The Oldest Trick

Chapter Three
In the journey's of...Dave Penhaligan

     Jade stood in the middle of the living room a few minutes trying to think. This was not her idea of a fun situation. The two of them were stranded in an old cabin isolated from the nearest village. For the most part, buried in snow. The lights were now gone…for how long, who knew. There was just enough firewood within the corner to burn until the morning, Dave had been right, they would definitely need more. Jade had never chopped wood in her life. And the biggest problem of all…Dave lay on the sofa sleeping, as his body slowly took infection from his wound through out it.

      One hand on her hip, the other covering her forehead, she muttered softly, aloud…”I gotta think? What am I going to do here? First things first…I have to find something for him to fight off that infection. God! Help me here? Please…this is serious.” She moaned a little prayer. The snow was still falling relentlessly  in thick flakes.

      “Oh Dave, why didn’t you get that prescription filled? What am I gonna do?” She turned from the window and did a slow surveillance of the room. The cabin was neat although dusty. She could see that Dave couldn’t have lived there long. Under different circumstances, once cleaned and fully dusted, the cabin be an ancient cozy den perfect for two. The ceiling had the old beams, and the walls bare stone. Every room – all of three downstairs; the kitchen nook open to the living room, and the wood store/mud room, had a fireplace, or…black wrought iron wood burner. Upstairs, the bedroom, bathroom and spare room had the same. She had to decide if they would stay in that room, or move upstairs to the bedroom and spare room. Staying downstairs would mean burning more wood because all of the heat would escape upstairs, making them burn more to keep warm. Whereas, if they moved upstairs, and burned there…they would use less wood while staying warm. Decision made, on step one, Jade moved into action to carry out the first part of her plan of survival…although the other part still had to be worked out.

       “Dave…Dave…wake up Dave…I’m moving us upstairs. Come on big man…wake up!” She gently shook him. He mumbled and made no move to comply. “Dave! I need you to wake up! I need you to work with me here…Just this once move… so please – that’s it…wake now…come on, up you go. That’s right. Sit up, arm over my shoulder, good – good, now lean towards me. I got you…but when I go to stand, I really need you to come up with me…I’m afraid I can’t do this alone… you’re just too heavy…you hear me Dave? Do you hear me? Dave?”

       Dave gave a weak nod…he was no longer sweating…but he was burning up. Jade was growing more nervous by the moment. “Okay, on the count of three… we’ll stand together. One…Two…Three…” She leaned forward in an attempt to stand with him locked to her side. But he wasn’t ready yet, his weight pulled her back. Taking a deep breath to summon up strength, she counted again…asking if he were ready this time, he gave a slow nod. Again she tried, and they made it up off the sofa but Jade had to jump in front of Dave, because he was continuing forward where he would land on his face if she didn’t use her body to block him. “Oh my God you’re heavy. We’ll just stand here until you’re steady on your feet. I can’t afford to let you fall.” She stood with him pressed heavily against her. He stood a good bit taller than her 5ft. 6in. She figured he was close to 6ft. – less by not much. And heavy…he was solid, easily 14 to 15 stones.  “Okay Dave, I’m going to shift back under your left arm, I can’t stand here holding you much longer, we better get moving. You ready?” He nodded and she took the first step leading him slowly to the stairs, once they got there, she figured it would be easier. There was a railing on both walls up the stair well for support. As soon as they reached it, Dave grabbed it aware of being too heavy for her to support him all the way up the stairs.

      By the time they got to the room and him to the bed, he collapsed - shaking on the bed from weakness. He stretched out on his back, his head on the pillow. “I’ll be back Dave, I have to go fetch the wood up here and start a fire. You rest.” He didn’t respond. With a sigh, she rose setting out to make the upstairs comfortable and warm for them. Moving as though there was no time to waste, she carried up several bundles of wood, placing the most in the bedroom where they would be. Dropping off a few in the bathroom and then closing off the spare room. Next she went into the wood store/mud room with a lit candle, gathering all the small chips and pieces of fire wood she could find. Then she made a stack she thought she would be able to chop herself. After taking up what she found that was burnable. She came down and started a thorough search through every cupboard, closet, and box she could find. Growing more frightened by the moment.

