Compass North

by Cathleen Ellis

  “Have noticed, many tourists here, the hotels are full.”

  “Yeah, people escaping the cold winter of Europe.”

  “Here, I promised you wine.”

  He opened the bottle and poured the wine in the paper cups Tyann brought.

  “And I also wanted us to have cheese, and crackers. I still have trouble remembering, no raw fruits or vegetables, yuk, trouble keeping my mouth closed, not taking in the sea water.”

  She heard the soothing sound of water lapping on the beach. They sat together, sipping the wine, enjoying the sharp taste of the cheese, and looking out over the water glistening in the early evening sun.

  “This place is a paradise.”

  “It is. And I’m so happy to spend this time with you.”

  “What will happen to you, Garrett?”

  “I’ll doctor at the hospital until September. There’ll be a replacement; a fair number of medical people who want to come here, on special assignment. I’ll return to Stuttgart, to resume my practice. My father plans to reduce his hours, so I’ll pick up some of his patients plus mine, a busy family practice.”

  “How in the world could he let you go, I mean, come to Punta Cana?”

  “Yeah, he did something similar during his early years of being a doctor. He wanted me to have a similar experience. Except this place, Punta Cana, is quite exceptional. He didn’t have this beach kind of opportunity. And I don’t have the kind of debt to repay for medical school, as the doctors do in America.”

  “Right, young American doctors cannot do this; you’re very lucky.”

  “I’d say blessed; it’s what you say a lot to me, you say that I’m blessed beyond measure to have this opportunity, to practice, to use my Spanish, and still set money aside for my future.”

  She nodded to him, “Which’s just exactly what I’m doing. I want this adventure in my life. I wanted what Brody got, time away from his country and family. Except he welcomed the danger, the fighting, skirmishes, the IRA with the British army. But I hate danger; I just want to help folks, like we’re doing. I’ll take all that I learn here back with me.”

  “What about your guy?”

  “Time, Garrett, that’s what we chose to give each other. His whole being’s focused on making the critters better, improving their health care,” she paused, “well, just like what we do with humans. We’re only e-mailing every few weeks. He understands my situation, as I understand his. What about you, is there someone special you’ll be returning to?”

  “I heard back at Christmas. She married a doctor, and they live outside Berlin.”

  Tyann saw sadness film over his eyes as he held her gaze.

  “Ouch, at the holidays, I’m so sorry; the same thing could happen to me, he might meet a fellow vet student who lights up his world.”

  “He could,” he paused, “how do you Americans say it, if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.”

  Tyann looked out over the waves and thought, “Is that the way it is, I wonder?”

  For a time they sipped their wine and ate more cheese. The wine kept Tyann’s mind fuzzy and warm. She leaned her head on his shoulder as they sat together.

  “And us, you and me, where do we go from here?”

  He turned to her.

  “Oh, Garrett, I care for you as I do all the staff; we’re a team, pulling each other along to help folks get well. I want to spend time with you, if you’d like to.”

  “Yes, I want to. When I look at you, your hair and eyes, your beauty, reminds me of Germany, of all the young people there. Gazing at you makes me homesick, homesick for my homeland. I’m falling in love with you, I am. I can’t help it, your dedication, how much you care for the patients.”

  She raised her lips to his. They lay together after they undressed each other. Tyann felt herself exploding from wanting him so much.

  “I’ve never,” she whispered.

  “I’ll help you.”

  Gently and slowly he eased himself into her. She felt enormous stretching as he moved back and forth inside her. The overwhelming ache she felt for him began to subside as he murmured her name. Semen spilled out over her vaginal area as he withdrew from her. They held each other close, on their sides. They kissed again and again, and she let him check her.

  “You bled a little, but to be expected. Let me clean you.”

  After he did, he suggested they go for a swim before they left the beach.

  They faced each other in the water.

  “I was scared, Garrett, but you made it so gentle.”

