Calypso's Mast

Chapter 32 - Escape Craft

"I'm really sorry about the bruises but you're a very fortunate girl. I had to do CPR," said Banning.

She looked down at the bruising.

"CPR does that?" she asked, her fear subsiding. "I was worried it was something to do with the sea snake bite.

"Are you feeling ok?" he asked. "Does it hurt to breathe?"

She shook her head.

"No, but it is sore all of the time down the front here." She indicated her bruised sternum.

"It's fortunate that you are young and strong," he said. "I was worried that I may have done some damage to your ribs." 

He wiped some sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

"Older people usually end up with one or more broken ribs from CPR," he observed. "I guess that's better than dying."

She tied the bikini string back together and lay down.

"Was I really dead?" she asked quietly.

"Yes you were really dead. I must have worked on you, for what felt like an eternity, but was probably only about two hours or so. By then, I was exhausted. Your heart wouldn't start and I didn't have a defibrillator so I used a Precordial Thump technique and it worked."

"What is that?"

"I punch you sharply in the middle of your chest and it jolts the heart into starting," he said.

"No wonder it's so sore and bruised."

"That, and the heart compressions often cause some bruises - especially a couple of hours of them," he said. "That technique is not employed much anymore. They stopped teaching it because, apparently, there was no evidence that it was effective. Besides, you usually had to do it before you started CPR."

"It looks like it worked on me," she said simply.

"You have no idea how happy I am, that it worked on you," said Banning with half of a smile.

"What did you think when you thought I was going to die?" she asked.

He was silent for a minute, while he thought.

"I thought..." he said quietly, "that I was about to lose the nicest thing that has happened to me in a long time."

Her eyes filled with tears.

"You're going to make me cry," she said.

He reached out and held her hand and then leaned over and kissed her softly on the lips. She returned the kiss tenderly, eagerly. He could taste her sweetness and sense her love and warmth.

When he finally disengaged, she murmured with her eyes still closed -"You're such a tease. If you want me to recover properly, I'll need more than that."

He smiled and said to her-"Don't worry. There's plenty more where that came from. I could stay here and kiss you all day. However, there are some other pressing matters that we really need to be focusing on.

She smiled up at him with twinkling eyes and licked her lips.

"I can't imagine what they would be," she said. "I'm having a fabulous time with you."

"Yes," he said. "I am too. Believe me! I would like nothing better, than to sip Jamaican Rum, soak up some sun and cuddle up to you for the next couple of weeks. But we will run out of food and water before then."

"And we don't have any Jamaican Rum," she said playfully.

"A minor detail," he countered. "I could make some."