looked straight into his eyes. They were a soft brown, an unusual shade in the village, and he held my gaze calmly. There was an ocean of kindness in them, so I took a deep breath and told him.

  “Yes they do,” I whispered.

  My gut clenched and I held my breath, scared that I’d been wrong to trust him with that piece of information about what it was like to be me.

  “Oh, Jinx –” he started, but a crash and loud shouts from the men by the river interrupted him.

  He was on his feet and running immediately, and I followed him as he rushed down to the river bank where part of the crew had been digging to put down pipes we’d use to supply the basins with fresh water. They had put a scaffolding of beams around the ditch they’d built, and it was this that had fallen apart.

  The house Wilder had bought was not within the village limits and not by the beach. It was located a mere fifteen-minute walk away, but that short distance made a huge difference. Instead of the white beach and open sea, the house faced the inlet. Trees were leaning deep over the riverside, and the water along the bank was brown and murky. Pieces of wood had stuck in the bottom, and it looked rather unpleasant.

  Daniele jumped straight into the water, and I gasped, but it wasn’t deep. As he and a few of the other men started pulling on the logs that had fallen over I could hear them swearing and grunting. The rest of the crew were coming to help, and it didn’t take very long to have the situation sorted out.

  Then there was suddenly a loud shout, and the men froze, looking at Daniele who had been the one calling out.

  “Snake,” he roared, and everyone got out of the water so quickly it seemed like a blur.

  Two of the men were pulling Daniele along, and my gut tightened when I realized that he had been bitten.

  “What kind, Danny?” one of the men asked.

  “Riverseed,” he grunted.

  Everyone stilled, and I saw how the faces around me went hard.

  I’d never seen one in real life, but I had certainly read about Riverseed. It was one of the most poisonous snakes we had in our country, and I knew from med school that there was an antivenom, but the poison worked quickly, so we had to get him to a doctor immediately, or he would die.

  No one moved.

  “Where?” I asked.

  “Leg,” he replied and indicated his left calf. “It’s no use, Jinx. Our doctor is only here on Wednesdays, and getting the chopper from Prosper will take too long.”

  My blood froze, but at the same time, everything around me seemed to cease existing. My head felt cold as ice and focused in a way I’d only felt once before in my life. I pushed the sudden memory to the back of my mind and started planning as I fell to my knees, ignoring my protesting ribs.

  “Okay,” I said calmly. “So we’ll find another way then.”

  Then I pulled the belt out of my jeans and put it around his leg, all the way up by his hip, and tightened it as hard as I could.

  “Get me a knife,” I asked no one in particular, and I had a short, sharp dagger in my hand before I could repeat my request.

  Cutting his thick workers pants was surprisingly easy, and I was grateful that the crew kept their gear in good order. A blunt knife wouldn’t have helped me. I could clearly see where the snake had struck. There were two distinct bite marks on the side of his calf, straight into the muscle, and they were turning a dangerous blue already. The snake had gotten a good hold of him, but it had not struck a vein, and hopefully his thick pants had shielded him a little bit.

  “This will hurt,” I said.

  Then I made a deep cut right along the bite mark and upward on his leg, following the path I hoped the poison would take as it moved around in his body. Blood started flowing freely, and I could hear Daniele’s grunt of pain, but I ignored it.

  “Get me plenty of water, but not from the river. From the house.” I ordered, and as I heard footsteps running away I continued, “Does your Doc have a place in the village?”

  “Yes but –,” one of the men replied hoarsely.

  “Where?” I cut him off.

  “Next to the gate. Blue house,” the man replied and was about to say something else, but I cut him off again.

  “I’ll flush the wound here. If someone can tighten the belt harder, then do so. Then I’ll go ahead to the doctor’s office to find antivenom. You need to get him up there quickly. Can you carry him?”

  When no one answered, I raised my head and looked at them. They were staring at me as if in shock, and I supposed they were, having their boss on the ground with a lethal snake bite.

  “Yeah,” one of them answered when I made an annoyed sound.

  “Fine,” I snapped and grabbed the bucket filled with water that appeared at my side. “Has anyone called the emergency number?”

  There was a complete silence, and then I heard a man say, “I will.”

  I didn’t reply and turned my focus to the man on the ground. Bending deeply over the cut I’d made, I flushed it repeatedly with water. Putting the belt around his leg like I’d done was a risky move, and I couldn’t let it remain there for long, or he might lose the leg, but it was the best I could do in that situation.

  “Get me two planks a bit shorter than his leg,” I ordered.

  Two pieces of wood immediately appeared at my side. I wanted to immobilize his leg to prevent the poison from spreading more than necessary and looked around for something to tie the planks with, but there were no ropes or anything I could use. Without hesitation, I unbuttoned the lower part of my shirt and started to unwind the elastic wrap I had around my ribcage. One of the men swore quietly when the huge bruise showed, but I kept working, and they helped me to use the wrap to fasten the planks firmly on each side of Daniele’s leg. When we were done, the blood seemed to flow slower from the wound, and as I buttoned my shirt again, I looked at Daniele’s face for the first time.

