Come Hell or High Water

by Nancy M Bell

  Michelle collapsed onto her knees trembling too hard to even pull herself up onto the seat. She glanced at the man behind her. Arlo grinned back at her. He unwrapped the lines from her wrists and climbed over the back of the seat. They continued toward the barns without stopping. A disassociated part of her brain registered that the horses all seemed to fine, no uneven gait that she could see in any of them. She spared a thought for the grey gelding, if he hadn’t swerved toward the wagon as she jumped…Better not to think about that.

  The wagon rattled off the track and stopped by the barns. She tried to get up but her right arm wouldn’t work properly. Stupidly, she stared at it lying on her thigh. It looked swollen, and all black and red. People were talking to her but it didn’t really register in her brain for a moment.

  “No, I’m fine. I’m fine.” Michelle shoved herself upright and went to jump down. Arms caught her as she slid, keeping her from face planting. “I’m fine,” she repeated. “How’s Carl? Is he okay? And the guy who missed the wagon?”

  “They took them to the hospital as a precaution but they should be good as new,” Cale’s voice spoke by her ear.

  “Cale?”

  “Yeah, I’m here. Mary and Doc too.”

  “Michelle Wilson! What in the name of all that’s holy did you think you were doing out there?” Mary scolded her while crying at the same time.

  “You did good, girl,” Doc’s voice was gruff.

  Her knees threatened to fold under her. At least the damn storm had passed.

  “You need to see a doctor,” Cale insisted.

  “Michelle, are you okay?” Rolly appeared in her line of vision. “What you did was crazy.”

  “Where’s Grey? Is he okay? He didn’t get hurt did he?” She looked up. “I’m sorry I cost you two seconds.”

  “For Christ sake, Michelle. You and Arlo saved a wreck. Don’t apologize.” Rolly raked his hand through his wet hair.

  Red and blue lights reflected off the barns. Cale coaxed her toward the EMS who hurried toward them. The pain in her wrist threatened to make her puke. She supported her wrist with the other hand but nothing she did made it comfortable. The other wrist was throbbing as well, but at least it still obeyed her.

  Everything blurred around her. The next thing she was aware of, the ambulance was bouncing out of the grounds and Cale was sitting beside her hanging onto a strap.

  “Hey. Where are we going? I’m fine.” She tried to sit up. The EMS by her head pressed her back with a hand on her shoulder.

  “Lie still, Michelle. It looks like you might have broken your wrist. It was all tangled up in the reins. Cale rested a hand on her leg. “Both your hands are pretty beat up and you’ve got bruises all over your face from the hail.”

  “What the hell was that anyway? Freaking hail storm in the middle of the race. What shitty timing.” She was annoyed her words slurred. They must have put something in the IV she didn’t remember them starting in her arm. It itched and she wanted to rip it out, but it was in her good arm and the other one was immobilized.

  The vehicle lurched and came to a stop. The doors opened and she closed her eyes against the glare of the lights. The EMS unloaded the stretcher as gently as they could but the jarring brought tears to her eyes. Now the shock was wearing off a bit, not only her arm hurt, but her hands and shoulder throbbed. One hip sent sharp shooting pains down her leg and up her back.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” she muttered. They wheeled her through the sliding doors into the ER. She twisted her head. “Cale? Cale?”

  “Shush, honey. The doctors have to look at you, then they’ll let your friend in to see you,” the attendant at her head said.

  To her annoyance tears burned her eyes and ran down her face. Great, now I’m blubbering like a baby. She sniffed and struggled to gain control of her emotions. When she was able to pay attention to what was going on around her again, the EMS had handed her over to the hospital staff. She was whisked into a curtained cubicle and blond doctor hustled in. He asked some questions and she must have answered them because he wrote things down on his clipboard. The overhead lights shone on his blond hair and she thought about how pretty he was standing there all officious like. She must have dozed off because the next thing she knew he was gone and she didn’t remember him leaving. Huh, good drugs. She giggled.

  “Good to hear you laughing.” Cale came through the opening in the curtains.

