Chapter 26
Catalina
"Oh my God. Trey! Trey, baby, are you okay?” She shouted, rushing toward him.
His skin was clammy and pale, looking as though he were about to pass out.
Jubilation, in realizing they were rescued, faded when seeing how hurt her husband was. This wasn't how things were supposed to work out. They were just meant to be saved and then live happily ever after.
Hearing Trey struggling with the chimp was almost more than she could stand.
Catalina was about to say screw the whole oatmeal plan because what was the point of being rescued if it was just her?
She preferred to live the rest of her life small and insignificant, being forced to survive on iguana kitchen scraps and sleeping in a seashell, rather than for Trey to sacrifice himself in order for her to be a normal height but have a life without him.
Also, Buddy was making her furious. Right when she was about to toss aside the dried oat flake in her hand and start ripping out chimp hairs, a shadow overtook her.
Someone peered down exactly where Catalina was!
She waved the oat to catch any attention, jumping up and down.
“Over here! I’m here! I’m here!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.
A relieved sob ripped from her throat when the eyes locked on her.
Oh God, she’d been seen! Trey’s plan had worked!
Her husband, screaming in pain, returned her attention to their current situation, and if anyone could save him in a hurry, it was the giant woman towering over them.
“Over there! Look over there!” Dropping the oat, she flung both her arms toward Trey’s direction, hoping to put the spotlight on him and end this once and for all.
She then sprinted toward them, seeing the chimp screech in fear as the tip of a fingernail effortlessly knocked him away.
He rolled across the floor, panicked ape noises filling the air.
“Trey!” Fear gripped her heart at the sight of blood. His shoulder appeared to have been gnawed on, the skin ripped, and his shirt in shreds.
“No, get away. I don’t want you to get hurt.” He pushed her back, not realizing Buddy had already scampered away, sounding annoyed about the whole situation. The animal turned one final time, showed all his teeth in a fearful grimace before flipping them off, and raced under a tablecloth.
“Wow,” said her husband, sounding punch-drunk. “You’re so badass. You’re the most badass person I’ve ever known. I love you so much.”
“Trey. Trey, listen to me.” She did her best to press on his wound, feeling helpless. “The plan worked. She saw us.”
“She did?”
“Yes. So I need you to hang in there. Can you get up?”
He struggled to his feet, swaying with unsteadiness once he was standing. Catalina did her best to support his weight as much as she could.
“That chimp is the worst,” he said. “I don’t understand why they’re always shown to be nice and friendly, like they’re the comedians of the animal world. It’s such a scam.”
“Uh-huh,” she replied, wanting to keep him talking while brushing his hair away from his sweaty forehead. “Well, maybe some of them are nice. That one is definitely an asshole.”
He huffed a small laugh. “Oh my God. The biggest asshole ape there ever was. I bet the other chimps hate him. My shoulder really hurts.”
“I know, baby. But we’re going to get you fixed up. It’ll be okay.” She did her best to give some kind of signal to the woman, praying that she did have the ability to help them.
“What are we waiting for?”
“Hopefully, a ride.” She didn’t know how this was going to work, but they needed to get out of here. Catalina didn’t want her husband to keep suffering. Seeing him hurt and not being able to do much of anything was awful.
When a hand lowered beside them, palm side up, the biggest sense of relief passed through her chest. The woman hadn’t forgotten them, and they were rescued.
Catalina helped push her husband onto the palm before climbing up herself.
She was so worn out, her emotions frayed past the point of caring about being in the air again.
Her fear of flying was nowhere to be found.
During their ride, she noticed her husband had stopped grimacing and complaining about the pain, going quiet as he fell into one of the creases of the woman’s palm, his skin dotted with perspiration, becoming paler.
“Trey? Trey! You better talk to me!” His shoulder continued bleeding, and Catalina ripped off her cover-up dress. She cringed while pressing it to his wound, hating she didn’t have a cleaner option, but it seemed better than using her hands.
Her husband’s eyes cracked open. “Oh yeah, there’s that sexy bikini again.”
“This thing is probably the furthest thing from sexy right now.”
“Reason number twenty.” He winced before giving her a grin. “Disgusting or not, I’ll still find you sexy.”
“I feel like you’ve already used that one. But who cares because I feel the same way. Trey, you have to stick around because I’m going to marry you again, remember?”
“Uh-huh. Buddy is going to be my best man…ape…whatever.”
“Like hell he is. You’re not allowed to hang out with him anymore.”
“Would you say he has a big chimp on his shoulder?”
All she could do was laugh through her tears. “I changed my mind. You’re the worst.”
It took forever to get to where they were going. Catalina was so focused on her husband she almost forgot there was a person on the other end of the hand. She jumped out of her skin when a booming voice echoed around her with the words, “Get on the table. I’ll get something.”
She dragged Trey up again, and they walked to the end of the hand before sliding off the edge onto a cherry wood-colored surface. He fell to the ground, releasing another pained groan.
Catalina motioned toward her husband’s shoulder. “We need help! He’s bleeding!” She pleaded with the universe that the woman would understand her.
The woman disappeared for a short time before returning.
Catalina was relieved when she pulled out supplies, first snapping the lid off a water bottle, setting the cap nearby, and filling it with water.
The woman set down a large folded section of soft paper.
Catalina helped her husband so he could rest on it instead of having to lie on the hard surface of a table.
Touching it and being able to rip off portions, she realized it was the same consistency as a paper napkin. Catalina could use this.
She wasn't able to drink directly from the water bottle cap easily because of the height, but she could reach into it.
Using a torn off section from the napkin, she soaked up the water in order to squeeze the cool liquid into her mouth and then Trey's.
Then she repeated this process to clean Trey's wound as best she could, trying to be gentle as he groaned. "You're going to be okay now."
"It really hurts," Trey said, not bothering to hide the pain and attempting to breathe through it.
"As soon as we get you back to normal, we can get him help," the woman's voice echoed overhead. "But we have to travel. The equipment isn't here anymore. We have to go where it is."
"Go where?" Catalina shouted to no response.
At least they were safe, and they had someone looking out for them.
After cleaning Trey's wound, a mass of some jelly-like substance was put on the table with the explanation it was first aid ointment.
The giant woman then cut up a bandage with cuticle scissors, the pieces fluttering around the couple.
Catalina gathered pieces of the gauze, wrapping Trey's shoulder and using a sticky portion of the bandage to hold everything in place.
While he remained pale and in pain, the bleeding had slowed, and it was an improvement.
Their rescuer chatted endlessly about scientific things.
Catalina didn't have the bandwidth to pay attention, and it wasn't as if they could have a real conversation. It mostly felt like Sasha, she’d finally said her name, was fine having a one-sided conversation as though it was a way to calm herself as she flitted about the room and played with her glasses in her hands.
She did mention she had a pain reliever, crushing a single pill on the table.
Catalina found the best crumb, one that was about the same size as a pill based on their current height, and gave it to Trey.
Having food, water, and countless assurances from Sasha that she was going to help fix this and she'd figure everything out, Catalina could finally breathe.
She wrapped some of the paper napkin around her and Trey as she tried to delicately curl into his uninjured side and hoped their nightmare vacation would come to an end soon.