  He was pale, and his mouth was set in a hard line.

  “I’ll sort you out,” I whispered, hoping this wasn’t a promise I wouldn’t be able to keep but determined to do everything in my power to save the man.

  “I guess I wanted a piece of you after all,” he said with a miserable attempt to smile.

  “A piece I’m giving freely, Daniele. That makes it different,” I replied.

  Then I got to my feet and turned to the men.

  “He has a chance. The doc must have antivenom in his office. Riverseed isn’t uncommon around here so he’d be prepared for it. I’ll go ahead and find it while you carry him. Be as quick as you can, but move his leg around as little as possible.”

  They nodded, and immediately four of them placed themselves around the man on the ground.

  “Emergency is sending a helicopter,” another man said and wiggled his phone.

  I nodded and started jogging toward the village, thinking through my options. I had no real clue what to look for in the absent doctor’s medicine cabinets and even less knowledge about how to administer it. Then I pulled out my phone, slowed down enough to punch numbers on it and managed to get connected to the person I wanted quicker than I’d been hoping for, although I had to use my most unpleasant voice a few times.

  “Jamieson,” a man replied.

  “Hey, Jamie, it�
��s Jinx. Got a situation and need your help,” I said.

  James Jamieson had been in my class through med school, and we’d known each other, although we’d never been close. I'd heard people mention that he was a highly respected specialist these days, doing research on infectious diseases, but also working at the emergency room in Prosper General Hospital.

  “Talk to me,” he said calmly, and my admiration for him grew.

  “Riverseed, lower leg. Male, early thirties, medium size and weight. Healthy as far as I know. We’re in Marshes, the doc’s not here, and the helicopter will take too long,” I said.

  My voice came out choppily since I was moving quickly, but he understood.

  “Crapola,” he said succinctly. “Put a tourniquet by his groin, cut the bite marks open and try to flush out as much as you can.”

  “Done that already,” I wheezed. “Stabilized it with planks. I’m ten minutes away from the doctor’s office, they’re behind me, carrying him there. Need to know what to give him.”

  “Good girl,” he muttered. “I can check from here what Doc Peters has in stock down there. Call again when you’re there?”

  “Yeah,” I said and closed the call.

  Then I ran, full speed, ignoring the hurt in my ribcage, the blood on my hands, and the fear that coursed through my veins.

  “Shit, crap, damn, shit,” I whispered as I ran.

  I was the only thing between Daniele and death, and I had no experience at all. No clue what I was doing. This was one of the reasons I’d decided to move on from my medical degree and never practice. I’d find a way, though, because I had to. The helicopter would be there in thirty minutes if we were lucky, and I could at least try to keep him alive until they arrived. He would not die under my hands, I vowed.

  When I got to the blue house, Tony waited outside, grim-faced and tense, and I knew one of the men must have called him.

  “Kick in the door,” I called from a distance.

  He immediately turned and raised his leg. Then he opened the door with one swift kick, and I ran straight through it, halting abruptly and pulling my phone out.

  “How’s he doing?” Tony said hoarsely.

  “Not great, but we’ll pull him through,” I replied and put the phone to my ear, surveying the room. I was in a waiting room, and there was another door that likely led to the doctor's examining room. I pointed to it, and Tony immediately kicked also that door in.

  “You’re lucky,” Jamie answered, and I exhaled.

  “Yeah?” I said, still breathing heavily.

  “Find his medicine cabinet. Break it open, the stupid man has the keys with him in Twin City.”

  “Okay,” I said and tossed the phone on the chair next to the bed in the center of the room.

  The medicine cabinet was easy enough to find, mainly because it had a huge sign on it that told me what it was. I surveyed the lock and turned to the door.

  Tony was standing there, and behind him, a few other men and women had gathered.

  “Get some tools and open this,” I said, and Tony and one of the men disappeared immediately.

  I picked up the phone, pushed the loudspeaker button, and put it on the tray of instruments next to the bed.

  “You’re on the loudspeaker. I’ll clean up, Jamie, then you’ll talk me through what to do,” I called out in the general direction of the phone, and turned to the crowd in the door, “Everyone, stay out of here, and when they bring him in you need to let them through.”

  They nodded, and I started searching through the cupboards for gloves, disinfection and other things I’d need.

  “Anyone has any kind of nursing experience?” I called out, without turning.

  “I’ll help you,” a calm voice replied.

  Mrs. Fratinelli stood in the door, and her eyes seemed hard, but as she walked into the room, I saw that they weren’t. She was worried but still kept her cool.

  “Excellent,” I said. “You’re a nurse?”

  “No,” she snapped. “Are you a doctor?”

  I gave her a tight smile.

  “Fair point,” I conceded. “Scrub,” I ordered and pointed to the sink.

  Then there was a commotion by the door, and they brought Daniele in at the same time as Tony walked in with some tools.

  Daniele’s breath rattled horribly, and his eyes were closed, but he was still alive, so the tourniquet had helped. Tony paled when he saw his brother and stopped.