  “After you heal, I hope you’ll enjoy intercourse more and more. Uh, I was being a doctor just now.”

  They laughed and held on close, as they tread water together in the deeper area. Her wine buzz continued later as he hugged her and walked her to the door of her apartment.

  “Thank you for this afternoon and evening.”

  He looked down to her and gave her a gentle kiss on top of her head.

  

  She stood, ready for work, drinking coffee in the kitchen.

  “This is what is, this is my life, today. What the hell did I do to myself yesterday?” She started to cry, then stopped and whispered, “Tyann, you’re an idiot, no condom, is he HIV or AIDS, or has STD’s? For the love of heaven, we’re medical people, that was so frikin’ reckless.”

  Her mind flashed back to the beautiful beach, with a fine, tall man. The remembrance of that man got replaced, that moment, by a vision of a tall, muscular man wearing cowboy boots, blue jeans, and a long sleeve plaid shirt. He smiled, and a light of love shown in his eyes. He stood, waiting for her.

  She walked to the hospital that morning, still cool outside. Mid-morning she took her break and went outdoors with her coffee. The patio had umbrella-covered tables and comfortable chairs. In one corner she heard a small waterfall gurgling recycled water. A statue of the Blessed Virgin stood nearby. She walked toward Mary.

  “Mary, oh Mary, I pray that single intercourse does not bring a baby. Mary, I resolve that I cannot drink wine anymore. The same thing almost happened the last time Conner and I were together. I may have alcoholic tendencies, not able to handle the stuff. Please help me watch myself. I need my friends now; I’m so disgusted with me.”

  She finished her prayer, touched the top of Mary’s head, and stepped away from the statue.

  When she got to her nurses station, she said a second silent prayer, “God, what will be, for my life, in the future, is up to You, guide me.”

  

  Garrett asked Tyann out once after their date at the beach.

  “Thanks, but no, you understand that I’ve someone.”

  He heard the kindness in her voice and saw her understanding eyes. He got it.

  At a small farewell party before he left in September, he asked to talk to her. They stood together in the back of the meeting room that doubled as a celebration area.

  “Thank you for helping our patients; wherever you go when you return to the states, well, they’ll be lucky to have you.”

  “I feel the same about your patients, in your family practice, back in your homeland. They’ll be very lucky to have you. God bless you, Garrett.”

  She reached up and hugged him. He held her close and kissed the top of her head.

  

  “End of May, it’s been a year for you, Tyann; what will next year bring?”

  Ian, Ilsa, Jenny, and Tyann sat together on the tiny back patio behind Tyann’s first floor apartment. The four of them became good friends, trying to be together at least once a week, since they all worked days.

  “More of the same, I hope, Ilsa. I know I will lose all of you. By October I’ll be the last one remaining on this special assignment for the hospital.”

  “There’ll be new, excited medical folks for you to work with,” Ian mentioned. “You’ll welcome them, and you’ll become good friends, just like what’s happened with us.”

  Tyann’s excellent work continued to b
e noted by the doctors and administrators at the hospital.

  

  “Golly, Tyann, just responding back to your e-mail about you going on 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., F-S. That’s gonna be way different. Congrats on your great ratings, you’re an awesome nurse, so caring! Before you know it, you’ll be back in the good old US of A, it’s November now, just to the end of May, ’96. And wow, I’ll be in my final year, starting then, no break, one year to the DVM. I’m really looking forward to all I’ll learn in the special units, and the ones required. Happy Thanksgiving, and I’m getting so excited to see you, not long now. Love, Conner.”

  Patients flocked in. Tyann’s hospital was overwhelmed, as was the hospital where Angela worked. The public hospital in town had to close its doors after hordes of sick people stormed the emergency area.

  Christmas Day came; the crisis continued. Sick people lay in beds and on the floors through all the hospitals. In most cases, only a sheet lay beneath the person. Emergency antibiotics came by way of air military transport.

