Teresa was outside sitting down near the fire tossing a tortilla back and forth between her hands. She was preparing them for the meal at the end of the day. The sun was very warm on her face today, and the humidity was down for once. It was going to be a wonderfully warm dry day, a rare day. Now, if there were no distant sounds of gunfire, the day would be perfect. She was hoping that Miguel would come home soon. She knew he left because of Jorge. She also knew that he felt inadequate for not being able to rid the house of that madman. He tried once and almost had his life beaten out of him. Miguel tried to be the man of the house, but at 13 yrs old, he didn't have the capability yet. But with Jorge now gone for several days, she could share some time with her son.
The path was next to a particularly steep part of the hill and the burro tried to compensate having one side of the path higher than the other. The jostling eventually caused Virgil to slide sideways off the back of the little beast. He landed with a thud. The bad news was that he hit a fairly large boulder with his ribs. The good news was that he actually felt the pain. When he landed he let out with a loud grunt. Miguel saw too late that the injured man was sliding off the donkey. Miguel went to put the blanket back on the burro before he put his new charge back on, but then realized that it would probably be better if he put the blanket on the man. Using the same technique as before, he was able to get the man back on the donkey, then he draped the blanket over top of him. They still had about an hour left to go before reaching home. The bottom of the ravine was always much cooler than out in the open where his house is. So he wanted to get home and into the warm sun before it was too late for this stranger. His mother would know how to help him. But he wasn't sure what he was going to do about Jorge. Jorge would kill this man for sure. There was a small cave not far from his home, maybe he could put the man there and his mother could come give him first aid. He had an hour to work out his plan.
A pall hung over Tracy Island not seen since the days of Lucille's death. They all thought they were prepared for something like this since they were in such a dangerous occupation. But no one can really be prepared for the loss of a family member. Scott's temper turned quick. John was listless. Gordon's humor was gone, and Alan was in denial. He kept threatening to go back to Cumaguay to find Virgil. Jeff was hardly at his desk anymore. He could be found in the library sifting through hundreds of volumes of books that covered everything from hi-technology to horticulture to clothing catalogues. Scott flew his jet around, taking his frustrations and mourning out on the high-speed maneuvers. John tried to learn scuba diving from Gordon. Being in space all the time that was one thing he never really got into. Gordon was busy teaching John, but the jokes were missing. Grandma did so much baking, that she was giving the goods away to needy families. Kyrano, was trying to find just the right mix of flowers to blend in order to create a new specie that he could honor Virgil with. Tin-tin was at her wits end trying to get Alan away from the fixation of going back to Cumaguay.
Stuart was in the stalled gondola over 100 feet in the air, helpless as he saw the ski chalet buried under the avalanche of snow. He was bringing the portable radio up to the tower when power was lost on the lifts. He immediately put a call into the main base, but got no answer. He tried to get hold of anybody. The only people he heard from were buried but still alive in the chalet. Their radio still worked, but those people were the ones needing help. He waited just a few minutes and decided that the only one left to call was International Rescue. He tried calling but he got no reply. He tried again, and still got no reply. He always read or heard that they respond immediately. He checked over his radio and found that the batteries were fresh and he was picking up radio signals from almost the other side of the world. He kept trying and trying. Then with a sigh, he put the radio down. He was under the impression that even if they were on another rescue, there was always someone around to answer the call. It must not have been true for he had been trying for over an hour to get International Rescue on the line. He felt helpless. He couldn't remember when International Rescue didn't exist even though it was only a few years ago. They just always seemed to have been there.
Miguel peered around the large rock that stood at the edge of the forest and his yard. He saw his mother feeding the chickens. He stood there for a long while and waited to see if Jorge would show. Jorge would never let his mother be alone for long without wanting her to do something for him. So if she remains out here feeding the chickens for any length of time, that would mean Jorge had left. He could hear her softly singing to herself. That was a good sign.
