Ellie beamed and contentedly nodded her head into his shoulder. Wow, was a marriage proposal next? “Thank you for giving me yet another chance, Captain,” Ellie said.
“Thanks for looking my past my ‘twerpiness’ and giving me another chance,” he replied with a teasing tone. Ellie grinned up at him, and after a moment I heard Sawyer whisper, “We should really rest now. But I’m glad we had this talk, Ellie.”
Ellie smiled again and thanked him for being willing to listen to her apology. Sawyer unwrapped Ellie from his arms, and they walked back to the rest of us. I quickly closed my eyes, but my head was still wide awake wondering about what I had just seen. What if Sawyer and Ellie get married? I wondered. In just a few months they would both be eighteen, and it hit me then how close to adulthood we all were – especially Sawyer and Ellie. Marshall and I only had two years left of high school, and Lydie was just three and a half years behind me.
Thinking about the future always feels so uncertain. Some people are so sure of the direction they want to go, yet I have so many interests that I have a hard time narrowing down which path to choose. For now I usually just pray that God will give me clear indicators as to what I should do in the future. The future would come, but as Ellie lay down next to me and snuggled in, I was reminded that at that moment I needed to sleep. I tried to pray, but exhaustion was taking over again.
It didn’t take long to slip into a hard, deep sleep. We were all exhausted, physically and mentally, and I was glad that despite the cold and hunger I was able to return to rest. When I awoke again, I heard Marshall and Lydie talking, and I became aware of the sun warming my face. I rolled over, still feeling half asleep. Ellie was still squeezed up against me, though her eyes were open. “Morning, Sister,” she said with a smile. I returned her smile, and then yawned and rubbed my eyes. I felt surprisingly refreshed, as if I had just woken from a week-long sleep. I stretched my arms over head and enjoyed the crisp mountain air. Our jackets and hats and packs were all covered in a sparkly coat of frost, but we had survived the night. I knew that the snow blanket and wind break had worked. Even though I felt chilled, I knew that my body temperature was still plenty safe. Without our makeshift shelter and huddle through the night, hypothermia would surely have set in.
Suddenly I heard a symphony of growling stomachs, and as sisters we sat up and looked at the boys. Sawyer was still asleep, but Marshall teasingly said, “The sooner we start hiking, the sooner we eat. I could go for a taco.”
I laughed out loud, and I exchanged a smile with Marshall, who playfully winked. Lydie looked at me inquiringly. I imitated Marshall the best I could by using exaggerated hand gestures and lowering my voice. “I love Mexican food. Any day. Any time. I’m always in the mood for a plateful of enchiladas or burritos.” The girls laughed and Marshall grinned.
“Aww, come on, just admit it. At 6 a.m. on an empty stomach, you’d eat a taco right now,” Marshall teased.
I nodded, “I would eat a taco right now.”
“A taco?” he countered. “I would eat seven or eight tacos!”
Our laughing woke up Sawyer, whose eyes instantly looked at Ellie. The two smiled, and I thought that Ellie looked more beautiful than ever before. Somehow even her unwashed, tangled chestnut hair was pretty. Her hair always looks good. On trail, my hair looks unkempt. But not Ellie’s. Her face was radiant and her eyes bright. We all needed showers, but her inner beauty shone like the sun. I wondered if Sawyer also saw her as striking. One glance at his face answered my question. He was gazing at her and his cheeks were red, although I wasn’t sure if the redness in his face was due to blushing or the cool temperature.
Marshall stretched his arms, cracked his knuckles (which made Lydie cringe), and then announced, “In all seriousness, we probably should break camp and hit the trail. “Girls, you want to retrieve the bear bag?” he teased. Before the scary memory could replay in Ellie’s and my minds, he added, “No, no, we’ll stick together. Lydie, how are you feeling?”
“Okay,” Lydie quietly said which made us all turn and look with concern. “My left leg is just so stiff and sore.” She bit back a tear. Ellie hugged her, and confidently said, “We’ll do our best to find help as soon as possible.”
“We’re going to make a stretcher for you, Lydie. You can rest while we find help,” Sawyer positively explained.
Lydie’s eyes were dull, and I was startled to see her so downcast. Her countenance reminded me that she was in fact injured. When she had remained so upbeat, I entertained the thought that maybe her injury was not severe. Seeing her this morning though, I could tell that she definitely needed medical help. ASAP.
Sawyer’s stomach growled, and he rubbed it sheepishly. “Once we retrieve our bear bag, I think we had better eat our gorp to give us some energy for the hike ahead of us.” Nobody argued that.
Ellie spoke up, “Marlee and I will help Lydie relieve herself. While we do that, could someone find some moleskin from the first aid kit?”
“You have a blister?” Marshall asked her.
Ellie nodded glumly. Ellie didn’t normally have problems with blisters, but once in a while, even the most conditioned skin can blister. Together, she and I carefully scooped up Lydie and carried her away from the boys. Lydie struggled to balance on her right leg, and Ellie and I exchanged an anxious glance.
When we returned to the boys, Sawyer was sitting on the beach chair with the moleskin in hand. “Go ahead and kick off your boot,” Sawyer said.
Ellie blushed, “Marlee can do it. Or I can.”
“I don’t mind, Ellie. I’ve seen so many blisters that it might be helpful for me to take a look. Just to see how bad it is, and if I need to drain it or not.” I cringed when he mentioned draining the blister. Dad always says that it’s best to protect a blister and to not drain it. However, if a blister is bound to break open, it’s better to drain it than to let it break. Draining a blister, done by carefully poking a sterile needle into the skin along the perimeter of the blister, does not come without pain though. I hoped for Ellie’s sake that her blister would be protected by the moleskin, a tough layer of cotton that surrounds the blister, kind of like a tiny inner tube.
