Bonesetter

by Laurence Dahners

  Pell looked down. “I thought... I thought perhaps... I thought that we should cut her fingers the rest of the way off,” he finished weakly in a rush.

  They all stared at him.

  Finally Tando said, “Do what!?”

  “Cut them off. When I thought my own finger was going bad, I tried to cut it off myself,” he said exasperatedly. “I couldn’t bring myself to cut my own finger though, so I tried to break it off—that’s when it went back into place—and I learned the trick of bonesetting…”

  A moment of startled silence passed again. Then Agan rolled her eyes back and baldly stated that she had never heard of anything quite so absurd. A rush of argument followed. Gia argued that Pell had a gift and, if the spirits had advised him to do this, it must be the right thing to do. Manute, having seen Pell’s miracle with Falin’s leg, also seemed to feel that if Pell thought it would work that of course it should be done.

  Pell, now crushed with doubt, began to think it was a terrible idea. While the others were arguing, Donte raised Pell’s anxiety by whispering in his ear that a gift for reducing fingers might not be the same as a gift for cutting them off. Tando, though initially appalled, as always seemed to feel that the spirits would bless anything that Pell had suggested in the way of healing. In fact, Tando took an offended tone with anyone who disagreed with Pell’s proposed treatment.

  The argument had been surging back and forth for some time and it seemed that, despite their great respect for Agan, the tide was in favor of the amputations. At that point, Deltin, who’d been quiet ‘til then, burst out, “But, but, how will Panute take care of herself with two fingers missing?” A pause followed to be broken when Panute said tiredly, “How will I take care of myself if I’m dead, Deltin?” speaking for the first time in the entire rumbling argument.

  Everyone turned in surprise to look at Panute. Pell thought guiltily that they had been speaking of her almost as if she weren’t there. She said, “I’ve been looking at these fingers and thinking that they were going to kill me for days. I’ve been hating these two fingers and wishing they were gone. Even if I live, they’ll surely do me no good. Look at them. They don’t even move. If Pell thinks cutting them off might save me, I want him to do it.”

  Now everyone turned to look at Pell and he felt panic rising. When he had said, “We should try to cut them off” the picture in his mind had been of Tando cutting them off. He had once seen Tando deftly remove the fingers from a corpse. The man had been from another tribe that had encroached on the Aldans’ hunting grounds. Roley had led them in a skirmish with the tribe and Tando’s spear had flown true to plunge into the victim’s chest. The dried up fingers had formed a big part of Pont’s rituals that year. Pell felt queasy at the mere thought of trying to cut Panute’s fingers off while she was alive. He looked at Tando, “No, Tando should do it. He’s had practice cutting off fingers…”

  “Oh, No! No, I couldn’t possibly do it. I’m not a healer or a bonesetter. I couldn’t do it. I shouldn’t do it! … It, it was your idea anyway.”

  Pell thought perplexedly that the group had accepted the idea of cutting the fingers off more readily than he could accept the possibility of doing it himself. He dithered some more; trying to convince them that someone else should do it. Having accepted Panute’s plea that it should be done, the group now became resolute that Pell should do it and do it as soon as possible.

  Eventually Pell succumbed to the inevitable. “Gia,” he turned her direction, “could you and Agan make Panute some of your powerful pain medicine while we’re figuring out how to do it? Donte could probably help you find new herbs to replace ones you lost in the flood.”

  Agan snorted and looked away, obviously not intending to help with a procedure that she still considered unsound. To Pell’s surprise Gia brightened, “Oh, I have my herbs with me. I had taken them to that other village on the night of the flood. I’ll get started preparing it.”

  Tando turned then to Pell and said, “Shall I get wood for splints?”At this Pell exploded, “For spirit’s sake, Tando, why would we need splints if we’re cutting her fingers off!?”

  “I don’t know! I’ve never even heard of cutting parts of somebody off! You’ve always used splints before to do your magic. How am I supposed to know what you need each different time?”

  “Sorry Tando. It’s not magic, we’re just going to cut her fingers off and pray to the spirits that it helps,” Pell lowered his voice and said tiredly. “I’m not even sure how to cut them off or even if I can bring myself to do it. What if she starts screaming?”

  “Just do it so fast that it’ll be done before she starts screaming.”

  “How am I going to do that!?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe with a big hand axe?”

  “Yeah, sure!” Pell snorted. “You’ve seen me using a hand axe before! I’d probably cut off the wrong two fingers!”

