Page 6 of Born a Hero

Laughing, he hugged her shoulder, took the four long forms, and threw them up into the attic. “I wish you were my grandma.” He kissed the top of her head affectionately and then got back to work.

Next, he carried all the quilts, blankets, pillows, towels, bottles of water and boxes piled ready for him, and finally the wastebasket shaped like a bucket Sonja had gathered. Worried about how difficult climbing would be for Sonja, he took their makeshift rope and the bags of food from her, so she’d have her hands free.

Last thing he remembered – fill the juice bottles with water – the ones she’d bought with her groceries. They’d drank from them with their picnic and though they had another half-dozen, it seemed a good idea to have clean drinking water. Finally, he felt ready to make the move.

He could see that the creeping water now measured a foot and seemed to be rising fast. “Sonja, I think we need to make a shift now.”

“I agree. It’s not raining cats and dogs at the moment – more like lions and elephants.”

He shook his head teasingly. “You and your old sayings. Guess you nailed it though.”

“Hells bells, I’m a woman of the times, boy. Keep up.” Her comeback made him chuckle. She disappeared with her light then, and he followed to find her wading through the water to get to the sleeping boy.

“It’s okay. I can carry him.” So saying, he reached down and pulled Justin close. When the small child trustingly wrapped his arms around Bryce’s neck and buried his face, something inside Bryce twisted into a soft mushy mess. He’d had interactions with small patients before and always appreciated their unconscious loving ways. But something about this boy stirred him deeply. He could get very used to this feeling.

Holding the boy that way also let him feel the heat pouring out of the small body. “Sonja, do you have a first-aid kit?”

“Sure. Never thought of that. I’ll get it.”

“Does it have any Tylenol or aspirin?”

“No. But I have some in the medicine drawer. I’ll grab that too.”

“And a thermometer if you have one.”

“It’s in the kit, why?”

“I think our little waif here might be building a bit of a temperature. Not to worry, we’ll check him once we get everything up here.”

In a few minutes, he had safely put the boy on the bed of quilts he’d made for him near the window and next he went below to help Sonja. Surprisingly, the spry woman had little need of his assistance. It was her sore ankle that made help necessary.

Complimenting her on her strength and wishing more of his patients were the same, he commented, “Hey, Sonja. You’re very agile for your age, but I think your ankle could use a bit of a bandage.”

“Don’t be rude, brat. My age indeed. I’ll have you know, I’m only in my mid-seventies. I do yoga every weekday for half an hour before bed. Keeps me limber which is what made me start the exercise routine when I was much younger. In my “28-day Exercise Plan” book, it says you’re as young as your back is flexible, and I genuinely believe that’s true.”

“Good for you, Methuselah. And I mean that sincerely. So what about the weekends?”

“In my day, we took the weekends off from work, and I still follow that golden rule. Gives me something to look forward to.”

They laughed together and worked over Justin to make him comfy. Sonja ground the Tylenol in a spoon and added water and a bit of sugar off one of the cookies, and he drank it down, still half-asleep.

Soon they too settled down beside the boy, and Bryce took a few moments to use a tensor bandage for Sonja’s ankle. Then he made her put it up on a pillow. Wrapping blankets around their shoulders as the cold sunk into their bones, they rested.

Once Bryce knew that Sonja had drifted off, he looked over her way. She’d cuddled into a nest, sitting with her back against one of the wider rafters. Exhaustion noticeable, her head had slunk to the side, and low snoring sounds could be heard.

Turning the lamps off to save the batteries and the oil, he sat keeping vigilance, watching the storm rage on the other side of the window. Continuously active, his mind took some time to slow down and his body to be restful. Thinking he should be doing something, feeling the responsibility of the moment crawling into his gut, he forced himself to stay vigilant.

He tried drinking a bit of their water and then deep breathing to calm his nerves that were still pumping too much adrenalin. Forcing sleep away, he kept blinking and then walking around, doing exercises, anything to stay awake. Finally, unable to continue because of the pain he hadn’t really dealt with, he took a couple of the Tylenol from the full bottle, huddled under his own quilt, and watched the raging storm taking place on the other side of their protective glass.

Realizing just how close they came to being killed worked like a wake-up call. Keeping his eyes glued to the river of raging water, he sat mesmerized. Because of the darkness, he could barely make out the sights, but at one point a house glided past and all he could see was the roof. Then some cars floated along, carried by the waves and even a motorhome on its side drifted until it hit against something from under the water that seemed to wedge it in place.

Eventually, the water’s force pushed it along also. When the lightning flashes were the strongest, he saw other folks across the way clinging to their roof and blessed the fact that Sonja’s menfolk had built her home the way they did. So they could stay inside where at least they were dry.

He checked on Justin yet again to be sure his temperature had leveled out. A half of an extra-strength Tylenol pill had helped, he knew. Sonja’d even insisted on rubbing his chest with Vicks VapoRub, saying she’d grown up using it whenever she had a cold, and it always soothed her.

Seeing as how Justin had liked her rubbing his chest and back and even the bottom of his feet with the menthol greasiness, who was he to say anything. If it pacified them both, then he was all for it. Checking the thermometer he took from under Justin’s arm, he saw that it was still higher than he’d have liked but it wasn’t life-threatening.

He left off the heavy quilt Sonja had wrapped around the boy and when his eyes opened, he gave him a bit more of the Tylenol with sugar. Bryce let the air cool him down before replacing the covers.

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