Things had gotten crazy that night. Grandpa was injured and I scared off a Black Bear. You know, your typical summer evening. My friends back home were probably going to the movies and hanging out. How many people back home would have been too surprised to see me scream at a bear. They probably won't believe me when I tell them.
Grandpa had moved so he could elevate his injured leg on a rock by the camp grate. His leg was still bleeding, but it was hard to tell how bad the wound was.
"Grab me a shirt from the bag would you?" He asked.
I went to the tent dug around in his things and found a plain white shirt. I don't think in the end what I picked out as I had an idea of why he wanted it. I handed the shirt to him and he sat up. He used the shirt to apply pressure on the wound and soak up some of the blood.
"Get some firewood. We need to get a fire going." He instructed in a calm voice.
"If I take the flashlight to look for firewood, you'll be in the dark."
"I'll be fine. It's more important that you have it. I won't be going anywhere for the moment. There is a clear enough sky, the moon is all the light I need."
I did my best not to panic and think of how the bear could be still lurking close by. I just focused on being calm and gathering what I could. I was so focused that the bugs were not even bothering me. I came back to camp with what I had gathered quickly.
"We need to get the fire very hot, so don't be afraid to get a good flame going."
I broke some of the small branches apart to make more even ones. I had thrown some dried leaves and needles in a pile to use as a starter. We had a fire going earlier that evening so there was some ash and remnant to build this new fire off of. "Looks good Jordi, now if you can boil some water for me that would be great. If you get a chance to bring me my bag with all my clothes, I would appreciate it." He looked to be checking things off in his mind. I was his willing slave at the moment as I didn't know the first thing about what to do in these situations. I bought him his bag while we waited for the water to get hot. He was focused on keeping pressure on his leg wound. He had played off the seriousness of his injuries, I thought they were worse than he was letting on. He was trying to keep me from freaking out, I expect.
"Take my knife and see if you can cut off a pine tree branch. Preferably one with a lot of needles." I didn't question anything he asked, but I recalled the things he had taught me from a couple of days ago when he had me collect things from the forest. That pine needles and sap had anti-bacterial qualities. "Are you going to use these for healing your wound?"
"Something like that. Do you remember what I told you the other day about pine needles?"
"Of course."
"Good, now go and find some, I'll be fine." I came back with a branch full of fresh pine needles. "Thanks, just set those aside for now."
"Ok,, what do you want me to do next?"
"Will you bring over the fishing gear, there's something I want to look at." He played off as nothing major but later I suspect he knew full well what he was looking for. Like a good girl I did as asked.
It was hard to say what time it was in the night. A cool breeze could be felt if you strayed too far from the fire. I sat beside him waiting for his next direction and keeping an eye on his bleeding. "Jordi, how is the water doing?" I looked in the pot to see swirling and churning water.
"It's boiling."
"Good put these clothes in the boiling water. Use the knife to stir and take the clothes out with. Let the clothes boil for about fifteen minutes." He took off his wrist watch and gave it to me.
I watched the clothes cook in the water and stirred them on occasion. I kept my eyes on him to make sure his status wasn't worsening. He was taking the fishing line and measuring it by grabbing a piece, stretching from fingers to his armpit. He seemed satisfied with the amount he unspooled. "Can I see the knife for a second?" He gestured. I passed it to him and he cut the line in a couple of pieces, then gave back the knife.
"I'll keep an eye on the boiling clothes. Can you go to the canoe, and you know the rope line we use to keep it from drifting away? I'm going to need you to untie it and make sure the canoe is secure away from the water. Find two trees that are fairly close together. They can't be too thick around but sturdy enough to hold some weight. You're going to use that line to hang the boiled clothes to cool down on. So you'll have to make a clothes line of sorts from it. Make sense?"
"Definitely." It took me some time to undue all the knots and free the rope from the bow of the canoe. We always kept the canoe out of the water and flipped upside down. We'd tie the line just to make extra sure there was no chance for it to drift off on the night. Even though I removed that secure line, I dragged the canoe even further from the shoreline just to make sure it was safe. It seemed like overkill but it was our only means of transport and I was taking no chances.