  The medical staff rotated through, catching a few hours of sleep when they could. They all had the typhoid shots. Staff who did not keep themselves well hydrated and fed started to get sick.

  Santa Domingo provided microbiology and water treatment staff for Punta Cana. The government scientists pointed the diagnosis as typhoid. They searched and found the source of the contaminated water, and also food the water contaminated. At the end of the first week in January, the officials found the contamination source, a seepage from an old mine that corroded pipes in the main water supply for the city of Punta Cana, including all the hospitals. An engineering firm changed out the eighth of a mile of corroded pipe.

  As Tyann and all the staff began to see, typhoid appeared to have a wallop. After two weeks on antibiotics folks began to feel better. But soon after that, some typhoid patients got sick for a second time, some requiring hospitalization.

  Tyann’s body walked through a haze, sleeping four or five hours when she got home after 6 a.m. and then going in, still groggy and sleep deprived, after that, for the three months of the epidemic.

  “I feel like I’m back in school,” she shared with other staff, “except that I’m with sick people all the time.”

  By now she had complete responsibility for the ER, which for weeks mainly held sick folks, not trauma victims. On Valentine’s Day, she got to finally be the critical care nurse, on a flight to Santa Domingo’s top private hospital with a brain cancer patient. That night she slept in an air-conditioned hotel room, and in the morning she met her helicopter crew for breakfast in the hotel dining room.

  She looked from the pilot to the EMT and shook her head.

  “I checked in with the nurses station. Our patient died in the night. We tried guys.”

  “He went to God,” the pilot whispered.

  She squeezed his hand, then the hand of the EMT who assisted her on the flight.

  She saw tears in the pilot’s eyes, “I’m so sorry, your first one?”

  “Si, uh yes, it is.”

  The three of them said the Lord’s Prayer, in Spanish.

  When she arrived back from Santa Domingo, she learned that three nursing staff at the public hospital succumbed to typhoid.

  “Who can we spare?” the chief of staff at her private hospital asked her. “We must help each other, the medical staffs, we must.”

  Tyann worked out a schedule with the head nurses on several other floors. Two other nurses and Tyann each took one night shift a week at the public hospital, leaving the staff on their floors to cover. After three weeks of assisting, the crisis of short staffing appeared to be waning. The typhoid patients trickled in, to all of the hospitals in the area. Some folks died, never coming into a medical facility from home.

  A normalcy returned to the lives of the people in the Punta Cana community. The strict adherence to the bleach process continued at the hospital with Tyann doing an occasional monitoring. Tyann became friends with a new doctor and a new nurse on staff. They worked together through the typhoid crisis. Peter Schonen, the new doc from the Netherlands, started to have symptoms of the illness. He received his protection from typhoid, but at times it showed up anyway. He ended up with a very mild case. Maria, the new nurse from Italy, and Tyann checked on him at his apartment, making sure he took in enough liquids.

  “I’m just so weak; why me,” he complained to both of them as his condition improved.

  “Stop whining,” Maria told him, “you’re such a guy, but you are even a lousier patient than most.”

  “Sorry, I’ve never really been sick before, and I hate it. I understand now about what sick feels like, I mean being really sick,” he shared with Tyann and Maria when he got clearance to return to work, part time, until the chief of staff OK’d him.

  

  “I read your short message; I’m so sorry about the epidemic, Tyann. Remember how you and me, we talked about water quality. I know God’s in charge; that’s helped me with my concern for you, no word since before Christmas. While I was home for the holidays, I stopped by your folks. They’re worried real bad for you, ‘cause no word, no e-mail or Christmas card. I tried to assure them that you’d had all your shots, that you’re protected.

  It won’t be long and you’ll be back. I love you. Conner”

  She talked it out with Peter and Maria at their last time sharing before Tyann went back to the states.

  “Give yourselves, uh, it’s been two years, apart the whole time, you and your guy?”

  Peter gazed at her after the three of them shared dinner and beers at Maria’s place.

