Chapter 13
Scorched Earth
Blaze
Waking up in a hospital room was not for the faint of heart.
My eyes were moving slower than my mind.
My reflexes felt subdued, as if I was tied to the bed.
Then, I saw the large cast on my leg. I couldn’t miss it, covered in pins, holding it all together.
It appeared from the bandages that I’d had surgery.
My throat felt like I had sand for my last meal.
There were cords, and machines, and beeping noises all around me.
In one movement of my hand, a nurse sauntered in, carrying a clipboard.
There was a part of me that wished I had a nurse that was my age…
before dismissing that idea in my mind immediately.
Here I was, lying in a hospital bed, and I was disappointed I didn’t have a nurse my age?
My priorities were clearly a little skewed.
“Glad to have you join us,” she said, writing down notes on her clipboard. Don walked in next, along with my mom.
“Who—” I tried to speak, but my throat was absolutely raw.
“Shh,” my mom said, looking back at Don with a concerned look. Don nodded.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he told me.
“You want to know who is monitoring the fire if I’m here.
” That was exactly what I was thinking. I nodded to the best of my ability.
“Craig has taken over, and the fire is being transferred to a larger command unit. After that tree fell, we discovered almost all of them had hollowed-out trunks, and it’s just a matter of time before that place looks like it was trampled by giants.
” My mother smirked at his comment. They had always had a great relationship and friendly humor between them.
And they had always taken each other's side.
“Water,” I whispered, which I discovered felt better. My mom reached for a glass of water and handed it to me. I drank the whole glass, and it felt like there was a fire extinguished in my throat.
“You’ve just had surgery, so your throat is probably torn up from the intubation.
I hope you don’t get uvulitis. Your dad used to get that after surgery.
That’s the scariest thing ever to see. Do you remember that, Don?
” He shrugged and looked at her with confusion.
“You know that thing in the back of your throat that looks like a punching bag?” Don nodded.
“It swells up for some. Dave couldn’t speak for a week.
” Don grabbed his neck with his hands and groaned.
“That does ring a bell, now that you say it.” The thought gave me shivers.
“I think I just really needed some water,” I said, slowly. Still able to speak. Still thirsty, and hoping for a refill, but I hated to ask others for help.
“Let me get you some more, dear.” My mom took the cup from my hand and left the room.
“I’m sorry, Don,” I said, feeling a hot wave of pain move through my leg. Don shook his head profusely.
“You have nothing to be sorry about. You pushed Misty out of the way and survived to talk about it. Your leg, on the other hand…” He trailed off, holding on to the railing of my bed and looking it up and down.
“You can’t walk on this thing for a while.
And I don’t know if you’ll ever ride horses again.
They had to put pins all throughout it just to hold it together.
It’s a miracle it was just your leg. If it had been any more to the left, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.
” Don looked a little bleary-eyed as he grabbed my hand, his on top of mine for a moment.
I closed my eyes and thought of my dad standing at the other side of the bed. But with Don, my dad was still here.
“Thank you for being here for me,” I said, suddenly feeling very groggy. My eyelids felt heavy, my limbs like Jello. A feeling of calmness washed over my body when I realized the nurse must have dosed me with something while she was in here a few moments ago.
“You just need to rest now, Blaze. Your mom and I will be waiting right here for you when you wake up.” I smiled at the thought.
The two people I loved most in the world, waiting for me together.
Before I dozed off completely, I imagined that I had someone else here, too.
Someone whom I hadn’t met yet. I’d prayed for a wife a few times before, asking God to send me my person when He was ready.
When I was ready. I would wait as long as it took, if I could have been so fortunate.
My eyes closed once again, and I drifted off to sleep, wondering if it was in His plan, and if so, what she would be like.
*****
Five days in the hospital was no easy feat. Between long stretches of sleeping, that felt like I was waking up from a coma each time, to endless visitors. Misty was one of the last to stop by as my stay was coming to an end.
I was alone in the room when she arrived, wringing her hands together. My mom had stepped out to see about getting lunch, as we were all tired of the hospital cafeteria. Misty was looking at the ground, but when she finally did make eye contact, she looked like she hadn’t slept in quite some time.