  “When can I get out of here?” She struggled to sit up and stopped when her vision blurred. “Damn.”

  “I talked to the doctor. They want to do x-rays on your arms and hands. Maybe your hip.” Cale leaned over and kissed her gently on the forehead.

  “My hip?” She shifted and grimaced.

  “You told the doctor your hip was hurting.” Cale told her.

  “Me and my big mouth. Must be the stupid drugs.” Her lips twisted in an attempt to smile.

  “How much do you remember?” Cale asked her.

  “I remember the wagon tongue breaking and it was hailing. It hurt. Then the next thing I remember was being in the wagon and trying to get a grip on the wet reins. I think I wrapped them around my hands. Somehow, Arlo got there…Then not much til we got back to the barns. Oh! Carl, how’s Carl. He got thrown out of the wagon didn’t he?” She turned her head away. “I think I’m gonna puke,” she managed to say.

  Cale held the bowl while she heaved. “Fuck, that hurt.” Michelle lay back on the pillow sweating and exhausted. “What about Carl?”

  “He’s shook up. I think maybe he broke a collarbone or something. He was in the ER but I’m not sure if he’s still here or not.” Cale smoothed the hair back from her forehead.

  She closed her eyes for a moment. Loud voices and a commotion outside the curtain roused her.

  “I don’t care what your rules are. You tell me where she is,” Mary was in full cry threatening anyone who stood between her and Michelle with a slow and painful death.

  “Now, Mary.” That was Doc playing peace maker. She smiled at Cale who ducked out through the curtain.

  Seconds later Mary burst into the cubicle. “Michelle Wilson, have you no sense? You could have been killed.” She stopped to draw breath.

  “Leave her be, Mary. Her and Arlo probably saved some lives tonight. I’m proud of you, girl.” Doc beamed down at her, his eyes shiny with tears.

  “I didn’t do anything anyone else wouldn’t have done in the same position,” she protested.

  “Maybe some would, maybe some wouldn’t,” Doc said.

  “I was scared the horses were gonna get hurt. I knew Grey would take care of himself. He is okay isn’t he? I don’t remember seeing him afterward.” Her heart squeezed in her chest. If he was hurt it was her fault and she couldn’t live with that.

  “He’s bright eyed and bushy tailed, that boy. Came strutting back to the barn proud as peacock, like he was king shit,” Doc told her.

  “Thank God for that. I still feel guilty about Spud, if I hurt Grey too…I don’t know what I’d do.” She closed her eyes for a second to hide the tears that threatened.

  Doc took Mary’s arm. “We should go. You’ve seen with your own eyes Michelle is doing okay. I want to find out if Carl is still here. I don’t know if they let him go or if he got admitted.”

  Mary kissed Michelle and gently squeezed her least damaged hand. “If you need anything you call me, hear? You take care of her,” she said the last to Cale as Doc herded his wife out through the curtain.

  Cale had just settled in the chair by the bed when a porter arrived to take her to x-ray. It was late when another porter brought her back. Cale was asleep leaning back in the uncomfortable chair. “Hey.” He yawned. “You feeling any better?”

  “I think so. It still hurts but it doesn’t make me want to hurl anymore.”

  A different doctor came in. “Hello, Michelle. I hear you’re quite the hero. You rodeo people are keeping us busy today.” He continued without waiting for a response. “I’ve looked at your x
-rays. Your right arm is badly bruised but I can’t see any fractures. Everything seems to be aligned. We might need to recheck it once the swelling goes down a bit. Your left arm however, is broken between the wrist and the elbow. Both the radius and the ulna are involved. We’re going to reduce the fracture and put in a couple of plates and screws to stabilize it. This type of injury often results in a condition called compartment syndrome. The swelling restricts the blood flow to the hand and lower arm. It’s extremely painful and can result in loss of sensation and function. It typically occurs within 24 to 48 hours of the injury or surgery. If you experience any of those sensations let someone know immediately.”

  “I don’t want surgery,” Michelle protested when he finally let her get a word in.