      On the level of a nurse, she was compassionate and caring about all of her patients she was in charge of ministering to, willing to put into action any or all of her training when it came to saving their lives. The same would apply here, for Dave Penhaligan… but there was a nag of something a tad more urgent about her need to care for him. There was nothing she could quite put her finger to right now, but for some reason, for personal reasons, losing him, would be a whole lot more than just losing a patient. In her search so far, she’d found 120 proof whiskey. She sat that out for using. She found a variety of can goods, and a box holding several brown bottles filled with a liquid substance. The dust on them so thick, the labels so old, she could barely read them. So she sat that on the table and continued in her search. At its end…she was on the verge of tears.

      There was no way out of the cabin. No way of contacting help. They were stuck with his life in her hands. She closed the small sewn curtains over the under sink cupboard and stood coming to the table to look over the things she'd found to nurse him through this infection. It was still nice and warm downstairs because of the fire that Dave had started. Stepping to the sink, she wet a cloth to clean off the bottles she'd found in the box. The dust on them was really thick from having sat so long tucked away. Filling a dish pan with water and a little soap, she brought it to the table to use to clean the first brown bottle she picked up. Placing the full bottle in the wash water, she cleaned it…but the label was starting to peel. Carefully she dabbed at it in an effort to read it. The words on it were badly faded. The first bottle cleaned up, left her with a mystery still. This time, she reached for the bottle that was in the midst of the others to clean. It wasn’t so bad, and she didn’t submerge it, but carefully wiped at it. Out of all the words on the bottle, the one word more important than any other came through fresh and clear. The one word that gave identity to the main ingredient within. Tears rushed to Jades eyes blurring her vision, she started crying. “Thank you God! Oh God! Oh God thank you! Thank you!” She sobbed holding the bottle to her chest as though she’d found gold. And in truth…she’d found the very best next thing to gold, SILVER! Crystallized, liquefied silver, bottled in mineral water. Dave would now be all right. Because she knew, that there was no man made antibiotic on earth, better than silver. Nature's or the earth's antibiotic! And on this table sat bottles and bottles of it, more than what they would need.

     Jade didn’t waste a moment administering the first dose to him. She took the bottle in hand up the stairs with her, a tablespoon, a can of the Guinness, as well the whiskey. “Dave, you gotta wake up now and take this. You have to swallow every drop! Dave! I need you to wake up!” Jade urged him. She climbed on the bed behind him, forcing him up to lean back on her lap, careful of his shoulder. With the open bottle on the side table, and the spoon close by, she cradled his head against her breast, squeezing at his bottom jaw and cheeks encouraging him to open his mouth to take the silver. Raising her knee to keep his head propped up against her breast, to free her hand, she poured silver into the tablespoon.

      Careful not to spill it, she brought it over his mouth. “Dave! Open up and take this. Come on Dave...” She coaxed squeezing at his lower jaw while pulling it open.  He moaned, but opened his mouth; she poured it in without hesitation. “AGH! NO!” He almost shot up completely, wanting to spit it out. But he’d already swallowed. He shivered from the gripping bitter taste. Pure nasty bitterness was assailing his taste buds. “I know its horrible tasting, but its gonna save your life Dave. Stop spitting, here…take a few swallows of this Guinness.” Even in his delirium he was glad to do so, guzzling the entire can of stout. She pulled herself from underneath him so he could lie back on his pillow. “It’s not over yet Dave, I still have to clean your wound, and pack it with the silver. And you’ll be taking some more tonight. We have a long fight ahead until I’m satisfied that it’s working…until then, I’ll be your worse nightmare.”

      He seemed not to hear her, because he laid back and went right to sleep again. Jade sighed. Next was the cleaning of his wound. She’d have to open it, clean it out thoroughly, pour whiskey in…then pack it with gauze soaked in silver. Hopefully, with the silver fighting bacteria and infection in the wound, and her adding by mouth to fight the infection already in his system, he would survive this. Or she’d kill him in the trying.  

To be continued.