“Blaze…” She started in. Misty had beautiful pale eyes that I couldn’t tell if they were green or blue.
Her black hair only made this feature more pronounced on her.
While she was a colleague of mine, there was something about this moment in time that made me wonder if there was more to this.
More to Misty. Could God have caused this to happen for bigger reasons?
Of course. Could that reason be something to do with Misty?
That, I didn’t know. Why was she here, now?
Not romantically—I never saw Misty as anything more than a friend. But perhaps this situation could also lead her to new beginnings? Lead her to Jesus? The pull in my heart to speak to her about Jesus was suddenly overwhelming.
“Misty?” I asked, prompting her to say the reason she was here.
I was helpless in this bed, unable to walk, unable to move.
The feeling in my foot had returned. I could wiggle my toes, but not without excruciating pain.
I was going to recover. Doctors said that I would walk again and sooner than I had expected.
I could return to normal life. One, a cowboy himself, thought that horseback riding wasn’t out of the question either, if I was willing to put in the work in physical therapy.
“I’m just so sorry, Blaze.” Her eyes pierced my heart as tears started welling in them. I shook my head.
“This isn’t your fault, Misty. All of those trees were rotten.
We knew they were going to come down, but why that one did at that very second is a mystery.
And it was God’s grace that we all survived.
God is good.” It wasn’t the grand speech I was hoping to make, but my mind felt like it was covered in clouds.
Misty wiped her eyes, and I caught a glimpse of a gold band on her ring finger.
A piece of jewelry I had never noticed before on the left hand. She saw me glance at it and smiled.
“My husband thanks you for saving my life,” she said, as she waved a tall man into the room.
The man looked older than Misty by a considerable amount.
He had dark eyes to her light. Light hair to her dark.
A smile to her tears. He put his arm around her tenderly and reached out his other hand to shake mine.
“Thank you, Blaze.” His voice sounded like it came from the bellows of the earth. Like a voice you’d hear on a late-night podcast, recanting tales told around a campfire. I could almost smell the burnt marshmallows as I started feeling drowsy again.
We chatted idly for a few minutes about my injury, the outlook and rehab for it, when Misty brought up a scenario I hadn’t considered.
“What will you do for work, in the meantime?” A scenario by all accounts that I hadn’t wanted to consider just yet.
Sure, the prospect was in the back of my mind, but I knew that I could always stay with my mom, or Don.
I could lay low for a season. I had never been much of a spender, and all of my free time was spent outdoors.
There weren’t many credit card machines or things to buy in nature.
I had the freedom to take this year off, but the thought of doing so was giving me a serious case of FOMO.
Don walked in at that very moment and answered the question for me.
“He’s going to man the dispatch lines,” Don said, putting his hands on his hips before shaking hands with Misty’s husband.
“Turns out, Stephanie is ready to retire. She’s wanting to spend the rest of her days at home with her horses.
She just adopted a pregnant mare, and she plans to start a YouTube channel documenting ‘baby horses’.
” His use of air quotes always made me laugh because he never bent his fingers.
I was pleased to find I could finally laugh without my throat hurting.
“That sounds perfect,” Misty laughed, and told Don she would see him around. She gave my hand that was resting on the railing of the bed a squeeze before she left.
“What was that about, Don?” I asked, considering Misty acted like she was saying her goodbyes.
“Misty is leaving, too.” I groaned, as Don walked over to my side and looked at my leg up and down. “You okay? Want me to call the nurse in again?” I shook my head.
“No, my leg is fine. The pain is managed. I’m just so bummed that not only am I out for the season, but you’re down another hotshot.” Don shrugged, followed by a smile.
“I got three more guys joining the crew next week. Transfers from Montana. Don’t worry, kid.
We will get these fires whipped into shape.
Other than the prescribed fire that you were on...
” Don paused, like he couldn’t even bring himself to say that I was hurt on it.
“We haven’t had any other fire activity.
Yet.” As if on cue, the radio clipped to Don’s belt went off, the volume of it so high, it was ringing in my ears.
“Dispatch to Maple Haven Fire District, possible smoke sighting from Tower Three, copy.”