Page 120 of Wrecked
“Let me get you some Tylenol.”
“No, Pip…I’m okay. We need to save that kind of stuff. I can handle this. It’s just a little scratch.”
“Fine, but if your pain gets any worse, promise me you’ll take it?”
“Promise, baby. Now let’s get dinner going. I think we should probably skip our beachside dinner tonight.”
“Deal.”
CHAPTER 49
NATE (11 MONTHS ON THE ISLAND)
Three days have passed since the incident with the jaguar, and we haven’t seen it around our camp. Unfortunately, I’ll have to kill her if we do. She was a beautiful creature, but I won’t risk Ellie. She was protecting her baby, and I’ll protect mine.
My wound is healing pretty quickly, and the smaller cuts have already scabbed over. Surprisingly, it hurts worse today than it did that first day. The pain almost tempts me to take Tylenol, but I won’t. There may come a time when Ellie needs it, and I’ll never take something from her that she needs.
“I’m going to head to the river to fish, are you going to stay here?” I ask, expecting her to want to come with me.
“I think I’m going to head to the beach and search for clams. I know the bonfire is going to need wood too. We haven’t tended to it in days.”
I hesitate, worried about her taking such a long trip alone. It feels like we are back at square one, back when we were ill-prepared for the dangers of the jungle. “I’ll go with you. I can fish later.”
“Baby, we can’t live like this. There is too much work to doevery day for you to be afraid to leave me on my own,” she argues.
I blow out a breath. “Okay, no, you’re right. Just be careful.”
She walks over to me, standing on her toes to give me a kiss. Her hands brush past my wound and I hiss, the pain almost unbearable.
“Oh…shoot, shoot. I’m sorry!” she squeaks, her face full of concern. She tilts her head, assessing my reaction. “Let me see it. You’re due for a dressing change anyway.”
I nod, removing my shirt and sitting down so she can reach the top of the dressing. She starts peeling the tape away from my skin, and it feels like a thousand pinpricks stabbing at the center of the laceration. I groan, the pain excruciating.
“This hurts?” she asks, perplexed.
“Little bit.” I grunt, attempting to hide the true intensity of my pain. The deep center of the cut pulses under my skin. Removing the tape triggers a throbbing sensation that stretches across my entire back. Her gentle whisper of a touch feels like the lash of a whip.
It nearly takes a decade for her to unwrap the dressing. When she finally gets a good look at the injury, she emits a tiny gasp.
“Give it to me straight, Doc,” I joke. “What are my chances?”
“Does this hurt?” She probes, lightly brushing across my back. I nearly jump out of my skin. “Nate, I’m touching your lower back,” she whispers, alarmed. Considering she is far away from my wound, I would say that warrants concern.
She examines my back for the next several minutes before she begins cleaning the area. The sting from the antiseptic is mild compared to the deep ache. She moves around to the front of me, feeling my forehead and running her fingers along my neck, palpating the skin, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. “Baby, it’s infected. It’s really,reallyinfected. There is a five-inch margin of erythema outside the circumference of thewound. It’s warm to the touch, and the edema has increased significantly since yesterday. Thankfully, there isn’t any drainage, but there’s a strong odor that has me really concerned. Especially considering the scabs from yesterday are encased in a yellow crust.”
“I don’t know what any of that means, Pip.” I laugh, trying to put the light back in her eyes.
“Any chills?” she asks, ignoring my statement.
“No, baby. It’s fine. Just a little sore.”
“You’re not fine, Nate. You need to stay here and heal without sweat dripping down your back. If that infection gets any worse, it will infect your blood. You’ll become septic. That’s really serious, Nate. You would need intravenous antibiotics, we can’t treat that here.” Her eyes fill with tears, envisioning something that hasn’t even happened. It won’t happen. I refuse to leave her over alittle scratch.
“Then stay home with me.” I wink suggestively.
She sighs, exasperated. “I need to go look for cordoncillo.”
“And that is?” I ask, raising a brow.
