Hello to you all :) Spring his here and with that comes alot of work at home so therefore I havent been able to write much. Anyway here comes a chapter which is especially credit to Alice who helped me with the Larryism and his complicated talk :) Thank you hon! You rock! swenglish
I don't think I slept more than a couple of hours due to Larry's snoring and Charlie's restless tossing and turning and when morning finally arrived it couldn't come fast enough.
Needing to take a leak I stuck my head out only to be totally thrown for a loop. The storm that had raged through the night was gone and all that was left was a little dampness on the rocks. Otherwise the sun was shining and it looked as if it would be another warm and sunny day. I knew that weather could change dramatically up in the mountains but I never expected it to change this quickly. This was the first good luck we had encountered on this trip and if the others could manage I was more than ready to go home.
I had my doubts though that we would be able to walk anywhere. Charlie's fever had continued rising during the night and he had been talking on and off in his sleep mostly about numbers and equations. This was something he often did when he was either stressed out or sick, and even though it was as common as someone else dreaming about baseball or girls, I still felt a bit worried. If his fever continued to rise it could be dangerous and he could loose consciousness.
And then there was Larry. By the look of his swollen ankle last night the professor wouldn't be able to walk very long and I doubted that he had the energy it would take to be able to continue the hike.
This left me with only one option. I had to call Dad and ask for back up.
After taking a quick bathroom break I picked up my cell and went up to the highest point where I would get a good connection, only to discover that there was no signal. The Mobile didn't work out in the mountains and I don't know if this was because we were so high up in the mountains that we were not near a tower or if it had something to do with last nights thunderstorm but no matter how many times I tried it; it was dead.
"Damn!"
This was NOT what I had expected. What would we do now?
When I went back into the tent I saw that Larry was up and he was sitting next to Charlie trying to get him to drink water from the bottle.
"It's important that you drink. You have been throwing up for two days now and you are dehydrated which will only exacerbate your current situation, Charles." Larry cajoled, as he moved the bottle to Charlie's mouth. My little brother however seemed to have other ideas on his mind as he kept moving his head back and forth doing his best to avoid having to drink anything.
"Larry, what you're doing up?" I asked hurrying over to them.
"Oh hi, Don." Larry nodded at Charlie. "He started moaning and mumbling something incoherent and when I felt his forehead I noticed that he is running a high fever and in an attempt to get it down I tried to get him to take a Tylenol and drink some water, but it doesn't look as if he wants any." There was a deep sigh.
"Okay." Looking at Larry I said, "You go and rest your ankle and let me take care of young Eppes." The professor objected but to state my point I helped him back to the sleeping bag. "Your foot won't get any better if you keep walking on it."
Larry nodded. "I guess you're right. It's just that I feel so helpless not being able to do anything."
"You rest. That's the best you can do." With those words I moved over to sit down beside Charlie who had opened his eyes. They were glassy from the high temperature and it looked as if he was having a hard time focusing.
"Hi little bro, how are you feeling?" I smiled gently at him.
Charlie blinked several times as if he was feeling very dizzy and was doing his best to stop the world from spinning.
"Sick."
"You should try and drink something," I said, as it was my turn to coax him into drinking the water.
He shook his head. "I…don't…wan't…any." Licking his dry lips he mumbled weakly, "Nauseous."
The words were a mere whisper and I had to lean over to hear what he said. "You feel like you might throw up?"
"I don't know…if…I…have…anything…left."
I nodded.
It was becoming difficult for Charlie to talk and he looked so small that all I wanted to was to give him a big hug and tell him that everything would be fine, just like Mom used to do with us when we were young and sick. I especially remember one occasion. I think I must've been around seven or eight and it was Halloween. I was sick with a fever and an upset stomach and I remember sitting in her lap looking outside to see all of my friends out trick or treating and it all felt so incredibly unfair. I remember crying and her holding me telling me that everything would be fine. Just in the same way I so desperately wanted to do with Charlie, with the exception we we're adults and adults don't hug, do they?
Okay last night I held him tight as he cried but I'm sure that was because of the fever. Charlie has always been the more huggable of the two of us, but I also know that he respects that I draw a line when it comes to close physical contact. Bearing this in mind he seldom seeks out physical contact for comfort unless there is something special. Last night I guess this entire situation had gotten to be a bit too much for him.
"Does your arm hurt?" I asked as I gently peeled up his long sleeved shirt to take a look.
"Mmmm. Don't." It was obvious that Charlie didn't want me touching his arm but I still needed to see if the infection had grown any worse through out the night. I had my suspicions especially since it was gradually getting worse.
"Buddy, I'm not going to hurt you. I just wanted to clean it up and put on a fresh bandage. "
"You did…that…last…night." He spoke as if he were out of breath.
"Yes, that's why I want to see if it's any less infected now." I said, "Come on Charlie, don't be so stubborn."
"No." He pulled his arm to his side, blocking me from being able to take a look at the bite.
I sighed. Man, why did my little brother always have to be so stubborn? Especially when it came to taking care of himself? It bugged me.
"Have I ever told you about the significance of gravity compared to the complexity of natural causes?" Larry asked, and I jerked back with surprise. In the midst of everything I had almost forgotten about the injured professor since he'd been so quiet, unusually so.
