Chapter 16 Kit #2
“It hurts too much to straighten out.”
“I know, sweetheart,” I said gently, “but please show me anyway.”
He fought back a moan as he rolled onto his back, his beautiful face contorted in agony. “It all hurts,” he whispered.
“Where is it the worst?”
He raised a shaky hand and held it over his belly button. But then he shifted it down and to the right. Fear shot through me as I blurted, “We have to go to the hospital. Now.”
He curled up again and asked, “Why?”
“Because I’m pretty sure it’s your appendix. If it ruptured, or if it’s about to, it could kill you.” I ran and grabbed our coats and boots, and after I put mine on, I said, “Sit up, baby.”
“We can’t go anywhere,” he mumbled. “We’re snowed in.”
“I’m getting you to the main road, even if I have to carry you.”
He cried out in pain when I helped him sit up. Somehow, I managed to get his feet into his boots and his arms into his coat. Then I let him rest for a minute while I ran and found our car keys.
The walk to the garage felt like an eternity, even though it was attached to the house. He was doubled over and moaning in pain. I tried my best to support him as he leaned on me heavily. Finally, I got him into the passenger seat and reclined it for him. He curled back into a ball.
I hurried around the van and hit a button on the wall. When the garage door opened, it revealed a four-foot wall of snow.
Panic welled up in me, but when I ran over and pushed at the wall, some of it fell into the driveway. The snow beyond the drift that had built up against the house was half as deep. That wasn’t great, but it seemed slightly less impossible.
I slid behind the wheel and turned to look at Devon. His complexion was almost gray, and his face was covered in a sheen of sweat. He wasn’t unconscious, but he didn’t exactly seem lucid, either.
I took a deep breath and fastened his seatbelt over him.
As I put mine on, I tried to psych myself up and gather some confidence.
I didn’t have a license, but I’d been taught how to drive in my teens.
I was scared to try it now, especially since I’d never driven in snow, and we didn’t have chains for the tires.
Since it was a couple of feet deep, I was pretty sure we’d get stuck if we came to a stop.
It was going to be slippery, too. What if we crashed?
This was probably a terrible idea, but I had to try, for Devon’s sake.
The private road was maybe half a mile long, and the first part was fairly straight. I’d deal with the sharp curves at the end when we got to them. I started the engine, but then it took me a minute to find the headlights. It was probably five p.m., but it was already dark out.
Once I figured out how to turn on the lights, I threw it into gear, and the van lurched forward. The jolt when we hit the snow drift made Devon cry out in pain. I whispered, “Sorry, baby,” and slammed the gas pedal.
We started to slide as soon as we were on the snow, but we were moving forward, too. As long as I didn’t stop, this might work.
My heart was racing as we barreled down the road, fishtailing every few feet. Wet clumps of snow landed on the windshield, smearing when I turned on the wipers. All the while, I kept up an internal chant. Don’t stop. Don’t stop. Don’t stop.
We might have made it, if it wasn’t for the curves near the end of the road. I managed to make it around the first one, but rounding the second bend sent us sliding sideways. I turned the wheel frantically, but it was no use.
When we finally stopped sliding, we’d left the road and landed nose-down in a ditch. I tried backing us out, but the wheels spun uselessly.
I got out, ran around to the passenger side, and flung the door open.
“We have to walk to the main road, baby,” I told Devon, as I tried to help him out of the van.
He fell to the ground and curled into a ball.
I tugged at him as I begged, “Please, baby, I need you to come with me. I love you so much, Devon. Please don’t give up. ”
He struggled to his feet with the last of his strength, and I supported him with his arm around my shoulders as we began to slog through knee-deep snow. This felt impossible, but I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t let him stop, either. His voice was weak when he whispered, “It hurts.”
“I know, baby. I’m so sorry. But you’re stronger than you know, and you can do this. Take one step at a time. I think the main road is right around that next bend. We have to keep going.”
My leg muscles were burning. Every step was an effort. I wanted to cry, but I wasn’t going to give up. Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, we rounded the corner and sure enough, up ahead was the highway. I whispered, “Thank god.”
The road had been plowed, creating a wall of dirty snow on both sides.
Instead of making him climb over it, I helped Devon sit down, leaning him against a tree as I said, “Wait here. I’m going to get us some help.
” I took off my coat and tucked it over him like a blanket before scrambling over the wet, slippery barrier.
It was a full minute before a car appeared.
I tried to flag it down as I yelled, “Please, I need help!” It didn’t even slow down.
Another minute or two ticked by. When another car appeared, I yelled even louder and waved my arms. It shot right past me.
I caught a glimpse of the driver on the way by. He looked alarmed.