I tied the rope at about shoulder's height, and checked the watch to see it had been more than fifteen minutes. Came back with the knife to take the clothes out of the boiling water.
"It probably doesn't matter but wipe the knife with something clean and dip the blade in the water for a minute." I'm sure he was just being cautious. After a minute, I used the knife to retrieve the clothes out of the water trying not to tear the fabric with the sharp part. I did my best to carry them one by one to the rope line. I draped them over the line and got them to hang. I then spread them out even though it burned to touch them. I had them all dripping hot water and cooling in the open air. I had set the flashlight in a spot to give me a free hand. It would take a couple of minutes for them to cool enough for us to handle properly.
I brought out my sleeping bag and unzipped it completely. I put it around Grandpa's back as he was looking cold.
"Put some fresh water in the pot and bring it to a boil again if you would. And by the way, thanks for something warm."
After pouring out the old water and filling it up again I noticed we were getting low, so while waiting for it to boil I went to the lake and pumped some more using the filter. I had set down some small branches by Grandpa earlier and from where he was sitting he could throw them into the fire to keep it going.
I came back with our collapsible water container three quarters filled. I came back to see that the new water was boiling.
"Boiling again?" "Yep."
"Good, take the branch of pine needles and break off the needles, then put them in the water."
I plucked the needles as he was busy inspecting the fishing line. "You only need enough to cover the bottom of the pot or so." He coughed a little. "I'm glad you refilled the water container as we'll have to change water quite a few times tonight."
I thought we had a sufficient amount of pine needles in the pot. "Do you think the clothes have cooled enough?" I asked.
"I believe so. Just bring me one at a time." I grabbed the knife and brought over one. He followed up with, "Grab one for yourself. Then pick one of the corners to dip in the pine needle water. Soak it enough so you can use it to clean my leg of the blood."
It clicked in my head what he had in mind, "I see."
"Be sure to dab around and not wipe. Understand?" I shook my head to confirm.
I did my best to get the old blood and stop the new. "Set the water container on a rock so the spout is easy to access. Open the spout so it pours out and use that water to get the blood off the cloth you are using. Then you can re-dip into the pine needle water. Use as many corners as you can and keep it clean."
I paused to think about what he said so it stuck in my brain. I knew enough about cuts that if not careful you could get infections. We seemed to have the blood relatively stopped and his leg clean of blood. He took the piece of clothing I brought him from the sterilized line, and he put it over his wound. He pulled his laces out of his boots but let the loose boots on his feet. He used the shoestring to tie around his leg to keep the cloth around his wound in place.
"A couple more things if you'll let me task you with them. Sorry for being so demanding with tasks." He knew I had little choice, and was just being polite.
"It's no problem Grandpa, you'd do the same for me."
"Would I?" He tried to joke.
I ignored it, "Just tell me what you want me to do."
"Remember how I had you gather pine sap. I need you to get a lot of it. As much as you possibly can. You might have to tap the tree like I showed you. Take a mug to put it in. Also I need you to collect leaves. They need to be green and not easily pulled apart. Make sure you test them and don't just go by look. Keep in mind what I told you about poison Ivy's and things. I'm not looking to make this situation worse." I was just about to go when he caught me quickly. "Oh, before you go can you change the water in the pot, and boil some new water?" It didn't take long to empty out the pot and refill it. I set the pot over the fire again and went on the hunt for sap and leaves. The leaves were easy to find as a nearby shrub provided plenty. Finding plenty of sap was harder. Not because there weren't plenty of pine trees, but large amounts are always just waiting for you on the bark. I removed some bark on a healthy looking pine. I took the knife and made V-shaped notches so I could get the sap flowing. I hated to do it to the tree but it was an emergency. Grandpa told me later that the tree should be fine.
After collecting what I deemed enough I headed back to camp. By this time the sun was starting to come up and we had no further need of the flash light. We both are going to need a nap after this I thought.
I showed grandpa what I had and he seemed satisfied. "Throw this fishing line, Thread needle and those leaves into the pot. Even some more pine needles too. Let them boil for a while." "Sure. What are you going to do with the thread needle and line?"
"You don't want to know."
The realization of what he meant hit me, and at first the grossness of it. "You're not going to try and sew it up, are you?"
