The Sage After Rain A love story

by Jaclyn Hawkes

  She couldn't help but laugh. "You want pouncing? Sorry, I'm not much of a pouncing kind of a girl. You should have mentioned that to Stacy. She seemed to want to pounce. Speaking of Stacy, what exactly did you see that ended that relationship so soundly? I was honest with you about everything."

  "Oh, my story isn't nearly as juicy as a corrupt and violent congressman. I just caught her in bed with my best friend."

  This time it was Taya's turn to be shocked. "You're kidding! Your best friend? Oh! That's awful! I'm so sorry!"

  "Ahh. I'm like you. I'm just incredibly thankful that I clued in before too long. About both of them. Walking away from the two of them was the best thing that has happened to me in years. I feel like my life is headed in a much better direction than it was five weeks ago. You've been a very good influence on me. Thanks."

  "How have I been an influence on you? You're the one who just said I've been a lousy missionary."

  "No, you've been a great missionary for me. Just not a pushy one. Which would never work anyway. I'm too rebellious. You've been a good influence. It's just that I have so far to go still."

  "Ah. There's the church on the left. If you think you're rebellious, you have never seen what the headstrong daughter of a lobbyist can pull when she wants to. I'm not even going to admit to some of the stuff I did. I just hope I never have a child like me! Come on. We're even later than I wanted to be. Hey, maybe you'll be in luck and someone will pounce on you!"

  They only went to Sunday school and Sacrament meeting again. Taya was hesitant to take him into a Gospel Essentials class for fear of drawing attention. Poor Matt had to try to muddle through a class that got off on a tangent about which original apostle was related to who and who was going to take care of Jesus' mother Mary. It was less than spiritual epiphany material to say the least. At least Sacrament meeting went better. The theme for the day was the importance of temple marriage and Taya found herself with the giggles when Matt turned and gave her a pointed look in the middle of one of the talks. He wasn't even sure what temple marriage was, but he was giving her the look anyway.

  On the way home she still had the giggles in the car and teased him about being the pouncer instead of the pouncee. Once back in camp, they cooked another version of Whatchagot stew and ate together again before he headed back to his tent to rest up for the coming grueling week.

  Chapter 15

  Monday and Tuesday, he was up and gone before the sun was up and then didn't come back with his two helpers until well after dark. Taya had begun to just make him dinner as sort of her contribution to the success of his venture. Tuesday night when he dragged into camp he didn't look so good and she was a little concerned about him when he ate quietly and then went to his tent and didn't even come back over to shower.

  She didn't see any lights on in his camp that night like she usually did, and the next morning the helicopter touched down as usual but then didn't take right back off. She opened the door of her trailer in the first light of day to see the two Indian helpers approaching with another man. Matt was nowhere to be seen. When they approached her and asked her where he was, she really started to worry. They all trooped over to his camp and the first thing she saw were his legs hanging out of his tent with his boots on, only face down.

  She leaned down and started to wake him up, but he didn't respond to her speaking to him. She got louder and finally climbed right into his tent to find out what was going on. Once she was inside, she could practically smell his fever. It was that sick smell that she only recognized from the few times she had been really, really ill. He didn't wake up even when she'd climbed right in with him and when she finally shouted at him, he only groaned and turned on his side in his sleep. She put a hand on his head and it was so searingly hot that she gasped. She climbed back out and told the others Matt was extremely ill and asked if they thought they knew what they were doing enough to go without him today, while she took him in to the doctor.

  They left on the chopper and she ran to her trailer and got her first aid box and ran back. Once inside his tent again, she took his temperature with the scan thermometer and was horrified when it read one-hundred-six point three. She started waking him up again and had to almost hit him to get him to open his eyes. Pushing her box back out the door, she said, "Come on, Matt. We have to get you out and into the shower right now!"

  She had to keep after him for a few minutes until he finally dragged himself up. She picked up the shaving kit he usually carried to the shower and dug in his bag for a pair of sweat pants, and his Tivas and followed him out of his tent. He almost staggered through the brush, and she took his hand and led him back to the trailer and pushed a glass of orange juice and two Tylenol into his hand and ordered him to take them. Then she sent him to the shower, but worried he'd be able to handle standing up in it and ran back to grab her chair.

  Back at the shower she stood right in front of him and talked to him to see if he was with it enough to know he needed to shower to take down the fever. He did, but only just barely. Leaning down, she helped him untie his boots and then left him to help himself, while she went to dig out the phone book and find a doctor who would see him right away.

  After ten phone calls, she got an appointment and went and met him coming out of the shower in his sweat pants and sandals. He was headed back to his tent and she gently steered him back over to the trailer and had him sit in the swing. She took his temperature again and was glad to see it was down to just over one-hundred-five already. She took his other things back to his tent and dug out a t-shirt. As nice as his physique was shirtless, she figured he'd better wear a shirt in to the doctor's office.

  She ran out to the sheep and signaled the dogs to start the herd down into the valley for the morning and then went back and got Matt into the passenger side of his Jeep. Getting in the other side, she dug out of camp, heading for the road and trying to talk him into drinking a yogurt smoothie as they drove. He got most of it down before going back to being half unconscious against the window.