This was taking way too long, and I’d left Devon alone. He must be so scared. I needed to get him help, and I needed it now.
When a huge semi-truck appeared over the crest of the hill, I ran into the middle of the road, threw my arms in the air, and held my breath. My heart pounded as air brakes squealed.
The truck came to a stop a few feet from me, and a woman stuck her head out of the window and yelled, “That’s a good way to get yourself run over, kid!”
“Please help me! My boyfriend is really sick, and I have to get him to a hospital!”
Why would she believe me? That sounded like a scam or an attempted hijacking, especially since Devon was nowhere to be seen.
She ducked back inside and said something to whoever was with her. Then she leaned out the window again and asked, “Where is he?”
I pointed, my voice shaking as I said, “Over there. I crashed our van into a ditch. Please help him. I love him so much, and I don’t want him to die.”
I sobbed with relief when she pulled the truck to one side of the road and hopped out of the cab.
She was probably in her early fifties with short, blonde hair and a lot of tattoos.
A moment later, a second woman with dark, curly hair climbed out of the truck.
As they approached me, I said, “I’m not trying to rob you or anything, I promise. ”
“Yeah, we figured as much.”
They followed me over the snowbank, and I hurried ahead of them and called, “I’m coming, Devon! I got us some help.”
He was barely conscious by the time I reached him. I pressed my hand to his forehead and said, “He’s burning up.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“I’m pretty sure his appendix either burst or is about to.”
“That’s really serious,” the brunette said. “Mine ruptured a few years ago. Worst pain of my life. Worse than childbirth.”
Between the three of us, we managed to carry him to the truck and settle him into the sleeping compartment. “I’m Marlene,” the brunette said, as she covered Devon with a blanket, and as the blonde put the truck in gear.
“I’m Kit, and this is Devon.”
“Don’t you worry, Kit. My wife Stacey and I are going to get you to the hospital in no time at all.”
She laughed when I whispered, “Thank god. Lesbians.”
On the drive, I stroked Devon’s hair and talked to him reassuringly. It seemed like he was drifting in and out of consciousness. I was terrified, but I didn’t let him know that. Instead, I kept telling him I loved him and promising him everything was going to be okay.
Stacey called ahead and told them what was happening, so when we pulled into the hospital parking lot sometime later, several nurses and doctors were waiting with a stretcher.
I followed them inside and tried to go with him when they wheeled Devon down the hall, but a nurse told me, “You need to wait here. We can’t help him if you’re in the way. ”
I felt utterly lost as I watched the man I loved disappear through a pair of double doors. But then, my new friends appeared. Marlene draped a puffy red coat over my shoulders, and Stacey said, “You did all you could for him, kid. The doctors can take it from here.”
I turned to her with tears in my eyes. “Thank you so much for everything. Two cars drove right by me, and I can see why, because I must have seemed unhinged. I know you had to stop because I was in the middle of the road and you didn’t want to squish me, but you didn’t have to help.”
“Of course we did,” Marlene said, as she guided me to the waiting room. “As soon as Stacey told me there was a soggy little gay boy out in the road, I knew we were going to do whatever it took to help you.”
“Did you know I was gay just by looking at me?”
Stacey grinned at that. “I knew you were gay because you told me your boyfriend was sick.” She gestured at a row of chairs and said, “Have a seat while I go find you some hot coffee. You look like you’re frozen half to death.”
I hadn’t even noticed I was shivering, or that my T-shirt and jeans were soaking wet. I stuck my arms into the ski jacket’s sleeves, zipped it up, and tucked my numb hands into the pockets. Then I made myself sit down, and Marlene took a seat beside me.
I was full of nervous energy though, and my knee kept bouncing. After a minute, I asked, “Would appendicitis or a ruptured appendix happen that fast? He started feeling sick yesterday.”
“There’s no one size fits all with medical stuff,” she said.
“With me, I thought I had the stomach flu for three days before the pain got really intense and I realized it was my appendix. It had already ruptured by the time I went to the hospital. A friend of mine had almost no warning. She thought she was fine in the morning, and she was having an emergency appendectomy that night. We probably won’t know what’s happening with your boyfriend or just how bad it is until they get him into surgery. ”
After a while, I whispered, “I’m so scared. I should have gotten him here sooner, but I didn’t know what was wrong at first. What if I waited too long? What if—”
“No, don’t say it. You need to think positive.”
“You’re right.”
I shut my eyes and took a deep breath as I tried to make sense of what had happened. It really seemed like Devon had been right about a curse. He’d definitely think that now, although the timing of this could have just been a weird coincidence. That was the far more likely explanation.
Ultimately though, only one thing mattered. I needed him to be okay.