Wind Across the Playground

by Ross Richdale

  "And your parents?" Noel asked.

  Lisa bit on her lip. "Dad would have a hernia," she admitted. "I haven't told them I'm pregnant. You'd never get them on an aeroplane so we're quite safe down here. That's one advantage of being on the other island. They can't just drive down to see us."

  "Okay," Noel replied in a disappointed voice, "but we can't go on like this forever, Lisa."

  Lisa nodded and turned around from where she had been dusting off a bookshelf. Her face was serious. "Are you really, sure, Noel?" she said. "What about Margaret?"

  "Why do you have to bring her up again?" Noel snapped. "If we were married I would have never had that fling.... Oh damn it Lisa. Can't you get it through your head; it is you I want to marry, not Margaret or any other woman. I suppose you want me to go and lay someone else now. Why, for God's sake?"

  "I would rather you did that without a guilt trip and hypocrisy," Lisa continued. "I wouldn't like it, Noel but know men have urges that are hard to control. My father had three affairs that I know of and after everyone; Mum forgave him but became a little bitterer. They're still together and now Dad is an old man with a dicky heart. Mum is old before her time and hanging on out of duty. What has she got to look forward to, Noel? Twenty years of being a bitter old widow after Dad finally dies."

  "But we aren't your parents, I've said that before. For one thing, I'm not ten years older than you, we share our lives and I don't dominate you like your father does with your mother." He grimaced. "I guess my old man is the same. Those days are gone Lisa."

  "Not here," she replied.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Here at Ashleyvale, Taihape or any rural area for that matter. Look at Margaret. She's exactly like my mother. I reckon she married Wesley because Cindy was on the way. He'd be a decade older than her and she seduced you because of her own frustration. Now, if they hadn't married she would have been ostracized for being an unwed mother for a while but by now she may have met someone else and could be happily married with perhaps even had more children." She stared at Noel. "Instead, because of one mistake she has committed her whole life away. I love the country life, Sweetheart but sometimes I get exasperated at the locals. They're a generation behind the city in attitude."

  "You know your trouble?" Noel grumbled.

  "What?" Lisa retorted.

  "You're too bloody good at winning arguments. "

  "Could be but I do think of you, too, my sweet... all the time," she added as an after thought and turned back to dusting off the bookshelf.

  Noel watched her for a moment and also continued his sweeping. A moment later he broke into whistling a current tune Turn, Turn Turn, an adaptation of a biblical passage by an Australian pop group. He reached the end of the room with his sweeping when he felt arms tucked around his. He spun around and pulled Lisa's rotund tummy into his and they kissed affectionately.

  "I love you, Noel," Lisa said in a hushed voice. She smiled up at him. "But I've told you that before, haven't I?"

  IT WAS ONE OF THE COLDEST nights of the winter with snow from the previous day now frozen and covering the South Otago landscape right down to the ocean. Life, though, continued and the Ashleyvale School Committee had its monthly meeting in the senior room of the school. Noel had gone across and lit the pot-bellied coal heater at five so by just before eight in the evening, the room was an oasis of warmth.

  Lisa was at the bored stage. The novelty of her pregnancy had worn off and with less than three weeks to go she felt bloated and uncomfortable with constant back pains and sleepless nights. She sat in the front room of the schoolhouse and half watched the television flickering in the corner.

  "Damn," she said a few moments later and jerked up. She must have dozed off for the fire was reduced to a few embers and the outside cold was beginning to encroach. She loved the open fire but noticed that, though Noel had filled the wood box before he left, the fire had devoured it all. She staggered to her feet and slipped into one of Noel's heavy coats as her own wouldn't meet around her bulge. She turned on the back veranda light and headed out to get a couple of logs from the woodshed.

  It was freezing outside, clouds of condensation puffed out of her mouth and the frozen snow looked like crystal in the veranda light. Overhead, the moon, almost full in size shone and a million stars stretched across the heavens. There was nothing, not even a lonely streetlight to spoil the view. Even the school lights were out of sight behind a long macrocarpa hedge. Lisa stopped for a moment and just gazed at the wonderland and thought of Noel and the baby. She smiled, shivered because of the cold and plodded to the edge of the washhouse, around into darkness and on to the adjacent woodshed.