"No." I frowned. This was not the time to be lectured in some esoteric scientific principal but before I could object to this off the wall topic he started to tell his story.
"Science is based on faith in a reliable cause and effect relationship within the natural universe and thus is akin to a religion. The scientific method illustrates this relationship between cause and effect and tests it to determine if it is viable; if it actually works. Based on this observation science is in fact a form of religion with a remarkable amount of instructive authority. However many… well in fact most scientists would strongly object at the idea that their faith in science could be or is equivalent to a religious belief, yet clearly that is what it is. Science explains much that is unknowable but not everything. Science examines the universe as it operates through a chain of events, cause and effect, through linear time. The chain of events that lead from one existence to another eventually leads back to what is believed the beginning of the known universe or the 'Big Bang' as it were, but science can not determine what happened before. The laws of nature themselves are convoluted into and indecipherable complexity under conditions of a gravity warped singularity. The religion of science and cause and effect does not only impact the universe as we know it but ourselves as human beings. Through the natural chain of cause and effect human beings have evolved in as inexplicable complexity as the cosmos surrounding us. On the basis of traditional biological thinking one would tend to assume that whatever complexity one saw must in the end be carefully crafted to satisfy some elaborate set of constraints. But what I believe instead is that the vast majority of the complexity we see in biological systems actually has its origin in the purely abstract fact that among randomly chosen programs many give rise to complex behavior."
I had no idea what he was talking about but obviously Charlie did and that was all that mattered. Once he was done I asked what the story had to do with anything only to get a small smirk back.
"I was only trying to point out to Charles that he should stop being stubborn and allow you to look at that arm."
I have no idea what kind of influence the professor had over my brother but it was truly amazing to see how he could say a few sentences and then Charlie changes his mind and stops being so stubborn. I've seen it happen before and I was glad to see it happen again.
"Okay." Charlie let out a shuddering sigh. "Just don't hurt me." Surprised by how acquiescent he had become and allowed me to take his arm I turned to Larry with a grateful smile on my face. "Thanks."
The professor nodded out of courtesy but I could see that he was just as eager as I was to take a good look at that sore. Last night when I wrapped it up after Charlie had been sitting out in the rain it was completely soaked. At that time I noticed that the sore had grown and that there was a copious amount of pus oozing from it. I hoped that cleaning it out had done the trick but to tell the truth I was also somewhat afraid of what I would find the next time I opened it up to take a good look at it.
To my dismay the sore had grown even more and was much deeper than it had been the night before. There was pus but also blood in the sore but that was not what had me the most concerned. It was the thin blue line that led from the sore up to his shoulder. This could only mean one thing; blood poisoning.
And if it was what I suspected then Charlie needed medical help fast or there were no telling what the outcome would be.
My heart started to beat faster and sweat trickled down my forehead as I was doing my best to act as if nothing was wrong so that I wouldn't end up scaring Charlie. He was miserable as it was and it wouldn't help him if he knew the truth. Larry must've sensed that something was not right when I heard his voice calling out for my attention.
"Don, is everything's all right? How does it look?" The tone was filled with concern.
"I'm just going to wrap this up and then I'm coming to take care of your ankle. Okay?"
The professor looked a bit confused over my answer but only nodded in response. I needed to get Larry out of the tent so I could talk to him and tell him about my suspicions, but I needed to do it subtlety so Charlie wouldn't suspect anything.
Looking down at my brother I saw that he had his eyes closed and the sweat dotting his forehead told me that he was running a very high fever. I had no choice but to try and get help even though there was no cell service where we were. There wasn't much time to waste and I needed to fill Larry in on my plan.
As soon as Charlie had calmed down long enough to relax I saw to my satisfaction that he'd fallen asleep and I didn't waste any time in talking to Larry.
"We've got a serious problem on our hands," I said, as I asked Larry to come outside with me. The professor seemed happy to be able to leave the now stuffy tent and once we were outside he sat down on a rock.
"Okay, Agent Eppes. What is the situation?"
After I had explained that I thought Charlie was starting to show symptoms of blood poisoning and that we couldn't make a phone call since there were no connections, I saw for the first time fright in the professor's eyes.
"What do you suggest we do? I mean my ankle is far from healed and even though I think I can walk a bit better today I sincerely doubt that I'll be able to hike down the hills. And Charles is in no condition to be moved at all."
"I know." The tension of this predicament had led to a headache and I furiously rubbed my temples hoping it would provide comfort. Looking up at Larry I decided that it was best for me to take charge. "Listen; I will hike down the mountain...It shouldn't take that long. When I get to the car I'll call for help and when it arrives we'll come back for the two of you. That's the plan; all right?"
Larry sighed but I guess he knew that we didn't have any choice. I knew that Charlie wouldn't be too pleased when he woke up and found out that I had left him here, but there wasn't much I could do about it.
"You think that you can handle Charlie?" I asked wanting to assure myself that there would be no problems while I was gone.
"Yes of course. Leave your brother to me; he'll be in safe hands." Larry smiled but I could see that it didn't reach his eyes since he was much too concerned over how dangerous this situation had quickly become and to tell the truth; so was I.