As he stood there she turned around and caught him half-hiding behind the rock. Teresa had never known her son to be so afraid that he would feel the need to hide. She called out, "Miguel, it is ok, Jorge is gone again. Probably for several days." She saw a smile cross her son's face as he emerged with the burro following behind him. Her eyes flew wide opened.
Miguel thought that God was looking down upon him and his charge when he heard that Jorge had left for several days. He could not have asked for better luck. He came from behind the rock and led the burro into the yard towards his mother. However he was surprised by the look on her face. He thought for sure that she would be happy that he found someone to help them. But what he saw was fear instead.
She ran towards her son and the burro with the body across it. "Miguel! Was is it that you bring here?!" She asked in fear and surprise.
"Momma, this is one of the blue soldiers I told you about yesterday. Remember? I told you how they were saving the children from the church before the mortar attack. He is badly hurt and needs our help." Miguel pleaded, seeing resistance in his mother's eyes.
"No, take him back where you found him. Let his own find him and take care of him. Jorge will kill us and him if he were to find that man here." His mother said sternly.
Miguel stood for a minute, summing up the courage to defy his mother. He knew that taking care of this man was the right thing to do and the only option he had to rid himself and his mother of Jorge. Not knowing if the soldiers in blue were still at the village, he knew that his mother would not know either. "Momma, his compadres have left already. There is no one left at the village anymore except a few people that did not want to evacuate. Even our soldiers are gone. Besides, he is in bad shape, he won't make the journey back there. Momma, we can't let him die. There is a reason God allowed me to find him when I did. We have to help him."
Teresa, being the religious person that she was, felt that Miguel was correct when he said there was a reason why God allowed him to find the hurt man when he did. She even thought that the timing could not have been better since Jorge just left on one of his forays. "Ok, bring him over here, what is wrong with him?"
Miguel, obviously pleased, said, "I am not sure entirely what is wrong but he is very cold. I didn't even think he was alive when I first found him."
"Ok, bring him inside." Teresa hesitated a moment, thinking. "No, better to leave him out here, the sun is warmer out here and especially next to the fire." Miguel brought the burro beside the fire. Teresa brought over a straw mat for Virgil to lay on. Miguel then just basically guided Virgil's slide off the donkey. When Teresa came over to examine the injured man, she was shocked at his body temperature. She looked up at Miguel, "Where did you find him? He should be dead, he is so cold."
Miguel answered, "Just before the path up to the church, under a rock overhang."
She ordered, "Go into the house and bring out all the blankets we have." She then took a stick and started to fish out the rocks that circled the fire. When Miguel returned she put one blanket over Virgil then added several of the hot rocks around him on the blanket. This way, he would benefit from the heat without getting burned by direct contact with the hot rocks. She then put another blanket on top and took several of the smaller rocks and placed them between his legs and between his arms and body. Again with the blanket in between. "Miguel, go fetch some more river stone, we need to warm him up as much as possible. With that, Miguel grabbed the empty water bucket and proceeded to the stream. He picked out a variety of stones, some large, some small, some round, some flat. When the bucket was full and almost too heavy for him to carry, he lugged his prize back to his mother who proceeded to put the rocks all around the fire. He had seen that while he was doing that, she built the fire up a bit more.
Teresa kept vigil over the injured man, often feeling his forehead for signs of warmth or maybe even fever. When she could easily handle the rocks that were next to the stranger, she would fish out more hot rocks and place them around the hypothermic man. Then she would put the cooled rocks back near the fire. She had Miguel go fetch fresh water as well, she was sure that this man would be dehydrated. She wouldn't recognize such a large medical word, but she did know that water was necessary for life. And from the details that Miguel had told her about the men in blue, the attack and now, she figured that he had been hurt for more than two days. After about an hour, he started shivering. First it was almost unnoticeable, but then turned into violent tremors. Miguel looked at her worriedly, and she said, "Don't worry, he will be ok." Trying to convince herself of that as well.