  Two reasonable sized logs were within easy reach. She stooped, picked them up and wondered whether to reach for a third piece.

  "Why not?" she grunted and stepped forward.

  Her front foot trod on a sheet of thick ice and she slipped. She was thrown off balance, dropped the logs and slung an arm out to catch herself.

  The rest was a blur.

  She found herself pitched forward, there was a brief vision of the wooden wall and log beneath her and a sudden piercing pain as a large sharp stick gouged into her leg and slammed into her body.

  Lisa screamed in agony. She was on the frozen path with her legs crumpled beneath her body. She placed an arm down to try to hoist herself up while excruciating pain shot through her abdomen. Something was terribly wrong! She staggered and managed to pull herself up. Her eyes focused on the cream wall and she saw something.

  Her handprint showed out in the moonlight as a dark outline on the cream wall. Worse, though was that, as the original pain came numbed she could feel her whole lower body was covered in oozy mud.

  She glanced down and gasped. It wasn't mud but blood. Her blood! Everywhere!

  ACROSS AT SCHOOL, THE telephone party line rang and Noel immediately knew it was an internal ring from the house. Lisa often rang now and he recognized the way she made the ring just that tiny bit longer than the exchange did.

  "Lisa," he said to the five men gathered around the senior pupils desks. "Excuse me a moment." He walked across the room to the ancient instrument and placed it to his ear. "Hi Sweetheart... " he began but his conversation was interrupted by an agonizing sob over the line.

  "Noel!" Lisa's voice could barely be recognized. "The baby... "

  A thud vibrated over the line and the telephone went dead.

  "It's Lisa!" Noel gasped. In one bound he was out the door and running as fast as his legs could carry him across the lawn towards the schoolhouse. He slipped twice on the icy grass before he reached the small gate beside the house.

  "Lisa!" he screamed as he skidded once more on the icy path. He could see the back veranda light glowing. He stopped only a second to realize there was a pool of blood on the path and a trail that led inside.

  "I'm here, Sweetheart," he shrieked, took the three back steps in one leap and charged in the open door.

  "Oh my God!" he gasped when he saw the mouth piece dangling from the wall mounted telephone

  He stepped further in and saw Lisa. She was in a crumpled heap on the floor with a blood soaked towel clutched in her hand. Far worse, though, was her maternity smock. It was covered in dark red, almost black blood. He could see more blood flowing out on the floor in three little streams.

  "Lisa!" he howled and bent down beside her. Her face looked blue and eyes closed. "Lisa!" The distraught man burst into shuddering, uncontrolled tears and clasped his arms around her. A tiny breath of warm air touched his cheek as he stooped, lifted her into his arms and staggered to his feet. His head spun and he almost blacked out but gritted his teeth and carried her across to the old blue sofa that now resided in the kitchen.

  "It's okay, Noel." A voice pierced the haze of his mind and he saw Wesley Stuart and the other men beside him.

  "Get her to the Land Rover!"

  "I'll phone emergency services."

  "Get another towel and try to stop t
he blood flow."

  "Holly shit, what a mess!"

  Men's voices surrounded Noel as he just held Lisa close and kissed the pale unconscious face. "Lisa," he bawled. His own hands, arms and clothes were all covered in blood.

  "Come on, Noel," said a kind voice and a hand squeezed his shoulder. "We'll take Lisa in my Land Rover. An ambulance is coming out from Balclutha and will meet us half way. There's also a helicopter being dispatched from Dunedin but it'll take a while to reach us."

  "We're doing all we can, Noel," a second voice said. "I've got a blanket to wrap her in...."

  Voices, more voices! Noel nodded and allowed Stan, the committee chairman, to wrap a blanket around her. They were outside and it was snowing again.

  The smell of diesel, a rumble of a vehicle engine and he was in the back of Wesley's Land Rover with Lisa in his arms.

  "It's okay, Sweetheart," he sobbed. "We'll get you to hospital."

  But the young woman did not reply, or indeed move as the head lulled back and the blonde hair hung back over Noel's arms.

  "Oh, Lisa, my love," he whispered and plastered her with kisses. "Don't die. Please don't die."