  “Fold the other fingers back out of the way?”

  “The way I swing an axe, I’d probably cut her hand off at the wrist. We’ve got to do better than that.”

  They moved off to the other side of the clearing and sat for a while, experimenting with ways to place fingers on a stump so that only two were exposed. They laid another flat piece of wood over the rest of the hand so that it would protect the other fingers from a wild blow. Then Pell worried about striking too distally and having to strike again to cut them off up closer. “This has to be right the first time Tando,” he said in exasperation. “Why won’t you do it? You’re good with a hand axe!”

  “I couldn’t Pell. I just couldn’t. I’d probably pull the blow and cut them halfway off. Besides, you’re the Bonesetter. You have the ‘healing hands.’ You’ve got to be the one.”

  When Gia announced that Panute was ready and asked, “Where are you going to do it?” Tando and Pell were still trying to figure a way to protect the good fingers from the blow of the hand axe.

  Trying to stem the tide of his rising panic, Pell carried over the large chunk of driftwood that they had picked out for a cutting block. It had a knothole that the good fingers could be placed in for safety from misplaced blows. He was having Tando hold the hand axe in approximately the correct place while he tried to position a slab of wood to protect the rest of her hand and wrist. He slipped and almost dropped the slab on the axe. Suddenly, and with great clarity, he saw how to do it safely. With a trembling hand he took the hand axe from Tando and carefully placed it a finger’s breadth beyond the edge of the darkened skin, so that it lay over the bright red skin on the back of Panute’s hand. He felt to check the location of his good flint knife at his belt, looked down at the snoring face of Panute and then up at the sky. With the thunderclouds that were storming through his own mind, he was bemused to see the sky beginning to pink up toward what promised to be a beautiful sunset. He rechecked the position of Panute’s fingers and found that the area under the hand axe was hanging over the void of the big knothole. He repositioned the hand flat and simply placed the axe so that its blade was over the base of the pointer and long fingers and did not extend over the small finger or the healthy one next to it. Once again, he checked the location of his knife and the beatific face of Panute. Then with grim determination he picked up a large stone and struck the back of the hand axe a powerful blow. The hand axe shattered and Panute rose screaming as if from the dead. Pell grabbed her wrist and saw with dismay that all four fingers remained on her hand. Then he realized that the pointer and long fingers were merely hanging on by a small strip of skin. Without volition, his hand pulled the flint knife from his holster and cut that strip. He cast the two fingers away into the bushes.

  Blood was pouring out of Panute’s hand! Panute herself had fallen back in a faint, eyes rolled back in her head and mouth gaping open. Pell looked up from the gushing blood to see the others standing stricken, also staring at Panute’s lifeblood as it poured out onto the ground. “Gia, your poultice for the wound!” Pell felt as if he had shouted, though later the oth
ers would remark on his calm demeanor through the whole thing. Gia started, then wordlessly raised the hand in which she held the poultice, holding the wad of leaves and herbs out to Pell. This surprised Pell again; somehow, he had been expecting that Gia would take over from this point. She had, after all, treated many wounds in her role as a medicine woman and, other than a few small cuts of his own, Pell had never cared for a wound at all. But Gia looked stunned by the violence of the amputation and seemed reluctant to intervene in what she considered to be Pell’s domain. He took the poultice in one hand and grasped Panute’s hand with the other. When he grasped her hand, it felt like a rotten fruit bursting. In revulsion and astonishment, he saw a stream of pus cascade from of the wound in Panute’s hand where he had amputated her fingers. Knowing that when the evil humors in pus left a person, the person often got better, he squeezed the rotten feeling area until no more pus came out, then placed the poultice over it. The poultice rapidly became soaked in blood and Pell turned again to Gia. “Will this poultice stop the bleeding?”

  Gia gasped, “No! Oh! I should have known that an astringent poultice would be necessary for a fresh wound like this! I’ll make one immediately.”

  Gia turned to go and Pell found himself sitting by Panute and squeezing the poultice, trying to stanch the flow of bleeding. Deltin had gone to the edge of the clearing where he was throwing up. From the looks of his heaving, he’d found the bottom of his stomach and would soon throw that up as well. Manute was comforting him while Donte poked around in the bushes, looking for Pell knew not what. Tando said he needed to check the fire up in the cave, though from his white face Pell knew he had been badly shaken by the entire episode and probably just wanted to get away.