  Seeing him like this scared her. She didn't ever remember being around someone whose fever was so high that they were mostly out of it. She finally pulled into the clinic parking lot and then had to work to rouse him again. She put an arm around him and literally dragged him into the waiting room where the woman at the front desk took one look at him and immediately took him back to an exam room.

  He collapsed on the bed and was out again within seconds and Taya stood beside him to ensure he didn't accidentally roll off in his lethargy. When the nurse came back and took his temperature it was still over a hundred and five in spite of the fact that she had had the A.C. on in the Jeep as high as it would go the whole way over. The nurse called for the doctor and then began to sponge him off with a mixture of water and isopropyl alcohol. She asked Taya if he had taken anything to knock the fever down, and when she mentioned the Tylenol, they gave him some Ibuprofen soft gels too.

  When the doctor finally came in, Taya wanted to scream when he regretfully said that this particular bad flu that was going around was viral and he couldn't do much more than treat the symptoms and encourage fluids. They told Taya to keep alternating with the two medicines every two hours and to get him back into the shower and sponge him off with the alcohol mixture if it spiked and wouldn't come back down. Worst case scenario, she could take him to the emergency room and see if they could get it down.

  Taya loaded him back into the Jeep in absolute frustration. How could a person be this sick, and medical professionals send him away again? As she drove, she phoned Zan, told him what was going on and asked him to come and give him a blessing. She could tell he wasn't happy about her request in the least, but he agreed to come and bring someone else with him.

  Actually, by the time she got Matt back to camp, the Ibuprofen had begun to help and the fever came down to one-hundred-three point five. It was still horribly high, but not nearly as scary to her as it had been. With the drop in temperature, Matt became more lucid
and she explained what the doctor had said and what she needed to do for him.

  She stressed that the doctor had cautioned her that Matt had to take the Ibuprofen with food and she talked him into eating some more. She put a sheet on her little swing and laid him on it where she could check him easier. Climbing in and out of his tent wasn't an option and it would be roasting hot in there all day anyway. She rigged up another sheet over the top of the swing to keep the sun off and then went to check on the sheep while she waited for Zan.

  She had to hand it to Zan. He had come when she asked, even though she knew he wasn't thrilled in the least to be sharing her with Matt. He had brought another elder who worked in his office with him and Matt was actually awake enough to know somewhat what was going on as they administered to him. He went back to sleep immediately and she offered Zan and his friend a sandwich which they both declined before they left. Matt’s fever dropped right down three degrees and stayed there for more than two hours while she moved the sheep again, but it spiked back up over one-hundred-four and she prayed for faith to help the blessing bring it back down. She got out her rubbing alcohol and made the mixture they had recommended and then stripped his shirt back off. She sat on the swing with him and sponged off his chest, trying to help bring that scary heat under control.

  All day long, she switched off between tending to him and tending the sheep right around camp. She gave him the two medicines religiously and cajoled him into eating from time to time. The helicopter touched down at sunset again, and the pilot came in to check on him and planned to leave without him again in the morning.

  By nightfall, when she had gotten the sheep somewhat bedded down, she was too tired to even eat dinner. She set an alarm to wake her every two hours and kept up her vigil all night, sponging off his chest again at ten after three when his fever went back up to one-hundred-five again. At twenty after five it was over one-hundred-six and she dragged him back to the shower to see if that would help to bring it down. It appeared to and she sat back on the swing to continue sponging off his chest and arms from time to time between doses.

  When she heard the helicopter again, she was too tired to even check her watch and felt like she had sandpaper in her eyes. It felt like it had been a lot longer than twenty four hours that she had been fighting this eternal raging fever. She woke Matt gently and gave him the medicine and sweet talked him into eating most of a banana before dosing off. She took the sheep into a new section of the valley and went back to her vigil of sponging and tending to him. That day went by in a blur of sheep and fever and rubbing him with the alcohol and twice she got him to get back in the shower. By dark that evening, she had become a zombie who tended him and the sheep automatically. Bedding the sheep down, she sat in the swing with his head on her lap, wiping his brow occasionally.

  She woke up sometime in the middle of the night and realized she had missed one of the doses of medicine and had let his fever rage clear up again. She felt terrible about it as she forced him to wake up and eat and dragged him into the shower. It was a good thing he was an amiable man as out of it as he was with her keeping after him.

  When he came back out of the shower, they sat together on the swing leaning on each other. By this time she thought she was about as with it as he was.

  Somehow they made it through that night and the next day, doing the same exhausting and frightening dance of shuffling sheep and medicine and food between trying to cool his burning body and snatching a rest between. The night was completely unintelligible. Where sheep and fever and exhaustion began and ended was anyone's guess.

  The next morning, she actually felt more rested. Maybe her body was growing accustomed to bits and pieces of sleep between his frightening fevers. She dosed him and moved the sheep and came back to the swing to take up her round of sponging off his chest and arms. The brisk morning temperature seemed to help her. At least she felt better. She'd brought her pillow and propped it behind her back as she rolled him onto her lap again.