  It was a journey through a cold freezing hell with the snow tumbling down so hard that the Land Rover's windscreen wipers couldn't cope. Wesley drove with his head out the window. Stan's Land Rover followed behind and the two vehicles growled through the lonely night with headlights hardly piercing the snowflakes. On one hill, the vehicle was down to four-wheel-drive, low ratio but it managed to make the crest and descend the opposite side. There was no road visible now, only a blanket of virgin snow between fence posts on each side. Wesley drove straight down the middle between them and managed to stay on the road.

  Twenty minutes passed by. Noel held a towel clutched in Lisa's body. Whether it was his imagination or not, he didn't know but the flow of blood appeared to stop. Of course, in the dark interior of the Land Rover, he was mainly working on senses rather than sight to feed himself information. He clutched Lisa and just held on.

  "You're hurting me, Sweetheart," a tiny voice whispered as the Land Rover swung around a corner that, if it was visible, was at the beginning of a long sweeping downhill section that headed to a valley.

  "Lisa!" Noel cried and kissed the cold face beneath him.

  "I'm so cold and wet" she whispered and her eyes opened. Noel could see them in the reflected light from Stan's Land Rover behind. "Oh Noel, I'm..."

  Her voice stopped as she lapsed back into unconsciousness.

  "Noel." Wesley's voice filled the cab. "Lights. I can see flashing lights. It must be the ambulance coming to meet us. They'll have a blood supply, Noel. I think we've made it."

  Noel glanced up and saw two tiny pinpricks of blinking red lights above the snow-covered bonnet of the Land Rover.

  "Thank God!" he said.

  Moments later the vehicles met and three very efficient medical workers took over. Lisa was lifted onto a stretcher and immediately hooked into a supply of plasma. Noel found himself in the ambulance and hardly had time to thank Wesley and the others before the journey continued. Much to Noel's concern they turned into a floodlit farmyard a few moments later and the ambulance stopped.

  "It is okay, Noel," the driver said in a calm voice. "A helicopter is coming in and we'll be taking your wife directly up to Dunedin hospital. It is one of the country's top emergency hospitals. If anyone can help her, they can."

  Another agonizing five-minute wait followed before, out of the whiteness of still falling snow, a helicopter appeared from nowhere and landed. Lisa was transferred across, Noel was guided into a small seat beside her and they lifted off the ground,

  Noel clasped Lisa's hand the whole time and burst into tears again as he felt his fingers being squeezed. Her eyes opened and focused on him. She said something that was impossible to hear above the roar of the rotors and engine but her squeeze felt stronger...

  Noel looked down and brushed a finger over her trembling lips. "We'll make it, Sweetheart," he said. "We'll make it."

  IT WAS DAWN IN DUNEDIN Hospital. Noel jerked up in the borrowed clothes that replaced his own blood soaked ones and realized he'd fallen asleep. Someone was shaking his shoulder and calling his name.

  "Mr. Overworth," said a soft female voice. "Doctor Yeung wishes to speak to you. Could you come now, please? It's rather urgent."

  An attractive redhead nurse was gazing at him. My God! She looked no older than Wendy. Her body language, though, spoke more than the words. The combination of pity and sympathy sent a shiver through Noel's body.

  "Lisa?" he cried.

  "Please, Noel," the nurse replied. "Doctor Yeung is one of our top consulting gynaecologists."

  She walked briskly along the corridor.

  Noel face drained of colour. Something was wrong! He knew it. With a pounding heart, he almost ran to catch the nurse. She slowed, turned and smiled slightly. "Doctor Yeung will explain everything," she said in a soft voice.

  A slightly built Chinese man dressed in green surgical gab waited for them at an office door. Noel walked in, accepted the man's invitation to sit and perched himself on the edge of a soft chair.

  "I'm sorry, Mr. Overworth..." the surgeon began.

  "No!" Noel gasped. "Not Lisa?"

  "Your wife is on a ventilator machine that is keeping her alive," Doctor Yeung began and placed a hand on Noel's shoulder. "I doubt if she'll wake up. Too much blood was lost, I'm afraid."

  Noel stood, eyes wide with terror. "No, it can't be. We got to the ambulance and they had plasma."

  "There were other injuries as well," the doctor replied. "We need your permission to proceed."

