Posted As Missing

Chapter Twenty-Eight

David picked up Rachel and carried her the remaining few yards to the tent, and as Maria held the flap and pulled the top blanket off the bed, he continued on in and laid her on the remaining bedrolls.

"Pull the side of the blanket over her, shock may give her a chill," Maria said. "Roll this one up as big as you can," she continued, handing him the other blanket. "Go soak some towels and cottons in the cold stream. Bring them back cold and sopping."

He gave her the rolled bedroll, and she lifted Rachel's leg and put it under her calf, then gently eased the loose boot off the foot and ran her fingers lightly up each side of her ankle. "Let me know if you have sharp pain, bone pain when I do this, Mama." She increased the pressure as she walked her fingers up and down past the ankle joint. "Anything, Mama?"

"A throbbing, an ache along the outside of my foot. Nothing sharp."

"Along here," Maria asked, looking at the beginning of swelling and darkening. "Did you roll over onto the outside of your foot?"

"Yes, it rolled downhill with the rock. That's tender along there."

"Sharp?"

"No — tender is a better word, aching, throbbing. It feels hot."

"David will be here soon with a cold compress. Cooling and pressing will slow the swelling. Ease the pain a bit also. Roll onto your right side, put the outside of your foot upward."

She took the wet towels from David, folded one and put it under the ankle, folded two more and draped them over the foot.

"One more test, Mama. I'm going to push up on the bottom of your foot. First the heel. I'll increase the push gradually as much as I can. You push back as I do. Tell me if you've any sharp pain, any bone pain. Let me know as soon as there's pain." She pushed straight along the axis of the leg, being careful not to bend the ankle. "Anything, Mama?"

"Nothing but the pressure — and the throb that's already there."

"I'm going to push up on the ball of your foot. Same thing, you tell me again."

"A pull in the back of my calf, an increase in the ache along the outside of my foot. Nothing sharp."

"Did you feel a pop? A snap? Hear anything when it happened."

"Nothing."

"I don't think it's broken. It appears to be only a sprain. I'll probe my fingers along all your foot and ankle bones again. Tell me of any sharp pain or change in pain... Nothing? Good!" She looked up and smiled.

"I think you have a mild sprain, no torn ligaments, just some stretch. The instructor told us these are the most common type, turning the ankle over outward. Treatment is easy. Elevate the ankle to reduce blood flow, apply cold compresses to prevent swelling, or to slow it. We can bind it once we see the swelling isn't severe. We still have a lot of surgical tape we can use for that. The main thing is rest. Don't walk on it for a few days until the swelling has reduced."

"Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn!" Rachel cried out. "Look what I've done. Look what I've done to our dreams, to your dreams — I'm so sorry, so terribly sorry." Her shoulders shook with her sobs.

David knelt above her head, and he put a hand on each side of it, fingers running down her cheeks. "You've done nothing. It happened. I have no dreams. We need to concentrate on being here. Here is the only place we can do anything." He softly wiped her tears with his fingers.

"This may not seem to be the ideal situation, but it's the one we're in," he continued. "We can work only with what we have; anything else is fantasy, dreaming, diffusing energy which needs to be applied here, applied in this situation, not squandered somewhere off in the future." He stroked her cheek.