“Uh oh spagetthi-o.” Bridget's little sister Hannah was staring at the lack of rocks ahead of her. They were playing the lava game, where everything but the rocks was lava, and Hannah was stuck at the moment.
“Airplane to the rescue!” Bridget lifted her up making airplane noises as she maneuvered Hannah to the next far away rock and set her down gently. Hannah continued to hopscotch from rock to rock. The next rock was a reach, but Hannah leapt for it. She slipped, and landed on her bottom, her dress flailing out around her. She promptly burst into tears. Bridget rushed over. “Hannah, are you ok?”
“I…” Hannah gasped between sobs. “I’m in the laaavaaa,” she wailed. Bridget couldn’t stop herself from laughing. Hannah wasn’t crying because she fell, she was crying because she lost the lava game.
“But, the airplane will rescue you!” she said, lifting Hannah off the ground and setting her back on her feet. “Now the rocks are the lava, and the dirt is safe.” Bridget grabbed the sniffling Hannah’s hand and led her up the trail, navigating around all the rocks. Soon Hannah had wiped her nose off on her sleeve, a habit that repeated reprimanding had not broken, and was running ahead on the trail, dodging the rocks. Bridget smiled seeing Hannah run along the trail in her muddy pink dress and scuffed miniature hiking boots.
Hannah stopped and stood still. “Bridget?” she said.
“Yeah?” Bridget responded, running up to Hannah’s side.
Hannah pointed.“Is he supposed to be like that?” Hannah asked. Bridget followed her finger and saw a man lying on his stomach, splayed out, unmoving, a few feet from the trail.
“S***,” Bridget said under her breath. “No Hannah, he’s not,” she said. She stared at the man, not knowing what to do. Thoughts rushed through her head. Do I approach him? Is it safe? What do I do? She thought back to the Wilderness First Aid training she’d taken a few years ago. She couldn’t remember much of it; besides, she had never renewed it, so she probably wasn’t allowed to do anything. She shook as she stared at the man.
“Is he going to be okay? Can the airplane rescue him?” Hannah’s voice quivered.
Bridget glanced down at Hannah, “I don’t know Hannah.”
They stared at the man, hoping he would move. He remained motionless. With his face in the dirt, they could see the sweat stains on his blue shirt, clinging to his youthful back, mud-caked running shoes tied snugly to his feet. Adrenaline rushed through Bridget as she stood with Hannah, trying to decide what to do.
Find a pulse, Her brain told her, and then call 911. She approached the man carefully, gesturing to Hannah to stay back, and knelt down next to him. She slid her fingers tentatively onto his neck. It was moist with sweat, and warm, he can’t have been here long, she thought as she searched for a pulse. At first she couldn’t find it, and it freaked her out. She took a deep breath, felt for a pulse on her own neck, and then slid her fingers back onto his neck in the same spot, pressing gently until she found one, a faint beat, but a steady one. She let out a shaky relieved laugh.
“He’s alive Hannah!” she said turning towards her sister, standing wide eyed and silent behind her. “He’s going to be okay,” she said, trying to reassure herself as much as Hannah. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed 911, crossing her fingers for service.
It rang once, “Hello, you have reached 911. Please answer my questions thoroughly and clearly” the voice on the other end of the line said.
“Okay,” said Bridget.
“Where are you and what is the nature of your emergency?”
“There is an unconscious man about half a mile from the Galloping Goose trailhead. He has a pulse but is not waking up. I am not currently first aid certified. I can’t see any blood, but I don’t know. There is nothing that looks dangerous about him or about the surrounding area, when can they get here?” Bridget rushed what she had to say.
“Okay, ” said the voice. “Please stay calm and try to focus on what I am saying.” The voice guided her through the rest of the information she had to give, told her when to expect the medical personnel and gave her instructions on what to do in the mean time. The call was as short as the three digits of its number promised.
