PERILS

Chapter Thirteen

I'm either in Florida, figured the Doctor, or Louisiana. Either way, he was quite a ways from Hoboken, and his progress "away" was slow and sticky. Still, he felt, by and by, that he might be approaching more friendly terrain when something in the distance caught his eye. It wasn't an alligator; it was a dark gray Florida Cracker Horse, standing by a supine human. He ran, as best he could, to the two of them, and crouched down to examine the human, an unconscious white man, perhaps in his thirties, with short dark brown hair and a dark blue kerchief around his neck. "Nothing broken," he determined, "and nothing munched." The horse stared at him placidly. The Doctor gently hoisted the man across the saddle, avoiding the pommel, and then mounted the horse himself. Off he rode, or rather, slogged, hoping he was heading in a direction that would eventually get him and his passenger out of the swamp.

*0*0*0*

The Doctor didn't have to remember to cue the horse directly with the reins rather than his legs (he'd ridden both English and Western but was more accustomed to the English style); the little horse knew where to go. The Doctor's legs were tired, anyway. He'd run and walked a long way. He closed his eyes, held the reins in his left hand and nursed his right wrist, laying a steadying hand on the back of the drooping body in front of him (this steadied his wrist as well – now he longed for the once-disdained splint).

When the horse broke into something of a trot, the Doctor realized that he had drifted off a bit but kept his seating and not lost his passenger, either. What he didn't immediately realize was that the horse hadn't taken him back to the place he'd escaped: they were approaching a barn about the size of the one the Doctor had fled, and he had to remind himself that the latter was now a pile of ashes and debris. There was pastureland by this barn too, and, a little ways off, a rather grand white frame vernacular house from which a petite black woman wearing a calico dress with no pinafore came running to greet the Doctor. She cried out when she saw the unconscious man. "Denny!" The Doctor dismounted and helped her to get the man off the horse and onto the grass. "What happened?" She sat down by Denny and put his head on her lap, stroking his face, holding his hand.

The Doctor shook his head. "I found him like that, in a swamp by a big lake. The horse knew where to take us."

"You're a good girl, Blossom." She stood up carefully. "Will you please help me get my husband into the house?"

"Gladly." Together they carried Denny into the house and laid him out on a pink velvet divan, upon which the woman then sat, indicating that the Doctor, as sooty and damp as he was, should sit on a nearby matching chair. He obliged, but removed his coat, hanging it on the back of the chair.

"It's because of me, isn't it?" said the woman, calmly. "Because of us." The Doctor looked at her uncomprehendingly. "Because I'm colored. We are not loved in this community."

"I'm sorry." What else could he say? Humans, he thought. Always finding ways to hurt each other. "I'm the Doctor," he finally thought to say. "Your husband does not appear to have been attacked. There's not a mark on him."

"Maybe a snake spooked Blossom and she threw him. She wouldn't do that on purpose. Would you mind terribly.… I can't leave Denny like this…. It's okay if she roams about but could you get her tack off and wipe her down? There's a rub rag in the barn."

"Of course."

"Thank you. My name's Lena Lopez, by the way. Denny and I are breaking the law here. He's the sheriff's nephew and that helps, but sometimes…."

"You'll have no trouble from me," said the Doctor. "I'll be back after I've taken care of Blossom… if that's all right."

"Yes, sir, please do come back."

The Doctor gave Blossom a good rub-down and, since he'd found a curry brush as well, a brushing that she seemed to enjoy. He kissed her on the cheek as well before returning to the house. She had, after all, rescued him from the alligator- and now that he thought about it, snake-infested swamp.

Lena hadn't moved. The Doctor sat back down in the chair that had his coat draped over the back. "All done," he said, as cheerfully as he could.

"He woke up," said Lena. "He knew me. He went back to sleep. He'll be okay."

"Ah, good." The Doctor didn't know whether to disturb either of them with the check he'd afforded A.J. He was exhausted, not so much by his physical exertion as by the trauma that had necessitated it, and he was also distracted by the distressing thought that everywhere he went lately, people got hurt. He knew he'd had nothing to do with Denny's fall from Blossom, and yet the thought persisted.

"I got a phone call," said Lena, "from my uncle-in-law."

"The sheriff."

"Yes. Someone burned down the Burtons' barn. Their prize chickens are all dead. They lost two cows as well." Her eyes were fixed upon the Doctor's face. "And the barn itself is gone." She did not avert her eyes; he averted his. "Is there anything you'd like to tell me?"

The Doctor looked back up at Lena and sighed. "I was held prisoner in that barn and my captor set it on fire. I barely escaped with my life. Quite frankly, had your husband not been thrown, I might not have found my way… I mean I might have been bitten by a snake or eaten by an alligator… or just drowned."

"Someone really doesn't like you!"

At this the Doctor had to laugh. "That's one way to put it!"

"Will he come here? I assume 'he….'"

"Yes, he, and no, I don't expect him here. At least for a while I think he will consider me dead. But I am a long way from home, and a long way from any way to get back home. I don't even know where I am, and you may find this strange, but I do also need to know the date."

"You're in Kissimmee, Florida, and the date is August 23." She hesitated. "It's Sunday. We went to church this morning. Then Denny said he wanted to visit his brother on the other side of Tiger Lake. It's still Kissimmee, but it's far. We have a truck but it's easier on horseback. Tony's the only member of his family who even talks to us. Anyway, Denny hadn't been gone all that long. I didn't really imagine anything was wrong. I suppose I should ring Tony to let him know what happened."

"About the date…. What year is this?"

"Oh my, you really are discombobulated! It is nineteen-fourteen." Upon the Doctor's relieved expression she added, "What year did you think it was?"

"I hoped it would be nineteen-fourteen. You never know. Please forgive me. I should be myself pretty soon, I think."

"Your coat is all sooty and singed. You're burned, yourself."

The Doctor was surprised to hear this. "Not badly, or I'd have noticed!"

"You could use some salve." Lena rose for the first time, gently laying her husband's head on a cushion. "Wait here. I have some."

The Doctor's layers of coat, jumper and shirt had protected him well; his burns were indeed minor, but Lena applied salve to all of them, including the rope burns. "Thank you," he said, hastening to put his shirt back on but spreading the jumper over his coat on the back of the chair. "It does worry me, you know, that your husband was out so long, from a fall. I didn't see a rock or anything he could have hit his head on, and no bump or cut at any rate. Why was he unconscious for the whole ride home? And I don't even know how long he'd been out before I stumbled upon him." Lena shook her head. "Would you mind if I examined him again? My first examination was only cursory."

"You are a doctor?"

"I am called the Doctor. That's how I am known. I am not a medical doctor but I do have some… abilities in that direction." Lena consented and the Doctor went to Denny and checked his eyes, felt his pulse, frowned, began to unbutton the unconscious man's shirt, untucking it from his jeans. Immediately he noticed the bruise across his stomach. "Oh dear," he said, as Lena, seeing it too, gasped. "Maybe he was attacked after all. There could be internal bleeding." He turned to her. "Do you have a regular doctor? Someone who could see him right away?"

"Doc Fitch. I'll call him right now." She hurried to the kitchen, to use the wall phone. The Doctor turned back to Denny, buttoning him up again. Then, just as he hadn't realized he'd been burned, he suddenly felt the impact of the heat and humidity, and was overcome with nausea and dizziness. He was already kneeling by Denny. When Lena returned from the kitchen to inform the Doctor that Doc Fitch was on his way, she found that the Doctor had slipped quietly to the floor and now lay there as inert as her husband.