  Agan was still sitting on the rock where Pell had placed her when their group arrived in camp. She had, however, managed to turn away from the whole thing and sat staring off down the valley with her rheumy eyes, chanting under her breath. Falin was the only one still there with Pell and Panute. Unfortunately, the presence of the young boy didn’t keep Pell from feeling desperately alone as he sat pressing the poultice into the unconscious woman’s wound in a desperate effort to stop the flow of blood.

  Falin asked if there was anything he could do, so Pell sent him to the creek for some water. When he returned Panute was rousing and Pell wound up giving the water to her rather than drinking it himself. He sent Falin back for more. Panute shortly threw up the water Pell had given her, and then she broke into a sweat and proclaimed herself chilled.

  Stricken with fear that the chills portended Panute’s impending demise, Pell felt his own stomach go queasy. He fervently wished that Gia would return with the astringent poultice. Perhaps he could get her to apply and hold it. At least he could ask her about Panute’s chills. Deltin returned from where he had been dowsing his head in the creek after spewing his guts. Pell sent him up to the cave to ask Tando for furs to cover Panute. He asked Deltin to bring Tando back with him when he brought the furs.

  When they returned and Panute had been covered to Pell’s satisfaction, Pell turned to Tando and asked, “Do you think there is room for them in the cave now that we moved all that stuff? It looks like rain and I don’t think that Panute should be out in it.”

  Tando seemed surprised at the question, though whether he hadn’t considered letting them stay in the cave or whether he hadn’t considered not letting them stay in the cave Pell couldn’t tell. “Sure, there’s plenty of room now,” he said with a wink. “When are you going to fix her leg?”

  “Spirits! I forgot about her leg! I don’t think we should put her through a bonesetting though, at least until she’s recovered from losing her fingers. We probably should make the splints for her leg though. We might even put them on, just to hold it a little straighter and to keep it from being bumped. Pell turned to ask Panute whether she felt up to the splinting but she was unconscious again. He looked at her chest a moment to be sure that she was breathing then turned back to Tando. “Now we could use some wood for splints. Do you want to go, or would you rather sit with Panute while I look for wood?”

  “No, no, I’ll go get the wood!” Tando anxiously volunteered, obviously uneasy about being left with the unconscious Panute. Once again, Pell had nothing to do but sit, squeeze Panute’s hand, and worry. Panute intermittently broke into uncontrolled shivering but when Pell looked over at Agan in hopes of her help, he found her countenance filled with scorn. He felt certain that if Panute died, Agan would declare that her death was due to Pell and his treatment rather than the result of an untreatable wound fever.

  Unfortunately, Pell worried that she might be right. Panute had looked bad before, true—but she looked worse now. Donte came back from scrabbling around in the bushes to talk to Agan. She had Panute’s fingers! Pell vaguely recollected throwing them into the bushes when he had finished cutting them off, apparently they were what Donte had been looking for all of this time. Shortly Donte and Agan engaged themselves in some ceremony involving the fingers. The ceremony looked like a burial rite. Shame spread over Pell as he realized that he had not even considered that some ritual for the amputated parts might be necessary. Considering it, he realized that Pont would have been performing a huge ritual. Probably wouldn’t have spent much time with Panute, for all the time he’d spend taking care of her fingers. Pell snorted softly to himself.

  Falin came up to ask if there was anything else he could do and Pell sent him for more furs to cover the shivering Panute. When the boy returned and Pell went to add the extra layers, he was astonished to find her flesh hot to the touch. Pell was pondering whether to add the extra furs anyway when Gia returned with her new poultice. As he applied the poultice Pell told Gia about Panute’s shivering despite her fever. Gia advised against applying extra furs and, after more discussion, they decided to remove some instead. Relief flowed over Pell when he removed the first poultice and saw that most of the bleeding had already stopped. He wrapped the astringent poultice on with a couple of the soft leather straps that Donte had prepared to apply the splints to Panute’s leg. Gia went to Agan to consult with her regarding the brewing of a tea to break Panute’s fever.

  Gia called out to Pell, “Can you help me carry Agan over to look at Panute?”

  From Agan’s withering looks earlier, Pell had feared that she would refuse to have anything to do with his treatment of Panute, so he was grateful to be asked. “Sure,” he said. Then as he and Gia helped Agan over to Panute, he asked, “but how will we get Panute to drink the tea?”

