Ever since I was first asked to make this expedition I knew that it would be a strenuous journey but I had no idea that it would be this exhausting. Hiking with Doctor Eppes had always been something I did when he thought I needed to come out and get away from the numbers and figures that we encounter in our daily work back at CalSci. When Charles told me that his brother would be coming with us I was at, first, a bit hesitant, but not because it was Don. It had more to do with three men with strong yet somewhat opposing personalities spending an entire weekend in a tent far from civilisation or even a separate room to get away from each other should the need arise.
I have always liked Don, but he doesn't strike me as the kind of man that would enjoy listening to talk about math and other theories which I knew would've been the case if Charles hadn't fallen ill.
Even though I try to see all aspects of any given situation both the good and the bad; I do tend to try and lean toward a positive outlook. In this case however I find myself overly concerned by the troubling discovery that we have made this evening.
The bite on Charles' arm, whose origin I believe is from a species of Loxosceles, was severely infected. If it was a Brown Recluse as I suspect the time passage since the bite occurred to the symptoms we are witnessing fits perfectly into the pattern of said Loxosceles.
The main reason for my belief that it was indeed the Brown Recluse has to do with my childhood. As a small boy I used to spend summers with my Aunt and Uncle in Wichita, Kansas; one of the places were these spiders seemed to be as common as black widows are here in California.
My cousin, Paullina, now a very honourable scientist in the biology department at Yale University was the one that thought me everything about those small creatures. I never thought my knowledge would come in handy until today, but what bothered me was that I couldn't do much about it.
Thunderstorms as well as strong winds were still threatening to tear the tent out from over us and I knew that even if we were able to leave right now to hike down the trail there would still be a multitude of problems to be faced and overcome. The rocks would most likely be very slippery even after the worst of the storm had passed and it would be dangerous to go out hiking especially if you didn't know the terrain.
Charles was the only one that was used to these kinds of hikes, and he was in no condition to take the lead. If it proved to be the Loxosceles the worst was yet to come and there would be a high probability that he would become even sicker.
A moan caught my attention and I looked to the side only to see Charlie and Don lay as close to each other as only brothers that cared for each other would. This was a part of sibling bonding that I missed, having no older brother. What I had instead were two older sisters that kept on teasing me all the time and it isn't until recent years that I have grown to like them so much that I can actually talk to them without being bored to death.
They both live so called "normal lives". The oldest, Joanna, is married to an officer and he is stationed at a military base in Omaha Nebraska. She has three sons which I have only seen on rare occasions. On those occasions when I have spent time with my nephews I have attempted to try and teach them everything I know about Astro Physics. I think that Josh, her youngest, actually has the ability to follow my discussion even though he is only eight years old. In a way I can imagine that he is rather similar to how Charles was when he was a young boy…or perhaps me.
Susan, my other sister isn't quite as normal as Joanna. She is an artist and she paints for big exhibitions in New York. She lives a rather wealthy lifestyle but I don't think she is very happy. As far as I know she has no boyfriend but then I rarely talk to her, so I could easily be quite mistaken on that count.
The moment I met the young professor, which was years ago, I knew that we would connect and it wasn't until later I found out that we were both younger brothers and had a difficult childhood where we had to fight for the interests we believed in; in my case physics and in Charles math.
Another moan caught my attention. I had left the flashlight turned on to illuminate the tent. I have never cared for thinking in the dark. Solitude, which I normally enjoy, always seemed oppressive in the darkness. In the dim light I saw Charles eyes watching me.
"Charles," I said as quietly as I could, afraid that I would wake Don up. "I didn't know that you were awake."
Blinking several times he looked as he was trying to get his bearings before answering me, voice weak with sickness and fever. "I…I promised Do..Don.." His teeth chopped as he shivered, "that…that I would wake..wake up if I started to fee…feel si…sick." The words were merely nothing but a stutter and I felt sorry for him.
Sitting up I reached for my sweater. "You want me to help you out?"
He nodded.
Wasting no time I hurried over to him. Knowing Charles he never did anything half-heartedly and when he called for attention it was often serious and action should be taken immediately.
"Think you can get up?" I asked as I helped him up from the sleeping bag. It was tight and I was stunned that the small sleeping bag could hold two grown men.
"Mmmm….but please don't wake Don up. He needs the sleep."
"I won't," I promised as I helped Charles out of the tent. Sometimes it amazed me how much the two Eppes brothers cared for each other. Charles could be working on a big project yet when Don came by needing help. Charles would then always concentrate all his considerable intellect and talent on the case at hand while at the same time trying to keep the balance between his own work and lecturing. This often resulted in him being on the verge of exhaustion and even though I had on numerous occasions told him that this was unfair to his students and his own professional needs he would stubbornly refuse to listen to my sage advise; never wanting to let his brother down.
It was still raining heavily outside and I helped him over to a sheltered place where he instantly emptied his stomach on the ground below him. This time he didn't have much to bring up but even so the cramps wouldn't stop and soon all that came up was yellow green bile.
When he was done he sank down on the ground; exhausted.
"I can't…I can't figure out what's making me so sick," he mumbled as he ran his hand through his sweat soaked hair that was now plastered against his forehead due to the raindrops drizzling over us.
"Charles I think that there is a very high probability that you have been bitten by a species of Loxosceles , otherwise known as the Brown Recluse. This species can also be referred to as the "Fiddler" or "Violin" spider due to the characteristic marking of an up-side-down violin body on the top of the spider starting at the head and ending at the abdominal."
The look I got told me that I could very well have been talking about the rain since Charles seemed too exhausted to take in anything I said. It was also clear that he had registered nothing out of the conversation Don and I had earlier in the evening where he so inconvenient managed to forcefully expel his stomach contents all over Dons sleeping bag, thus leaving him in the mess he was in now. Feeling like I had to say something to make him feel better I added, "However we can't be totally accurate since these bites are hard to diagnose even for medical experts but what is certain is that you have been bitten by something and its making you ill and you need a doctor to take a look at that bite."