"Only if my other solution fails. And, I'm not the one who will be doing it."
I processed, "Oh no, there is no way. I've done the other things you've asked, but I don't know how to. I'd get sick if I had to watch you do it, let alone me. I can't." "You can and you will if it comes to it. Let's just hope my other plan works out and it will only be an afterthought."
"A way afterthought. Like so far after that it is never a thought."
"The third option is that we cauterize the wound but that would probably do more damage than good."
"You mean like burn it shut. What would we even use to do it?"
"Never done it, so I don't even know. Catch a stick on fire and put the fire on the wound I imagine."
"Never done it before? So are you saying you've sewed a wound before?"
"Nope! You?"
I just gave him a dirty look.
"Then we both are about to tolerate something new." I gave a sarcastic remark, "Right." "Let's try my first idea and go from there."
"What is your first idea?"
"You're going to take those boiling leaves, and throw a slab of pine sap on them. Then slap it across me cut and hope that is enough."
"Do you think it will be?" I hoped.
"Only one way to find out."
I took the pot of the fire and let it sit for now. I used the knife to get a layer of sap and slathered it on his cut. It was like putting honey on a piece of bread. Actually it was a lot like waxing your legs, we just weren't going to rip the hairs off. We'll save that for later. Once I had a good layer covering the wound with the sap, I poured out the water so I could get the leaves. I took them one by one, starting from the top, and stuck them on the sap. Once I had them all on, I took one of the pieces of clothing we sanitized early off the rope line and put it over the leaves.
"Jordi, good news, we won't be sewing the wound or cauterizing. I am going to need you to sew the cloth in the back. The wound was all below his knee running diagonal across the lower bone and calf. He tied the fishing line to one of the ends of the shoestring. Then he showed me how to push it through the cloth. He talked me through how to weave it up the back. He told me to think of it as lacing a shoe. I managed to crisscross and pinch the cloth together and weave it in a way so that all I had to do was tie the laces and the cloth stayed tight to his lower leg. It looked like a corset for legs.
"Well, that should be good enough for now." He boasted. "Thanks Jordi, I couldn't have done it without you. You've acquired so many new titles on this trip now. Doctor Jordi. Naturalist, Adventurer, seamstress, and everything else." "Yeah, I'm a big deal." I felt pretty self satisfied.
"You are a pretty big deal to me. I can't thank you enough. You saved me from the bear, and helped me to fix up this mess I call a body. I only managed to trip and be a klutz. I must have seemed like a clown to the bear."
"I was going to say that you handled it pretty well until you went down like a drunken lady on a cruise ship in the middle of a storm."
"How do you know what drunk people look like?"
I blanked and fumbled to explain.
"Relax, I'm only teasing. I probably owe you a drink when we get back or in your case, some ice cream.
"I'll settle for some ice cream grandpa."
"Before we start celebrating, there's one more thing to do though."
Slightly confused, "What's that?"
"It's my ankle. I'm going to need you to get me a good stick I can use as a crutch. I also need you to go to the water and see if you can get me some mud. We're going to have to put the coldest thing we can find to stop the swelling. I'm guessing that will be some mud. I think if we fill in my sock with a bunch of it, that's the best option we've got."
"Can we take off the shoe?"
"I'm afraid if I take it out of the shoe that it will never go back in. I'm just going to elevate it. Do you mind getting in the mud?"
"Jordi, mud patrol, reporting for duty." I saluted him, and he saluted back. I made a bunch of trips We filled his sock full of mud, and I'm sure it was a mess down in his shoe. It didn't smell very good either. I checked his watch and it was after six in the morning. The sun was fully out and we were both very tired. I had found him a good stick and we managed our way to the tent. We took our side of the tent and said goodnight. "Love you Grandpa."
"Love you Jordi."
We had put a bag full of clothes under his leg to elevate his leg while we tried to get some sleep. I took a quick look at the map before I laid my head to rest. I wanted to see what challenges lie ahead when we woke.
The good news was despite his injuries, we were mostly going to be paddling our way back. How we were getting back to the car and everything else would have to be a worry for later. The only way we'd be of any use is if we both got some rest in.