  “Tony,” I barked. “Focus. Get me into the cabinet.”

  He promptly, and surprisingly skillfully, broke the lock.

  “Jamie,” I called out as I snapped gloves on my hands.

  “Still here,” he called back. “The man is there?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Find the box labeled Phelazomar and start by giving him five of the vials,” he said.

  Mrs. Fratinelli proved to be an excellent nurse. Her hands were steady, and she followed both Jamie’s and my orders as we gave them to her. With some instructions from Jamie, I cleaned out the wound properly, and then I gave Daniele five more vials of antivenom, put a needle in his arm and hooked him up to a drip, giving him a saline solution to help with the loss of blood from my cut. I also added the strongest painkiller we could find, hoping to relieve a little of his pain.

  Suddenly, there was a commotion outside, and I heard a woman repeatedly shouting Daniele's name. I turned to Mrs. Fratinelli, and she muttered, “His wife, Anetta.”

  “Jamie,” I called out.

  “Yeah,”

  “Is it okay for me to leave him just a sec?”

  “Sure, Jinx,” he replied. “Go see to the man’s wife. You have five minutes, then come back, and we’ll see if you should give him one more dose of Phelazomar.”

  I turned to find Tony standing shoulder to shoulder with Dante at the door, blocking it from the others as if they were guarding the entrance.

  “No one goes into this room,” I said sharply.

  Then I pushed past them and walked through the house. A crowd had gathered outside and in the center stood a small, curvy woman with long, straight, white-blonde hair, looking completely shattered.

  “He’s still hanging in there,” I said even before I had walked down the steps.

  A surprised murmur went through the crowd, and I realized they’d all expected Daniele to be dead. He was still in a lot of trouble, but if it hadn’t been for the antivenom, he probably would have been.

  I walked up to the woman, and asked softly, “Anetta?”

  She was shivering, and a small whimper made its way past her lips, but she didn’t say anything.

  “I have an emergency doctor on the phone in there, and I’ve given him medicine. His condition is still serious, but he has a chance. Once the emergency team gets here those chances increases dramatically.”

  She kept staring at me, and I knew she was in shock.

  “Anyone living close by?” I asked loudly, not taking my eyes from the woman in front of me.

  “I do,” a woman called out.

  “Can you please make something sweet for Anetta to drink and bring a couple of blankets?” I asked, and when the woman replied that she would be back immediately, I focused on Daniele’s wife again.

  “Has Daniele talked about me? About who I am?” I whispered.

  She didn’t reply, but she nodded slightly.

  “I will not let him die,” I said, still whispering, but she heard me.

  “Okay,” she said weakly.

  “Okay,” I echoed. “I have to go back inside and give Daniele more medicine, but hold on to that, Anetta. I will do everything in my power to keep your man alive.”

  I held her eyes and let her see exactly how determined I was. She exhaled softly and nodded again.

  “I see the chopper!” a man called out and pointed to the sky. “They’re almost here!”

  I looked, and at a far distance, a small black dot appeared.

  I turned immediately, and while I was walking swiftly in
to the small blue house, I calculated how long time it would take them to fly the remaining distance, based on the average speed of a helicopter and my judgment of the tail wind they would have.

  “Jamie,” I called.

  “Still here,” his calm voice said.

  “We could see the helicopter. They’ll be here in eight minutes and seventeen seconds,” I said, but since I wasn’t actually sure of the distance they had to cover, I added, “Approximately.”

  Jamie chuckled and said, “I know. I’m in contact with them on another line. You got it wrong, though. They estimate arrival in seven minutes and thirty seconds.”

  I smiled, but then I felt how Daniele moved his hand to touch mine, so I looked down. His eyes were open, and I could tell that he was in pain, but his gaze was seemed clear and without confusion. His breath didn’t sound so rattled anymore either, I realized.

  “Thank you,” he whispered weakly.

  “Not a problem,” I replied softly.

  He smiled, and I took hold of his hand and held it until the emergency crew rushed into the room. When the helicopter had disappeared with Daniele, I walked back into the examination room and started helping Mrs. Fratinelli put things back into order.

  “Go home and take a shower, girl,” she’d snapped sourly.

  “I’ll help,” I replied calmly because I did need a shower but she was kind of old and needed a shower too, so just leaving seemed rude.

  “I might be old, but I am not in my grave just yet, girl,” she retorted, reading the look on my face accurately. “Looking at you, I think you’re closer to that blessed rest than me.”

  I opened my mouth to snap at her, but Jamie’s laughter interrupted our glaring.

  “Is it okay to hang up now, Jinx?” he asked.

  “Sorry, Jamie, I forgot about you,” I replied. “Thank you for helping. I wouldn’t have known what to do without you.”

  “I always thought you were one seriously cool cookie, and today you proved it. You would have found a way, Jinx.”

  I had never been called a cool cookie, or any kind of cookie for that matter, and I found it a bit dorky, although in a sweet way, so I had a smile in my voice when I replied.