  “It’s not an option I’m afraid. We can’t treat it conservatively because of the amount of displacement of the bones.” He carefully uncovered the injured arm and pointed to a place where the skin was already purple and discoloured. One place stuck up quite sharply. Looking at it threatened to make her hurl again. Michelle swallowed hard. “As you can see, that’s an end of bone poking up. It hasn’t broken the skin at this point but the bone is extremely sharp and there’s the risk it become a compound fracture or injure nearby nerves or blood vessels.”

  “Don’t argue, Chelly. Just let the doctor do his job.” Cale’s voice sounded choked.

  “If you’ll just sign the consent form,” the surgeon said after he explained the risks of the surgery to her. He held the clipboard for her while she scrawled her name on the line. “It won’t be too much longer. I’ll put an order in for more pain meds to keep you comfortable.”

  “Thanks, doctor,” Cale said before the man whisked out through the curtains.

  A nurse showed up a few minutes later and injected something into the IV. “That’s morphine and some Gravol. Some people experience nausea from the morphine.” She smiled and left.

  “Close your eyes and try to rest, sweetie.” Cale kissed her forehead and pushed her hair behind her ear. “You really need to quit making a habit of ending up in the hospital.”

  “I know.” She chuckled weakly. “Don’t leave, okay?”

  “I’ll always be here, come hell or high water. Love you.” His voice faded although his lips were still moving.

  Michelle tried to tell him something but the words wouldn’t come. The world blurred and she drifted off into a dream where horses were running around her and she couldn’t catch them. Somewhere a crowd was roaring and wagons were rolling, but she couldn’t see them.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Rhythmic pounding dragged Michelle into consciousness. She rolled over, forgetting about her injured arm. The sharp pain brought her fully awake. Rubbing sleep from her eyes with her less wounded hand, she blinked and focused on the grey light coming through the bedroom window.

  Water sheeted down the pane, outside the prairie grasses whipped in the wind. She wriggled up on the pillows til she was more upright. Is it ever going to stop raining? In the two weeks since the surgery the weather had been wet off and on, but four days ago a front stalled against the Rockies and heavy rain pounded the southern Alberta prairies.

  Michelle eased the bandaged arm on the blanket trying to find a more comfortable spot. Earlier, when Cale unwrapped the tensor wrap and exposed the site, the skin was still swollen from above her elbow all the down into her hand and fingers. She attempted to wriggle her fingers now and gritted her teeth in frustration when the only movement was a tiny twitch. The surgeon assured her before leaving the hospital that the function should return once the swelling subsided. The metallic line of staples marching down her forearm made her slightly nauseous, it was like looking at someone else’s arm, not her own. Cale said that was a normal reaction, but it was seriously weird in her opinion.

  “Cale?” Her voice echoed in the hall outside the open bedroom door. Storm raised her head and thumped her tail on the floor beside the bed. Crazy Puppy came skidding through the door and bounced up on the bottom of the bed. “Get down, you ass.” Michelle kicked at him with her foot. “Down. Now.” The young dog woofed, tongue lolling out of his grinning mouth. He ignored her commands, turned once and flopped down in a heap. “Cale!” She tried again.

  No one answered. Cale must have gone into the clinic or got called out. He’d stuck pretty close to home so far, but Carrie and Doc couldn’t carry the load forever. She picked up the phone from the bedside table and then replaced it. There was no reason she couldn’t be on her own for a while. It wasn’t like she was a baby or something. A blast of wind rattled the window along with a fresh flood or rain. Michelle pulled the covers up over her shoulder, sliding the injured arm into the welcome warmth.

  The alarm on the clock radio beeped loudly. “Oh, shut up!” She managed to silence the noise. Reaching for the plastic container beside her, she got it open and shook out a pain pill. Sticking it into her mouth she picked up the water glass Cale had thoughtfully left filled with ice. Most of the cubes were melted, the cold fluid helped chase the dryness from her mouth.

