Tractor Scars 3
I had run over Doctor with my tractor.
My first reaction was to scream and kneel beside him in the red-stained snow and to curse under my breath.
"Honey! Doctor! DOCTOR! Oh goddess help me…"
Fortunately there were no tears to blind my vision because as if the Harvest Goddess heard my cry for help, Rick, the guy who runs the chicken farm, happened to pass by the east side of the farm, where only a picket fence separated the path from the farm.
"Claire? OH GODDESS!" Rick ran to the farm's entrance and within seconds, he was beside us.
"What should we do?" I asked Rick, with determination in my voice.
"I-I don't know…we should probably carry him to the clinic…" Rick suggested, swallowing a lump in his throat.
"I don't know…I think I might have broken something…it's too risky…" I said.
Without as second thought, I bent down and clamped my mouth down on Doctor's. I tried to force air into his system and pump it down in his chest. I tried it a second time.
He didn't breathe. He just vomited more blood.
With no more options left, I put my arms under his knees the small of his back and lifted Doctor up on my shoulder, powered by adrenalin. I could feel blood seeping through my jacket. Doctor let out a very faint moan.
"A-are you sure about that? Do you want me to carry him?" Rick frantically offered.
"It's fine for now. I'll ride to the clinic. He feels broken though…" I said, remembering how his back felt on my arms. I whistled for Snackee and hoisted Doctor on him first and then myself. Carefully, and as fast as possible, I positioned him to sit in front and lean on my shoulder. One arm held him fast to me and one arm holding tightly to the reins.
"Call a doctor from out of town! I think he needs more help than just medicine," I told Rick, who immediately ran to phone a doctor.
With more blood dripping out of his mouth and onto my clothes, Snackee and I galloped out of the farm, despite the rules against bringing the horse out of the farm and went straight to the clinic. I held Doctor as tightly as possible so that he wouldn't move around due to the galloping.
"Please be okay. You know I can't live without you," I silently whispered to Doctor, praying that he would hear through the thundering hooves. Tears slowly squeezed out of my eyes. I blinked them back so I could see where I was going.
My riding through the town with a bleeding half-corpse (I'm sorry! I said I'm sorry! I love you, honey!) earned me a few 'heys!' and 'woahs!' from passers-by.
Finally arriving at the clinic, I carried Doctor bridal-style up to the front door.
"ELLI! I KNOW YOU'RE THERE! OPEN UP!" I knocked frantically. My fist left blood stains on the door.
I heard feet slowly padding down the stairs. I so wanted to swear out loud if Carter and the kids weren't just next door.
"ELLI! H-HURRY UP!" I screamed, getting desperate. Why couldn't she come to the friggin' door faster?
In a second, Elli finally swung open the door and she gasped at the sight while I hauled my bleeding man in and carefully put him on the stretcher. He coughed up more blood, which made me want to cough up blood too.
"Oh goddess, what happened!?" Elli was crying as she looked at both of our bloody coats and faces.
I was out of breath. "I…told Rick to call a doctor. Clean him up…and…oh goddess!!!"
Tears drove me to my knees. I wailed loudly and buried my face into my bloodstained hands. I was in the middle of the clinic floor, sobbing. But no one comforted me.
Elli, knowing I'd be sobbing even louder if she were right beside me, was doing her job. While I stumbled onto a sofa in the waiting room, her expert hands peeled off Doctor's stained clothes, removed all the glass shards, disinfected and dressed all his open wounds, and performed successful CPR on him and even put an oxygen mask on him in record time.
The office's phone rang and I went to answer it, after swallowing the lump in my throat and attempting to stop hiccupping. I felt like vomiting. All the blood was starting to take an effect on me…
"H-h….hello?" I choked out.
"Is this the Mineral Town clinic?" a rather deep suave voice asked.
"Y-yes it is…*sniff*"
It was the doctor. He said he would be there in less than 10 minutes and he immediately hung up. Good thing because I needed that extra half second to grab a trash can and promptly vomit into it.
"I've done all I could do for now…" I heard Elli sigh from behind the curtains. I went over gingerly, wiping my mouth with my coat sleeve. I wasn't sure if I could handle any more blood. I didn't eat anything that day except a boiled egg and toasted rice cakes.
When I looked at my Honey, he looked so fragile. He was in a hospital gown. Doctor's hair was still wet and messy but his face had been thankfully cleaned of blood. His forehead had been bandaged up to his eyes. An oxygen mask covered his nose and mouth.
His arms were heavily and tightly bandaged and splintered, ready to be cast.
His chest, however, only had light bandage dressings that were held down with masking tape. Same with his legs, which only had light dressings on the knees and various other places.
One would sigh in relief that the chest and the legs looked like they only had minor damages, despite being run over by a tractor. But then one would wonder why both arms were tightly bandaged while the chest was not if he was run over by a tractor. And then one would assume that it was a miracle and the Harvest Goddess had blessed one and that the legs and chest were missed by the tractor. But after some thinking, one would come to realize that the legs looked slightly out of place and the chest hid frightening physical epiphanies inside due to being run over by the tractor.
And these frightening epiphanies would be justified, with hesitation and desperation, by one, upon seeing the transparent tube that siphoned internal bleeding into a machine with a container. One would also, upon seeing the amount of blood in the container, throw up what was left of one's meals for the day.
Elli rubbed my back as I bent over the trash can. When I was done, I went to the bathroom to wash up and she gave me some water and sat me down on the couch. But knowing me well, she didn't ask "Are you ok?"
Instead, she said, "Doctor's stabilized for now. We just have to wait for the other doctor to come and operate."
I gingerly sipped the water and shifted in my seat. "Operate? Why?" I already knew why.
"Well," Elli hesitated. "Doctor's broken a few bones…"
I eyed her while drinking some more. She knew that look. Elli sighed in defeat.
"I guess I could give it to you straight…" I braced myself for the horrible descriptions. "His head is fine, a slight concussion and a cut, which is a dream compared to the rest of him. His arms-"
She was interrupted by the doctor coming in the clinic. The frigid frost air blasted in, making me shiver.
"Zack! Rick!" I stood up but Elli pushed me back down onto the sofa. The two coat-wrapped men held open the doors for the doctor, who seemed to be carrying his own set of tools in a suitcase.
"Are you-?" Elli asked reluctantly.
"Yes, I'll be operating on the patient now. If you don't mind, I suggest you get ready now," the doctor's professional-sounding voice said. As soon as he entered the room, he started dressing into his scrubs.
"Yes, doctor," Elli said, switching into her 'surgeon assistant mode'. She went inside Doctor's room with the doctor and got ready to operate.
I just sat there waiting in silence with Zack and Rick, silently sipping away the rest of my water. Zack and Rick were at both of my sides on the sofa, listening to the faint sounds of the operating room.
"He's from a nearby town so it didn't take a long time for him to get here," Rick said, breaking the silence.
I nodded in acknowledgement.
"Thanks, guys," I tried to smile. "Thanks for helping me out." I quickly wiped away uninvited tears.
"Aww, that's what friends are for, right, Rick?" Zack promptly gave me a comforting hug and gave Rick a thumbs-up.
"Yeah, sure. Whenever you need help, just shout…like you did back there. I'm just across the road from your farm anyway," Rick reluctantly said with a smile. Sure, he wasn't the closest of friends but that didn't matter.
More tears came out. At this point, all I could do was pray.
"Please, please, please…be okay…oh dear goddess, guide the surgeon and Elli's hands…"