  Agan snorted, “She’ll wake soon enough, as soon as the pain herbs wear off —unless she dies first.” This last was muttered darkly and in a tone that left little doubt as to just whom Agan would hold accountable.

  Pell’s heart fluttered when Gia came to his defense, “Agan, Panute was going to die even if we didn’t cut off her fingers. You know that.”

  “Maybe, but I don’t think it would have been this soon.”

  While Agan and Gia inspected Panute and consulted regarding the proper herbs for their tea, Pell sat down with Deltin and Tando to begin shaping splints for Panute’s leg. It was soon obvious that Deltin had great skill in shaping wood. Watching him, Pell asked about it. Deltin told him that he had been the spear shaft maker of for his tribe for many years and had learned a great deal about working wood while doing that. He had also learned from other workers of wood during trading missions to other tribes. Pell watched him work in awe, carefully trying to duplicate his techniques with the hand axe, scraper and flint knife. Deltin told of other wooden things he made for his tribe, such as a two pronged eating utensil for spearing meat, bowls scraped out of driftwood, totems to ward off evil spirits, and spits for roasting meat over fires. Pell occasionally gave him directions regarding how the splint should be shaped but Deltin readily enough grasped the idea that it should fit Panute’s good leg and make rapid progress towards making it do just that.

  Deltin for his part assumed that Pell had experience as a woodworker and
asked where he had learned the art of carving splints. Pell dumbfounded him when he told him that he had no training in “splint making” or actually any special training in the working of wood. “How then, did you learn to make magical splints like the ones that healed Falin’s leg?”

  “They’re not magical.”

  Deltin looked at Pell skeptically.

  “Really. There aren’t any spells or spirits or anything! All they do is hold the limb straight while it is healing, like, like a stretcher holds a skin while it is curing.”

  Well then how did you learn to make ‘non magical’ splints then?”

  Pell paused to consider, “I just thought about what it would take to hold the limb straight. It seemed like a straight stick would do it if the limb were tied to it. But since arm and legs are bumpy, a completely straight stick wouldn’t work—so I just pictured how it would have to be shaped to fit the limb when the limb was straight. Then I tried to shape it so by scraping and chopping. The others that I’ve made were much harder to construct than this one. I’ve learned a lot from watching you.”

  “You must have some kind of gift to make healing sticks like Falin wore, especially without any training.” Deltin glanced at Panute who still lay unconscious. After a moment he said, “I have seen Falin walk when I knew that he would not—that is a miraculous gift. I don’t know whether what you have done will help Panute, but I think she was right. It couldn’t have made her worse. She would have died soon without something being done—I won’t… hold it against you if she dies anyway…” Tears rolled down Deltin’s cheeks as he whispered this last in an agonized tone.

  Enormously relieved by Deltin’s halting statement, but unsure of what to say in response, Pell continued scraping a while. Finally he said, “I just hope… I, uh, hope... that it turns out well.”

  It was dark when they had scraped and shaped the splints to Pell’s satisfaction. He looked at her leg for a while, pondering. He had always made the deformity worse then pulled or pushed the limb back into place when doing his “bonesettings.” But before, the deformity had always consisted of a limb bent where it should be straight. Panute’s leg seemed merely “floppy,” laying in whatever direction it had been placed. Generally, it lay with an outward twist so that when she was on her back, the foot laid out to the side. However, sometimes it was bent one way, sometimes another. Perhaps it didn’t need a “bonesetting” but just something like the splints to hold it straight? He grasped her foot and turned it slowly up, then gently pulled the leg straight. She moaned a little but did not awaken. With his other hand, he placed one splint on the medial side where it seemed to lay well. Deltin tentatively held the other in place on the lateral side of her leg. Because of the swelling in the middle of the leg, both splints touched the leg in the middle but not at the ends. Pell considered scraping more away, but feared that more scraping would weaken the splints too much. They were already quite thin in their central regions. Also he thought that as the swelling went down, they would become loose in those areas. After more thought, he put pads of fur between the splints and the ankle and between the splints and the knee to tighten those areas. Then with Tando and Deltin’s help he bound the splints to her leg with Donte’s soft leather straps. The splints held her leg fairly straight but Pell feared that they would be knocked loose during the move to the cave. When he discussed this with Tando and Deltin, Deltin described a carrying device he had seen once made of two spear shafts with skins stretched between them. It took a while longer but they constructed a stretcher and then carried Panute up to the cave, placing her on a bed of straw and furs that Donte and Gia had prepared.