  "With what?" Noel asked. He swallowed down bile that had rushed to his throat, staggered and, only by gripping the arm of the chair, did he stop himself collapsing on the floor.

  "Nurse!" the doctor ordered.

  Noel sensed, rather than saw the white uniform beside him and a sharp prick in the arm. Someone guided him into the chair and the world spun. He fought the sensation and willed his tormented body to stay conscious. He needed to hear the doctor's words.

  "...Do you understand, Mr. Overworth. A Caesarean section is necessary to save your baby. It is too late for your wife but the child need not also die. Your permission is necessary..."

  "Yes, of course," Noel muttered and scrawled his signature across the document placed in his hands. "Lisa! Can I see her?"

  "Briefly," the surgeon replied. "We need to begin as soon as possible."

  Noel nodded, rejected the nurse's hand of guidance and put on a green gown, cape and mask. He walked in the operating theatre and saw Lisa lying on a flat table beneath the shadowless glare of overhead lights. Her face was white and lips colourless. Tubes were everywhere, running under her nose and from a needle in an exposed arm. Her eyes were closed with long eyelashes down as if she was asleep.

  "She's breathing," the desperate man whispered.

  "That is the ventilator working," another doctor replied in a kind voice. "It is kept on so her child won't be deprived of oxygen."

  "Oh Lisa," Noel's lip quivered and his repose collapsed. Tears erupted and streamed down his face as he pulled his mask aside and kissed his partner one last time. "Why didn't I get another pile of wood for you? I thought it was enough for one evening. These bloody cold South Otago winters..."

  He squeezed her hand but no more words could be formed. Warm hands guided him, trembling and sobbing, into an adjacent room.

  "HAVE YOU SEEN YOUR daughter, Noel?" the nurse, the same one he'd met in the waiting room, said and he opened his eyes to see a face making a brave attempt to smile.

  "My daughter?" he gasped. In one instant he went from groggy sleep to full alert and was sitting up with his feet on the floor.

  "Then turn around."

  Noel turned to where a second nurse had wheeled in a bassinet. A tiny head with a mop of wet hair poked put from a pink blanket. A small card at the end stated "Baby Overworth." The nurse re
ached down and lifted the infant up.

  "She's healthy and weighs in at five pounds, seven ounces," the nurse said. "You can hold her, Noel but keep a hand behind her head."

  With infinite care, Noel reached for the small bundle handed to him and held his child, his little girl, into his chest. A minute pink hand, perfect even to long fingernails, appeared and wide eyes opened and stared, without focus, at the world.

  For several moments, Noel just held his daughter as tears rolled down his cheeks and dropped onto the infant, before he handed her back to the nurse.

  "Lisa?" Noel whispered to Doctor Yeung who appeared in his line of vision.

  "We need to turn the ventilator off, Noel. Will you sign the necessary form?"

  "And if I don't?" Noel snapped.

  "Your wife is brain dead, Noel," the doctor replied. "Keeping her on the ventilator will only delay the inevitable."

  "My wife! Lisa and I were never married," Noel lashed out. He turned tear-strewn eyes up and noticed the doctor waiting patiently. "Yes, I am sorry," he said and signed the second document. "But I want to be there."

  "Certainly," Doctor Yeung replied and turned to the young nurse who, herself, was on the verge of tears. "Take Mr. Overworth through please, Nurse Winters."

  CHAPTER 9

  The voice on the telephone was barely comprehensible but Noel realized it was Sarah Woolstone, Lisa's mother speaking. She had already been told of Lisa's death earlier so the initial shock of the news would have been absorbed by now.

  Noel glanced at his watch and swallowed. It was almost midnight! He was home at the schoolhouse and two days had gone by since the tragedy. Alexia, he'd chosen Lisa's middle name for the baby, was still in the Dunedin hospital's maternity annex and could remain there for a week. There were options such as fostering the child but, now, Noel was too distressed to make a final decision on his tiny daughter's future.

  Locals had stepped in and everything possible was done for Noel including the funeral at the Ashleyvale Presbyterian Church, a tiny building down along the main highway. From there, Lisa's body would be transferred back to Taihape Cemetery for internment. This latest addition to the funeral arrangements was at the request of Andy and Sarah Woolstone. Now, though, Lisa's mother was far more distraught than just checking on him.