After she hung up, she stood, and walked towards Hannah, who had plopped down to silently watch the whole scene unfold, different from her usual high-energy chatter box self. Bridget sat down next to Hannah and pulled her into a silent embrace as they stared at the man waiting for the medical personnel to get there. She could feel her heart beating against Hannah’s tiny shoulder. She thought of how she would always come up with scenarios in her head - the “what if’s?” she called them. What if she or Hannah got injured? What if there was a bear? What if this? What if that? But never had she expected that a what if would come true. Hannah shifted out of Bridget’s embrace and pointed to the man.
“He just did something,” she whispered to Bridget.
Bridget looked up sharply, but the man was lying still just as he had been since they got there. “Are you sure Hannah?” she asked. Hannah nodded solemnly. They both looked at the man until he moved his head a little. It made Bridget jump. “See?” Hannah said in an I told you so voice. Bridget didn’t know what to do. This was a good sign; it meant he wasn’t going to pass away while she and Hannah sat there. She didn’t know if she should help him.
“Hello?” she said tentatively, not knowing what else to say.
He made a noise, and shifted, rolling onto his side. They could see his face now. Flaked with the dirt he’d been lying in, it was young, no more than a few years older than Bridget’s. He had a face that looked as if it could never grow a beard no matter how hard he tried, and long lashes, that blinked and revealed green eyes flecked with brown; lucid, but in obvious pain. He made a another noise, obviously out of pain. “Oh.” He tried to press himself up to a seated position, but his face collapsed with pain.
He hadn’t noticed them yet, so Bridget stood up and walked down to where the man was, touching his shoulder gently, trying not to startle him.
“Stay awake, I know it hurts, but please, please keep your eyes open,” she told him. Asking if he was okay, or if it hurt would have been a silly thing to say. All she wanted was for this mysterious man to be okay. He gave the slightest nod, wincing as he did so. She helped him sit up slowly, pain drawn across his young features. It was funny how this man trusted her: he woke up to a stranger in the woods. He was obviously in extreme pain, yet he trusted her to support and help him. She wondered if it hurt his pride having someone see him in this much pain, or even if he had pride at this point. It took him a few minutes, just sitting there, working through his pain, trying to grasp his situation, to support himself, and to keep his lucid eyes open as Bridget had instructed him to do.
“What happened?” He asked.
“You were unconscious. I called 911,” Bridget said, “I didn’t know if-” she stopped. “I didn’t know when you’d wake up.” She cut herself off at the if. She didn’t want to think of the instant before she could find his pulse, before he had stirred, when the scariest what if of all had entered her head.
The man grinned as his thoughts and whereabouts came into focus, “So you’re telling me that I wiped out on my run, and woke up to the site of two pretty girls?”
Bridget laughed, “It’s a little ridiculous” she said.
“It’s a little awesome!” he exclaimed, wincing because his injury could not accommodate his excitement. She wondered what kind of person wakes up after being unconscious for who knows how long with a smile. It was quite impressive, and, she didn’t think normal. He turned to face her with effort. She was still helping to hold him up in a seated position. The man wasn’t big, but she wasn’t either, so it took some effort. “I’m Shua by the way, short for Joshua,” he said, nodding.
Hannah marched right up to him and stuck out her hand. “Hannah,” she said, looking him in the eye. “You were scary.”
His eyes twinkled as he shook hands with her. He turned to Bridget. “And you are…?”
“Bridget,” she said. “Sister to this crazy one,” she gestured to Hannah.
“Hey. I’m not crazy!” Hannah said defiantly.
“I’m the crazy one,” Shua said. “I’m the one who wiped out on a trail run.”
“Yeah, that takes some extreme skill,” said Bridget dryly. As she said this, they could hear the rescuers coming up the trail. As they watched a team of medical personnel rounded the corner, and Bridget thought what a funny site they must look. A girl holding up a grinning, in pain man while a little girl in a pink dress and hiking boots conversed animatedly with him. Shua was not a person she would forget anytime soon. As if reading her thoughts on him, Shua winked at her as the medical personnel approached.