“Sawyer,” Ellie fidgeted uncomfortably, “umm, my feet, uh, don’t smell the best right now.”
Sawyer’s eyes lit as he suddenly understood why she didn’t want his help. “Well,” he kindly said, “I doubt your feet smell bad as Marshall’s. But if it would make you feel better, I can take off my hiking boots, which would cause you to pass out from their terrible odor, and then you wouldn’t even be aware that I was anywhere by your feet. Your non-smelly feet,” he added with a smile. I was certain that he was remembering the “Smelly” incident when he said that.
Ellie giggled when he claimed that his feet smelled so bad that it would make her lose consciousness. We all laughed, actually, even Lydie a little bit. Ellie reluctantly untied her boot, and carefully removed her wool sock, then her nylon sock liner. Sock liners move with a hiker’s foot, while the sock moves with the boot. The idea is that any friction from hiking will be absorbed between the sock liner and the sock, thereby reducing blisters. Once in a while though, blisters can happen regardless of precautions.
“Pretty good sized, Ellie,” Sawyer commented as he held the backside of her heel, looking over her whole foot. Sure enough, on the outside of her right foot toward her heel was a white bubble of skin, about the size of a quarter. She nodded in agreement. Marshall whistled and jokingly asked her if she had gone hiking lately. Lydie grimaced, but I tried to maintain a neutral expression.
Sawyer observed her entire foot carefully for a moment and then asked how her other foot was doing.
“That foot feels fine,” she stated, “It’s just this that is out of control.”
Sawyer nodded, gently pressing on her blister. “Well, as you know, we don’t want to drain this unless we think it’s going to burst on its own,” Ellie nodded as he continued to observe her foot. “I think this one will be okay if you give me a few minutes with the moleskin. We’ll try to protect it.” Sawyer went to work with the first aid scissors and began to cut a square of moleskin larger than her blister. He then cut out the center of the moleskin, matching the size of the damaged skin, so that the moleskin looked like a tiny inner tube, except with square corners. He carefully positioned it on her foot with the sore skin sticking through the cut-out center of the moleskin. Next he used plenty of athletic tape to help the moleskin stay in place. Wrapping a couple pieces of tape over the edge of the moleskin and then around her ankle and heel, he asked, “Now how does this feel? Supportive without constricting movement?”
Ellie moved her foot around, trying out her range of motion. Nodding with an appreciative smile, she said, “This feels better. Thank you.” Sawyer smiled and she replaced her sock liner, sock, and boot.
“It’s always better to take care of a blister before it breaks. I’m glad you asked for help,” Sawyer affirmed. Marshall noticed their smiling at each other and gave me an inconspicuous wink. He too was amazed by their mutual cooperation this summer. If only he had seen what I had witnessed last night by the fire!
“Next, Marshall and I will hike to tree line and find two tree branches that will serve as poles for Lydie’s stretcher. Ellie, stay with Lydie. Marlee, can you write a large message in the snow? Make big block-style letters saying that we’re heading toward the ranger station and need medical help.”
We all nodded and set about our duties. I had heard Dad talk about fashioning a makeshift stretcher to evacuate a hiker, but I was interested to see how we would actually achieve it with sticks and a tarp. As I began to drag my fist through the top layer of snow, my forehead began to ache with pressure again. I squeezed my eyes shut, realizing that my sudden focus on the reflective snow in the morning light could have triggered a headache. After a moment, I slowly opened them, feeling sluggish. I had a feeling that the day ahead was going to be long and difficult.
9
“HEADING TOWARD RANGER STATION. LEFT AT 0700, TUES. NEED MEDICAL HELP.”
I stepped back, admiring my note. The letters weren’t all the same size, and in some places they ran together, but overall it was noticeable enough to grab someone’s attention and clear enough to convey the most important information.
I was estimating on the time. I had drawn the letters about two feet tall, so that way if a helicopter was on our search, the message should catch someone’s eye. Sawyer had instructed me to use block letters, and I think the reason is because straight lines, or geometric shapes, stand out among nature, whose shapes tend to be curvy. I squeezed my eyes closed again. The sun shining off the snow was giving me a headache, even with my sunglasses. Or was it the stick in my forehead? Maybe someday I would laugh about having a stick in my head, but not until the pain stopped. It was causing so much pressure that I desperately wanted it removed. I decided to ask if the group would take it out for me.
Meanwhile, Sawyer, Marshall and Ellie were fabricating Lydie’s stretcher. The tarp that Sawyer had in his pack, which served us last night to help keep us from becoming hypothermic, would now serve as an integral part of Lydie’s stretcher. Sawyer and Marshall were looking for two long, sturdy tree branches. The plan was to place the sticks parallel to each other on the tarp, slightly wider than Lydie’s body. Then we would fold the overhanging sides of the tarp to the center. Lydie’s bodyweight, once we positioned her between the sticks, would keep the tarp in place. The four of us would each carry an end of a stick and, God willing, evacuate her to help. Unless help found us first. Between Sawyer’s bruised leg and my head, I was feeling extra dependent on God.
“Nice penmanship, Marlee,” Lydie teased. I weakly smiled in return. “Are you okay?” Lydie asked.
I squatted, and then sank to my knees, “I just have a headache,” I murmured.
