Weathered Love

EMERGENCY

I could barely keep my eyes open, and it felt like the sun was particularly strong that day. I looked to Andrew who was sitting next to me on the bus, nodding off, his head finally coming to rest on my shoulder. I smiled to myself and decided to lean against the window so I could take a nap as well.

Neither of us had even gotten a wink of sleep, and when I got to my room that morning, I had to pretend I'd gone for an early morning walk. I'm not sure any of my roommates bought the excuse, but no one pried further.

All too soon, we arrived at the construction site. The church and the school were actually one building, but had an interior division so that they could have simultaneous church events and school events without interrupting each other. It looked small, and nothing like the pristine and shiny buildings back home. But it was amazing how far we'd gotten from the first day we had arrived. I was so proud of our accomplishment. All the framing and foundation was done, which meant the heavy lifting was almost completely over. Soon, it would be all about the esthetics.

As I carried some heavy materials to the site, I found myself stopping a lot more than normal to take a breath or have a drink of water. It was a lot hotter than previous days, and more humid to boot. And I was worried. I found myself looking for Andrew most of the time, keeping an eye out to make sure he'd be OK. I tried to be subtle, so that he wouldn't know I was watching him and wouldn't feel insecure. But I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I was sure that it had nothing to do with the lack of sleep.

"Need some help?" Andrew asked as he approached me. I smiled and nodded, glad he'd be right there. I didn't need help carrying anything, I just wanted to feel secure knowing he was right next to me. "I'm fine, by the way," he stated. I felt myself pause for a moment. "Although I'm flattered you keep looking for me," he continued.

"It's just a really hot day, that's all," I excused. "Sorry. I don't mean to babysit," I mumbled my apology.

"All good," Andrew stated as he continued to walk behind me while bearing part of the load. I heard him take a swig of water and that eased some of my worry.

"Same time and place tonight?" I inquired, trying to change subjects.

"Yeah," Andrew responded. But his speech was suddenly slurred. I felt the weight of the tools increase suddenly and I quickly turned around in time to see Andrew pass out.

"Andrew?" I called out, trying my best not to panic. "Damnit! Andrew?" I called out more loudly, quickly crouching down and putting my finger under his nose to make sure he was still breathing. He was, but the breath was too light.

"HELP!" I called out. I then quickly removed his hat, his sweater, and even his shoes and socks, trying to expose as much of his skin as I could to some air. Soon, a bunch of people had come over. "Get him under some shade," I instructed. Noah, Corey and Isaac helped pick him up and brought him to the shade of a nearby tree.

"We need ice packs," Ashley stated.

"No, no ice packs," I countered.

"He's having a heat stroke! He needs to cool down!" she argued.

"He's allergic to the chemicals in ice packs," I responded, trying to remain calm. "What we need to do is put some water on him and fan him to cool him down." I then sprinkled the rest of my water bottle all over his head and other people emptied their bottles on him too. I fanned him as best as I could, hoping against hope that he'd be alright.

After what felt like an eternity, but was in reality only a minute or so, he began to stir. His eyes lightly fluttered open and he looked a little embarrassed after noticing how many people were gathered around him. He then looked straight at me, smiled, and closed his eyes again.