  “Yup, two years apart.”

  “Get employed; you gotta keep sockin’ away any you can, for your later life, plus for living now. Where’s he located?”

  “Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama.”

  “Big town?”

  “Not that big, 60K plus, the university’s a huge deal there. I’ll do contract stuff with visiting nurses, going into homes to check on sick folks. I know I can’t get into the hospitals or clinics ‘cause, well, Conner’ll have four a year; all specialized units; a bunch of them he has to have to graduate with the DVM. After that, God’s will, the two of us maybe will move on to a practice for him.”

  “Do you care where you’ll go?”

  “Nope, this, this time with you all, Punta Cana, a kind of paradise, this’s been my adventure for my life, my by-myself adventure. The ocean, the sand, the beach, the warm climate, oh my gosh, the sunsets, but most of all medical care, all aspects of it, I got such an education here. When I first started nursing school my pledge was to save those I can, save those I can. It’ll always be at the forefront of my thinking, making it personal, save those I, emphasis, I, can.”

  In March Tyann returned to communicating again with her dad and mom. She let them know the crisis was past. She applied for her nursing license in Alabama. And she planned to do contract visiting nurse work, finding a studio apartment in a small community on the outskirts of Auburn. Conner’s critical fourth year, they would not have much time to spend together. So much changed within Tyann, she shared that with her parents.

  She went back on days, still F-S in the ER 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., for the final months of her time in Punta Cana. She started to get acquainted with two local police officers, who often accompanied an ambulance, or they brought in someone with difficulties: stab and bullet wounds, facial lacerations and concussions. One afternoon the three of them chatted after the patient stabilized, and they finished up the paperwork.

  “You mentioned the wonderful dances of the folks who live here.”

  “Yeah, I’d like to learn one of those dances before I leave.”

  To Tyann’s delight, Carlo invited her to go dancing with his friend and his friend’s girl at a disco downtown.

  Tyann smiled and smiled, enjoying every second.

  “Yeah, young thing, you’re getting into the swing of the dance.”

  Tyann danced with him for nearly th
ree hours; he had a strong lead and she learned the dance she wanted to take back with her.

  He moved next to her and let her do the dance moves.

  “You’ll be a great teacher for your man. What’s his name?”

  “Conner.”

  At the end of the evening, Carlo walked her to her door.

  They spoke in Spanish, as they had part of the evening.

  She switched to English, “I hope there’s a girl out there, looking for you, Carlo.”

  “Maybe,” he paused, “but I will miss coming in to the ER, to see your blonde and blue-eyed beauty. It’s been such a pleasure getting to know you, Tyann, such a lovely name. I consider you an angel, sent from God, to help people improve their health.”

  “Thank you, good night Carlo.”

  She watched him take her hand, bow to her and kiss her hand.

  “Good night.”

  After she got inside it hit her.

  “Oh my goodness, he’s an angel, protects us also, and I didn’t get to tell him that,” she spoke out.

  She did get to tell him, on the next to last shift she worked. The damage to the young man’s abdomen and heart from the knife wounds doomed him. Carlo knew the boy. When Tyann shared his death with his partner and him, Carlo broke down. Tyann pulled him from the busy nurses station into a trauma unit not being used. He broke down and cried.

  “His mamma needed him; he quit school and was working to help put food on the table for his five younger brothers and sisters.”

  “God’s will, Carlo.”

  He looked Tyann in the eyes as she nodded to him, “You’re an angel, sent from God to watch over us. Continue to be that angel, we need you, Carlo.”

  She hugged him, and he hugged her back.

  “Ready?”

  He nodded to her after he blew his nose and wiped his eyes.

  They walked back to the nurses station together.

  “Thank you,” he tried to smile to her as he and his partner left the ER.

  6

  1996 – Return to the United States

  “You look wonderful, my Tyann, so tan, and your hair’s lightened in that sunlight,” her dad smiled to her.