The Wandering One

Chapter 12

The following week was uneventful, with Terrin still in a somber mood the majority of the time. She tried to hide it mostly, but the boys and Ben all saw the melancholy in her eyes. Hoss enlisted her help in nursing a small calf back to health and Joe dragged Terrin along on a fishing trip. He pouted all the way back to the house when she caught two more fish than he had. Adam and Terrin would sit together each evening, in the living room or on the porch, and Adam would read aloud to her. Any other spare time she had, was spent in the kitchen, helping Hop Sing with cooking and minor repairs. By the end of the week, when Doc came to visit, Terrin's shoulder and ribs were almost completely healed and she was cleared to go back to normal activities after one more week.

The day after Doc Martin visited, Terrin was doing the morning feeding of the calf in the barn, when she heard a horse approaching. Terrin put the calf back in it's pen and walked out to see who it was. The boys and Ben weren't due back until suppertime. It was Pohamas who was mounted on a pony. When she saw Terrin, she quickly dismounted and rushed over to her, babbling hysterically in Numu too quickly for Terrin to understand. Terrin grabbed the woman's arms and told her to speak slower.

Eventually she was able to figure out that there were several people in Pohama's village that were very sick and Doc Martin was dealing with the birth of a baby. Terrin nodded in understanding, whistled for Lash, and hollered for Hopsing. When Hopsing came running out, Terrin addressed him while bridling Lash.

"Hopsing, I need to go with Pohama to her village. There's a sickness spreading among her people and Doc Martin is busy delivering a baby. When Ben and the boys return, Tell them where I've gone and not to worry."

Hopsing nodded in understanding and Terrin swiftly leapt onto Lash's back, ignoring the slight pain the motion caused. Then she and Pohama took off at full speed to the Paiute village.

When they arrived, Terrin was stunned by the quiet that hung over the village of grass huts. There were no children running and laughing, no women gathered around a fire cooking. Terrin dismounted and removed Lash's bridle, handing it to a young boy who approached. She then followed Pohama to one of the huts. When she stepped inside, what struck her first was the stench of human waste. She braced herself and stepped closer to the man laying on a pile of blankets. Terrin crouched next to him and asked Pohama about his symptoms. It was when she lifted the blanket off of his torso that Terrin instantly recognized exactly what she was dealing with. Typhoid. The angry lesions on the man's skin told her how serious this situation was.

She quickly stepped out of the tent and asked Pohama, "How many are sick?"

"Half of village." came the fearful reply.

Terrin nodded. She then sprang into action. Everyone who wasn't sick was to help move all the sick people into three designated huts. Two warriors were to stop anyone from coming close to the village to prevent the typhoid from spreading. Terrin began tending to the sick with two other women. The rest of the village were instructed to stay away from the infected huts. Terrin began trying to make the sick as comfortable as possible and lower the fevers. She had learned about typhoid and was grateful for the medical journal she had been able to get her hands on last year when she had worked with a doctor for a spell. She knew that this was serious and that she would need quinine, lots of quinine.

Soon she had two more women making broth while she and her two other helpers tried to get the sick to drink water and changed cold cloths on their foreheads. Just before dusk, one of the men she had sent to stop anyone from entering the village came running for her. There were four men demanding to see her.

Terrin sighed in relief and followed the man. Just as she had guessed, Ben, Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe all sat waiting impatiently on their horses just beyond the other sentry. Terrin stopped ten feet away from the men and held up a hand when they made motions to dismount. "Don't come any closer." Her voice rang out clearly and with a note of authority the four men had never heard her use before. "This village is in strict quarantine. There's typhoid here and I can't risk it spreading."

The four men sat stunned for a few moments before Ben spoke up. "What can we do?"

"What about you?" demanded Adam right after.

"I've already been exposed, I can't leave. Either way, these people need me right now. What you can do to help is to ride out to the Wright's place and get Doc Martin. I need quinine and I need it bad." The rest of you go home and be safe. I'll be there as soon as this is over." She replied firmly. Joe volunteered to go get Doc and Ben spoke again.

"We'll not be leaving you here on your own. We'll respect that we can't enter, but give us something else we can do." Ben hated feeling helpless and fully realised how dangerous the situation was. Terrin huffed at the man's stubbornness.

"Alright, you three will do a much better job at stopping anyone from approaching than anyone else here. You can set up camp if you must, but you must not come any closer to this village. When Doc Martin gets here, send one of the Paiutes back to fetch me. I don't care what he says, he is not to come in here and get himself sick."

Ben and Hoss nodded and Adam did too, albeit much more reluctantly. As she turned to go back to tend to the sick, he called after her, "Please be careful."

Terrin looked back at him and nodded.

Three hours later, one of the Paiute men came to get Terrin once more. Terrin followed him to the border of the village to find Joe and the doctor being detained by Hoss and Adam.

"Thank you for coming Doctor Martin." Terrin greeted the man.

"You are welcome. Now would you please tell Ben here to let me go so I can see to the patients." he demanded. Terrin smiled tiredly at the man and nodded. Ben released the Doctor and Terrin turned to address Little Joe, still maintaining her ten foot distance.

"Joe. Now you stop fighting your brother. I am fine and you are most definitely not coming in here and gettin' yourself sick. Now you can either help your Pa and brothers keep everyone else out of this village or I'll have Hoss take you home and tie you to a chair."

With that proclamation, she lead Doc Martin into the village to the sick huts.

"I hope you brought lots of quinine." she muttered to him.

Terrin and the doctor worked tirelessly through the night, administering doses of quinine and trying to get liquids of any sort into their patients. By morning, two had died and three more had become ill. There were 15 ill when dawn broke. Terrin and two of the men moved the dead bodies to makeshift graves. Terrin and the doctor both knew that this was only the beginning. Many more would die before this was over.