Chapter Twenty-Five
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Courtney…are you okay?” Joe mumbled as he tried to gently move her body off his. “Courtney? Can you hear me?”
“Ohh…my ankle…my elbow,” she bleated. “And my neck. What the fuck happened?”
“The steps…they must be iced over.”
“I feel like I’ve been hit by a fucking train.”
“Easy does it,” he said, propping her up. “I’m going to get you into the car.”
“Okay, but…Joe…everything hurts.”
“I’m sure it does. Just wait a second.”
Not wanting to think how much worse it might have been if he hadn’t broken her fall, he stumbled the few steps to open the car door. Only then did he realize his right hand was scraped and bruised, and he could barely move his fingers. Trying to ignore the sudden, sharp pain, he cautiously returned to her and put his arm around her waist.
“Can you stand up?”
“I’m not sure. My ankle… it’s bad. I think I need to crawl,” she replied, trying to bend forward onto her hands and knees. “Yes, this will work.”
They slowly made it to the car, but as he helped her in she groaned loudly and tears sprang from her eyes. He was about to put her seat belt on, but worried about broken ribs he changed his mind. As he walked to the driver’s side, his hip protested, but it wasn’t terrible and he climbed behind the wheel.
“Courtney, you won’t like this, but I need to get you to the hospital.”
“No, no, you can’t. They’ll put me away forever. Just take me back to the cabin.”
“But you might have serious injuries.”
“I don’t care. Please, Joe. I swear, if I end up behind bars I’ll kill myself.”
“Okay, but only for the moment,” he replied with a heavy sigh, and with stabbing sensations piercing his hand he started up the car and rolled slowly down the driveway.
* * *
Moving Courtney into the cabin hadn’t been as difficult as Joe had feared. Once she was settled on the bed he turned the heat on high, gave her codeine and took one himself. Though his hand was excruciating, he managed to remove her clothes and cover her with blankets. But her ankle—already swelling and showing severe bruising—wasn’t her only injury. Her elbow looked almost as bad.
“Courtney, you really must see a doctor.”
“I realize that, I do, but there’s no way I’m going back to that hospital.”
“Wait, I have an idea,” he muttered, reaching for his phone. “Okay, here, I found two doctors listed in Smoky Hill. One of them has an emergency number. Maybe we’ll get lucky,” he muttered, urgently praying as he placed the call.
To his great joy and surprise, a groggy voice answered.
“Doctor Preston speaking.”
“I’m so sorry to bother you at this hour, and thank you for picking up. My name is Joe Meyer and I’m staying at the Moonshine Campground. My girlfriend just had a bad fall and she’s really suffering. I think she may have broken her ankle and elbow, they look terrible. Unfortunately she has a phobia about hospitals and won’t let me take her to the emergency room. I’m really worried. Money isn’t an issue. Is there any chance you could come and see her?”
“Uh…yeah…I’m not far from there. What’s your cabin number.”
“Five.”
“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
“Thank you, Doctor Prescott, thank you so much,” Joe exclaimed, shocked that the man had agreed.
“You mean he’s coming?” Courtney mumbled. “I can’t believe it.”
“Neither can I. Try not to worry. But now I have to come up with a plan for the morning. The sheriff will be banging on the door as soon as they find you gone.”
“Your hand…” she muttered, staring at it.
“Yeah. It’s not great. But right now all I can think about is how fucking lucky we are.”
“Lucky? You call this lucky?”
“Hell, yeah! You’re out of jail and there’s a doctor coming to help us in the middle of the night! The cup is half full, Courtney!”
“Oh, yeah, I see what you mean.”
“I’m going to get some cash so I have it ready.”
* * *
The doctor said they both needed X-rays and strongly recommended a visit to the hospital Emergency Room, but Courtney managed to placate him by promising to go in the morning.
Satisfied, he examined her, announcing her ankle was badly sprained but not broken, her elbow the same, and a couple of her ribs were bruised. After dressing all her injuries, he turned his attention to Joe’s battered left hand.
“This definitely needs an X-ray,” the doctor said solemnly. “I can wrap it, but you must visit a hospital and get it checked out. Are you right-handed?”
“I am.”
“Oh, dear. Don’t use it unless you have to. I’ll leave you some painkillers.”
“Courtney has codeine for her migraines and we’ve both had one.”
“Then I’ll just leave you the anti-inflammatories. You still haven’t told me how this happened.”
“We went to visit a friend and she lives up a flight of outside stairs. We were halfway up when Courtney slipped and fell into me. We both ended up falling down the steps to the bottom. Turns out our friend wasn’t even home. Anyway, thank you so much for coming. We’re very grateful,” Joe said earnestly as he walked the doctor to the door. “How much do we owe you?”
“Five hundred should cover it.”
“Here’s double that,” Joe declared, handing him an envelope. “Drive safely. That road might be just as slick as those steps.”
Waiting until the doctor left, Joe put the DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door before closing it, then returned to the bedroom, kicked off his shoes and laid down.
“Now what?” Courtney mumbled.
“Honestly, I can’t see us going anywhere just yet. You need a couple of days to recover a bit.”
“As much as I want to get the fuck out of here, I agree. But where can I hide?”
“Actually,” he murmured thoughtfully,“I have an idea.”