Charles nodded, obviously too tired to think, and I still wasn't sure if he had heard a word I said. Standing up he mumbled, "Larry, can we go back inside. I'm freezing." It was then I noticed how he shivered violently.
"Oh, of course." Once again I had gotten wrapped up in a subject without noticing how time just flew by or how uncomfortable my recipient was not to mention the fact that it was still raining fairly heavily. This is the reason I have been labelled 'quirky', 'absent minded' or just plain 'weird'.
I put my arm on Charles' shoulder to steady him for the walk back to the tent, because it was quite slippery. The only mistake in my calculation was that I didn't have anyone to steady me, and before I knew what happened I found myself flying high up in the air only to land on my back, hard.
Holy Moses that hurt!
"Larry, Oh my God, Larry." Charles bent down beside me. " Larry, are you alright? " He looked as shocked as someone could be and even though I was more than positively certain that I hadn't broken anything vital I had the wind knocked out of me from the fall.
After I had regained my breath, which proved to be somewhat difficult, I did my best to sit up with the aid of the young professor who looked deadly pale now, both from shock but also from the sickness running in his veins.
"You think you can stand up?" he asked, "Or do you want me to go and get Don?"
"No I think I can manage, but thank you Charles for the offer." With that I tested if I had broken anything but luckily it seemed that all I got was a bruised back, or that was what I thought until I decided to stand up. "Ouch!" My right leg buckled under me and there was a deep pain in my ankle. I bit my lip from crying out but it was too late; Charles had already seen the pain written all over my face.
"Stay there," he said quickly. "I'm going to get Don." With that he hurried towards the tent.
All I could do was nod since it felt as if my ankle had been broken in half and I couldn't do much but lay around waiting for help to come. I have no idea if I might have fainted but when I looked up I saw Don's concerned brown eyes looking down at me.
"Larry, what happened?"
"I slipped on a rock and hurt my ankle." My voice was merely a whisper and I almost didn't recognize myself. "I think it might be fractured."
"Okay." Don, who was used to tense situations, seemed to take it all very calmly and he asked as he put his arm around my shoulders. "Think you can stand up or do you need me to carry you?"
Upon hearing these words I made another attempt to stand only to falter once more and I would've fallen flat on my nose if it wasn't for Don's helping hand. "Take it easy, Larry. It's no use in over taxing yourself. Charlie and I will help you to walk back to the tent." He turned to look where Charles was only to change his mind again. "Well maybe not Charlie…but I'll help you."
The sound of someone being violently sick echoed through the air even over both the thunderstorm and the rain. I didn't have to turn around to see how sick Charles was, the sounds told me enough.
Casting a concerned look at his brother he called out, "Buddy, you need any help?"
Charles were either in the midst of being so sick that he didn't have the strength to talk or he didn't hear what was said since there was no reply. This left us a bit worried and Don mumbled more to himself than to me, "I thought that the vomiting had started to slow down."
I shook my head. "Apparently not, besides with bites like this the symptoms can be very persistent and worsen over a short period of time."
"Okay."
Don's voice was curt and effectively cut me off abruptly. Once again my need to ramble in response to stress had led me to say too much and at the wrong moment. I am sure that it wasn't that Don was uninterested in my knowledge of this situation but with one man violently ill and another hobbling badly he didn't need to be lectured on the finer points of the Brown Recluse bite ramifications. It was at times like these that I was painfully aware of some social ineptness on my part.
Soon, however, I had other things on my mind when Don put his arm around my waist and more or less carried me over to the tent. The walk wasn't that far but it was overtaxing and every move sent a jostle of pain through my leg. I was becoming more and more convinced that I actually managed to fracture my ankle.
As soon as I was back in the tent Don lit a lamp and took a good look at my ankle that had become considerably swollen despite the short amount of time that had passed. "You think it's a fracture?" I asked
Don, who kept on pressing on my foot, asking where and if it hurt shook his head. "I don't think so but it's hard to tell when it's this swollen. My guess is that it's more likely to be a bad sprain. In any case you need to keep off of the foot as much as you possible since it will only aggravate the injury if you try to put pressure on it. You're going to need an X-ray to be sure and you will have to see a doctor when we get back to LA. Sprains like these can be tricky and cause lots of pain and if you're not careful you can end up jumping around on crutches for a month or two. "
I nodded. Don surprised me at times. "Where did you learn so much about taking care of injuries?"
"It comes with the territory of being an FBI agent not to mention the fact that I had lots of these types of injuries when I played ball." he laughed, as he searched through the backpack for the first aid kit he said that Alan had packed. Finding what he was looking for he pulled out an elastic bandage. "Man, Dad would've freaked if he knew how much this first aid kit has come in handy on this trip. Who would've figured out that both you and Charlie would become immobile? Not me at least." I swear could hear a sigh of disappointment.
"Well at least you are still on your feet." I said in an attempt to make him feel better.
"Yes well let's just hope that our run of bad luck goes away or we could all end up bedridden before this whole journey is over." I could detect a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Oh well," Don said quickly as he was done wrapping my foot up. "I'm going to go out and see how Charlie is doing. He's been out in the storm for much too long especially since he isn't well at all." With that he put on his wind breaker again and hurried out into the storm.
"Be careful," I yelled after him but I doubt that he heard my words since the storm had already swallowed my voice over the roaring wind. The last thing we needed was another one of us to become sick or injured. Instead what we needed was to find our way back home; safe and sound. Right now our lives more or less lay in the hands of Don, who was the only one that was healthy enough to be able to manage such a task.