Chapter 31
— chapter thirty-one
It had started to rain. Lightly at first. Eventually—after a few minutes? maybe an hour?—the rain turned into a downpour. With her ankle still too swollen and sore to be of much use, Leanna had been unable to do much besides curl into a ball the best she could and close her eyes tightly.
The position might have helped retain a bit of body heat, but she had a feeling that even that small benefit had only been in her mind. The reality was that her skin had long since passed feeling chilled. It had burned for a while, then eventually went numb.
As time passed and the storm continued, Leanna felt as if her entire being—not just her body—had grown numb. It was a relief.
Until she allowed herself to think about the cause and effects of such numbness. Had something in her body shut off?
Or was the problem all in her head? Maybe her brain was foggy from when she hit her head after she fell. That was a distinct possibility.
As the hours passed, hopelessness and fear set in. Tears started to fall, mixing in with the raindrops, stinging her eyes. What was she going to do? What if she had to survive in these woods all night? It would be so unpleasant.
Reviewing her scattered thoughts, she had to laugh. Unpleasant was having the fabric of one’s dress stick to one’s back in the middle of summer. Or discovering the bread had mold on it.
Unpleasant was the knowledge that her husband not only had left all his dishes on the table but had moved to his favorite chair to “relax” after supper.
This? She didn’t know what this was, but it had far surpassed mere unpleasantness and veered into painful and scary territory.
“The problem is that you don’t know what to do,” she whispered to herself.
She frowned as she realized that verbalizing her reality didn’t help either. She didn’t know what would.
All she did know for sure and for certain was that she had to move. If she kept moving and kept searching, there was a good chance she would run into another hiker. Or a cabin. Something helpful.
Sitting up, she forced herself to get a better look at her injured ankle.
It was now rather black and blue and swollen to at least twice its normal size.
It was almost impossible to move. She had no idea how she was going to put any weight on it at all.
“Then don’t,” she told herself. “If you can’t use your ankle, use your knees to get to a better spot. ”
Deciding that she could follow her own advice, Leanna gingerly arranged herself to rest on her hands and knees and then finally forced herself to move toward a more secluded area. At the very least, it would give her some shelter from the rain.
She had no idea how long it took. She was weak, pain was radiating from her ankle, and the skirt of her dress felt like it weighed a hundred pounds. The fabric kept getting in the way of her knees and getting caught on rocks and twigs.
Just as the sky darkened, Leanna felt as if she’d gone far enough. Maybe she had, or maybe she hadn’t. All she knew was that she hadn’t given up hope.
“Don’t give up,” she muttered.
That was the last thought that ran through her mind as she descended into oblivion.
Hours later, a snap of a twig followed by the brush of wet leaves startled her awake.
Sitting up in shock, she attempted to get her bearings.
Luckily, all her senses seemed to ignite.
She could now smell the damp earth. The cloying scent of decay on the floor of the woods.
The sharp, more pungent undertone of an animal.
When she heard another snap, Leanna forced herself to stand. Her foot protested, delivering sharp needles up her leg.
But at least she was kind of on two feet.
Holding on to a tree for support, she squinted as best she could in the dark. Scanned her surroundings. Listened for footsteps. Braced for the worst. Maybe it was some scary person who wandered around in the woods.
Someone desperate, with nothing to lose.
As she imagined the worst, Leanna decided if that was the case, then she was going to have to fight them off. As helpless as she might be against most anyone at the moment, Leanna knew she was going to have to try. She couldn’t just sit helplessly and allow herself to be a victim.
Snap!
Turning around, she gasped. And came face-to-face with the sharp, inquisitive gaze of a raccoon.
“Oh my goodness,” she said around a gasp. “You scared me.”
The raccoon tilted its head, obviously attempting to understand why this strange creature was in its usual territory. “Sorry if I’m in your way,” she said. “I fear it couldn’t be helped.”
The animal made a soft clicking sound. Eyed her again. Edged forward. Leanna tensed, well aware of how sharp the seemingly innocent creature’s claws were. But when it looked behind her, it made a sharp hiss before it scurried away.
There was no telling what the little bandit had seen. All sorts of creatures no doubt came out in the middle of the night, and the worst predators didn’t have four legs.
“You need to move,” she told herself. “Even though you’re no doubt sick, your ankle is worse, and your head is pounding, you still haven’t climbed far enough from the creek.”
That, she decided, was the determining factor. She wasn’t completely positive, but she was pretty sure that the creek had risen since she’d first arrived. She could fight a lot of things, but she wouldn’t be able to last long if the creek flooded.
“Get to higher ground,” she muttered to herself.
She decided that that should be her mantra.
She was going to stop worrying about everything that was wrong and only think about moving.
Higher ground would be safer for her too.
It meant that she’d be able to see where she was, look for someone to help her, and maybe even locate someplace to wait that shielded her from the elements.
Luckily, the Lord was with her, because there seemed to only be one way to go.
Not up the hill that she’d climbed down.
Instead, across the creek toward a clearing in the woods.
Whether it was a man-made path or one made from the dozens of animals that traversed the area, she didn’t care.
All she cared about was that it was going to be easier to reach the top.
Now all she had to do was figure out where to cross. Sure, she was going to get even wetter, but what did it matter? She was already soaked to the skin.
It was the middle of the night, and few bands of light from the stars made it through the woods. But as her eyes adjusted, she knew that she could see enough to begin her journey.
A little farther down, the creek was still shallow. Probably only ankle- or calf-deep.
Every muscle in her body screamed in protest when she switched positions, but she ignored the pain. Focusing on the bad wouldn’t help her. Not even a little bit.
She’d learned that lesson after Willis passed.
He’d taken care of so many things that she’d been unaware about.
She’d had to learn how to pay their bills, balance their checkbook, and pay their taxes on her own.
Her first visit to their banker would’ve been comical if she hadn’t been so nervous.
But she’d done it. She’d grown stronger.
Eventually, she’d even begun to believe in herself.
“If you could learn to make sense of Willis’s ledgers, you can do this too,” she told herself. “All you have to do is get to higher ground. Just concentrate on getting safe. That’s it. Just that one thing.”
She kept repeating those words as she forced her body to move. Reminded herself that while her ankle was useless, her knees were okay. She could crawl.
And so she did.
Inch by inch, muscle by muscle, she forced herself to shift, get on her knees, and crawl to the shallow section of the creek. In no time, her hands were coated with mud and slime from the creek’s banks and her knees felt bruised from coming in contact with the sticks and rocks lining the banks.
But still she moved.
It may have taken her an hour to move down the three feet. She didn’t know. It didn’t matter. All that did was that she was finally doing something to free herself.
To her surprise, she felt as if she was also releasing all the bonds and fears that had been holding her back in life. “Danke, Gott,” she whispered. He was reminding her yet again that she wasn’t alone.