  By now she was beginning to be able to feel about how high his fever was just with her hand, and even though it was still in the hundred-three range, it was about as low as she'd been able to get it. She sponged off his chest one more time and then his head and leaned hers back against the pillow to close her eyes. She prayed silently one more time for him and accidentally fell asleep in the middle of it.

  Waking, she wasn't sure how long she had been asleep, but her sheep had gotten completely out of control and when she glanced up again, she could see them on almost every side of camp. She absently felt Matt's head and was surprised that it didn't feel as hot as it had. When she touched his forehead, he opened his eyes and looked at her and she thought his eyes looked clearer than they had in more than four days and said, "Welcome back. How are you feeling?"

  He groaned and stretched and laid his head back down on her lap. "Pretty much like I've been through the fires of hell and back. Thanks for watching over me. I'm sorry I've been such a pain."

  She smiled a tired smile. "You have been a pain, but there wasn't much you could do about it. Are you hungry? It's time you had more medicine."

  "Not hungry, just achy. Your sheep have completely run amok."

  "I know. They've probably eaten your tent by now, but your fever's down some so it's all okay." She brushed the hair back from his brow. "You scared me. I've never been around a fever that high. I never knew if I was keeping it down enough or not. I'm sorry that I've nagged at you for four days."

  "Four days! You're kidding! I've been like this for four days?"

  She smiled and ran her hand over his forehead again. "No, you've been semi comatose with a fever that has threatened to spontaneously combust for four days. It was nothing like this."

  "I'm sorry. I haven't even realized what you've been going through. No wonder your sheep have gone everywhere."

  "It's okay." She put a hand on his cheek and leaned back and closed her eyes. "It's all okay. We made it through."

  After resting there for a few minutes, she pushed him off her lap and got up to go bring him some more medicine and another banana and a glass of milk. "Sorry, I haven't had much time to cook. Are you up to hanging out by yourself for a while, so I can go after the sheep?"

  "Yes, but do I have to move?"

  "Nope, you don't have to do anything. Just don't let your fever go so high again, deal?"

  "Deal." He closed his eyes and she headed out to find her dogs. It took most of an hour to get the sheep bunched and started down the valley. The feed was eaten down to the dirt and she sighed, knowing she was going to have to move the trailer before dark tonight. She left the dogs to take over and went back into camp and ate a banana of her own on the way to the shower.

  Primitive as it was, it felt like the fountain of youth, and she emerged feeling like a new woman who had strength enough to pack up camp and take it down the road after all. This time she put her trailer almost right down in the stream bottom. Talking to Matt about John had made her rethink what kind of danger they were in here and she was practically hidden in the trees, even from the helicopter. It was a pain to get there, but at dusk when she settled the sheep for the night, it smelled like heaven. Matt had gone back to sleep on the swing after eating and taking another dose of Ibuprofen, and Taya felt like he was going to be okay. She went in and lay down on her own bed planning to actually really sleep without the worry. Stretching out on her cool sheets had never felt so good!

  Getting up at midnight wasn't such a struggle after real rest and she didn't mind it tonight. Matt was sleeping peacefully, and she debated waking him until she felt his forehead. His fever was still probably a hundred and two. She sat on the edge of the swing and rubbed his back until he came awake and she quietly handed him his medicine with a tall glass of milk. He took it with a sigh and a mellow thank you, before throwing the pills back and draining the glass. He closed his eyes again and she smoothed the hair back from his brow with a gentle hand. She probably should put a cool cloth the
re. They were out of rubbing alcohol and most of everything else and she would have to go to the grocery store tomorrow.

  Going inside, she dampened a wash cloth with plain water and used it to wipe his head and shoulders and chest. He was out of the woods now, hopefully. What an exhausting and scary few days. It had been awful to see a man this strong be so incredibly sick. Tucking his sheet back around him, she gently kissed his forehead and went back to bed where she even dreamed about his chest and shoulders.

  Twice more in the night she got up with him. Caring for him these few days was now as natural to her as caring for her sheep.

  That next morning she got up, dosed Matt again and went out to move the sheep. When she came back in, she gathered up her laundry and her purse and then went and gathered up Matt's laundry bag as well. She loaded it all into her truck and bounced over the sage brush into town to grocery shop and run errands.

  When she arrived back at the trailer, two and a half hours later, Matt was gone off the swing. As she unloaded groceries and put away clothes, she saw him come out of the shower. He was moving slow, but he was up and moving and she sighed with relief to see him that much better. She had made lunch and was back out with her sheep before she realized she had just done all of her errands in town on the Sabbath. She said a quick sorry prayer and hoped God would understand that in the insanity of the last few days, she had completely lost track of what day it was.

  Chapter 16

  Zan dropped by that afternoon just to visit. He'd had to call her from the highway to figure out where to look for the trailer, which was encouraging. He climbed out of his truck and walked over and sat next to her on her swing looking at her all the while, and when he was settled, he said, "You look awful, Taya. What happened? Are you sick too?" His blatant honesty made her laugh harder than she had laughed in months and he looked sheepish. "Sorry. I guess that was kind of rude. But seriously, are you okay?"