  Michelle had tried skipping some meds. She hated taking pills and being dependent on drugs, but the pain convinced her otherwise. “I’ve turned into a wuss,” she told Storm who rested her head on the edge of the bed. The damn things might help with the throbbing but they made her stupid and sleepy. All I do is sleep anymore. A yawn cracked her jaw. Irritated she turned her head on the pillow and glared at the rain soaked corrals. Refusing to give in to the urge to nap, Michelle rummaged in the blankets for the TV remote. The noon news was on, the weather man looked suitably serious as he discussed the persistent weather front.

  Pictures of swollen streams and flooded low lying areas zipped across the screen. She forced herself to concentrate at the sight of the Bow River flooding the zoo in downtown Calgary. “Holy man!” A huge tree beside a flooded bike path shuddered and toppled into the raging river. “I didn’t think it was that bad.” The station shifted to a report from a woman standing in Mission, a Calgary suburb close to the river. She stood at the edge of a river of water covering the street and inundating lawns and houses. The fire hydrant behind her was submerged more than half way up its length. The reporter pointed at it and told the audience how rapidly the water was rising, using the hydrant as a flood gauge.

  Michelle dialed Mary and waited impatiently for her to pick up. “Mary, have you seen the news?”

  “I know. How horrible. I just talked to Nora in High River. She’s packing up whatever she can, they’re under evacuation notice.”

  “Oh my God. What can we do to help?”

  “You can do nothing, missy. Just stay put,” Mary was adamant. “We’ve offered to go and pick up any stock that’s in danger. A lot of people on high ground have offered to take them in.”

  “What about the dogs and cats and stuff,” Michelle worried.

  “The local rescues and humane societies are putting up what they can. I just can’t believe how much rain is falling.”

  “I know. How high is the Highwood? It must be in danger of flooding too. Damn, there’s stock in the lower pasture.” She kicked back the covers and the puppy landed on the floor with a thump.

  “Michelle! Stop, right now. Cale and Doc brought them up late last night when the river started to really rise. You stay put or so help me I’ll come out there and hog tie you.”

  She subsided back onto the pillows. “Are you sure? The cattle are safe and on high ground?”

  “Don’t you trust Doc? And Cale? I’ve never lied to you?”

  “I know. I just feel so damned helpless lying here like a beached whale,” she complained. “I should be out helping with sandbags, or at least I could drive the truck and trailer and go transport animals.”

  “Quit talking nonsense. You’d be putting yourself in danger not to mention those you’re trying to help. It’s only been two weeks since you got hurt, don’t be stupid.”

  The television showed the Deerfoot in Calgary by Anderson Road, the B
ow River raged across it, swollen and carrying broken trees and debris with it. “Oh my God! Mary do you see what’s on the news right now? The river’s over the Deerfoot!”

  “Oh my stars! I can’t believe this is happening. It’s all coming downstream. Okotoks, High River and the reserves are going to get hit badly. Look Michelle, I’m gonna let you go. I need to call some people and start making plans for evacuees and their animals. The community centres on high ground can house a lot of them, but it’s gonna take a lot of work to get it set up. And we need to figure out how to feed them all. You stay put, you hear me?”

  “Let me know if I can do something. At least I can make calls.” Michelle frowned at the phone as the line went dead. She dialed Cale, but it went straight to voice mail. “Looks like we’re on our own, dogs.” She sat up and put her feet on the floor. Her head swam a bit and she waited for the vertigo to subside. “Damn pain meds.” Cale thoughtfully left a walking stick leaning by the bed. She took it in her good hand and carefully stood up. “So far so good.” Storm looked up at her, Crazy Puppy opened an eye and then went back to sleep on the foot of the bed. “Great, now I’m talking to myself.”

  Maneuvering carefully she moved toward the door using the bed for support. She paused as the end of it and waited for the intense throbbing in her arm to ease a bit. The short distance to the door took forever to negotiate. Leaning on the wall for support she finally reached the kitchen. Cale had left a thermos of tea on the table and a sandwich.

  Grinning in triumph she made it to the table and sank into a chair. Opening the thermos with one hand was a bit of a challenge. The hot liquid warmed her from the inside out. Michelle felt much better after eating the sandwich. The phone on the desk shrilled in the silent house. She got up and reached it before it quit ringing.