Sophia Sasson - Mending The Doctor's Heart

Something burned through her. Her legs weakened, threatening to buckle underneath her.

She stepped back, out of his reach. “I had to come for my job.” There was a slight tremor in her voice.

His eyes shifted. She stared pointedly behind him, eager to look away. “You need to come with me, Tito is hurt.”

She followed him to the wagon behind the tractor and climbed up to the platform. Nico’s cousin Tito was on the back of the wagon. He had an obvious open femur fracture, the bone protruding from his leg at an odd angle. Someone held a cloth to the wound, pressing on it to stop the bleeding.

“Anna, is that you?” Tito groaned in pain.

Anna smiled reassuringly at him. She’d been fond of Tito. He was slightly shorter than her but what he lacked in height, he made up for in width. “Yes, it’s me, Tito. Looks like I’m gonna have to save you again.”

“You came back for Nico?”

Anna shook her head, wishing she’d had the forethought to bring her medical bag. Her stethoscope was still miraculously around her neck. She took it off and began listening to his chest.

“Good! ’Cause he ain’t available no more.”

Anna took the stethoscope out of her ears. Did I hear him correctly? Tito groaned again and Anna cast around for something she could use to reduce the fracture. She spied a blanket in the corner of the wagon and pieces of rope, used to secure animals, hanging from the side rails. She picked up the blanket and wrapped Tito’s fractured leg. He howled in pain, but Anna knew there was no other way. They wouldn’t be able to safely transport him to the camp if she didn’t reduce the fracture first.

As she untied a rope, she spoke to the group of men who had come with Tito, avoiding eye contact with Nico.

“Okay, we need to make a manual hare traction splint.” She took the rope and tied it to the ends of the blanket. This wasn’t the first time she’d had to reduce a femur fracture in the field. The last one had been in a rice paddy in Thailand. At least she was on dry ground this time. She finished constructing the makeshift splint. “I’m going to pull on this rope. I need you men to hold Tito down.”

“What? No! This woman is gonna kill me!” The men ignored Tito and two of them kneeled on the floor, bracing themselves on either side of the injured man.

Anna grabbed the rope and balanced her footing. She pulled as hard as she could, keeping an eye on the bone, watching for the shift in the bulge telling her she’d snapped it back into place. She grunted, increasing the pressure on the rope. Tito screamed.

Nico wrapped his arms around her from behind, pressing his body close to her with the familiarity of a husband. Heat spread through her but she ignored how well she fit against him. He put his hands on top of hers and yanked with her. The bone fell into place and she held the rope taut. She could feel the warmth of Nico’s body against her back. The hair on his arms pricked her skin.

“Okay, Nico, take this blanket and hold traction while I go arrange for a stretcher.” She was glad her voice was businesslike. Ducking, she crawled underneath his arms and over Tito’s legs. He had ceased howling and was now moaning and mumbling incoherently. Anna checked his breathing and pulse. Tito was in pain but would be okay until they got him to camp and gave him something to dull it.

Anna stepped down from the wagon to see a few of the men had run ahead to the camp and requested a stretcher already. She instructed the men to find two pieces of wood and nail a makeshift cross to the board.

They rolled Tito onto the stretcher and with Nico’s help, she tied her traction splint ropes to the cross to hold the fracture in place.

Someone lifted one end of the stretcher and nearly dropped it. Nico teasingly reminded Tito to lose weight and picked up the front end. That’s when she noticed the blood on his T-shirt, right around his waist.

“Nico, you’re hurt!”

He shrugged and adjusted his grip on the stretcher but she heard the unmistakable groan and saw the shift of his body. He was injured.

Two other men lifted the back of the stretcher, and a couple others held the sides as they maneuvered it down from the wagon and made the long walk around the tree trunk, since there was no safe way across. Anna followed, watching Nico shift his weight every few seconds. He was in pain.

They found Nana on the other side of the tree and she fell in step with Anna, reaching out to squeeze her hand. Anna let the woman take it for a moment, but pulled it back on the pretense of needing to check on Tito.

When they arrived at camp, Linda was waiting. She inspected the hare traction splint. “Not bad for fieldwork.”

Linda took over Tito’s care, instructing Anna to manage the rest of the arrivals. Anna opened her mouth to protest but Linda was long gone.

* * *

NICO WOULD HAVE gone with Tito but they wouldn’t allow him. It was just as well. He had a lot to do, and that was without knowing Anna was back. What is she doing here, anyway?

She turned to Nico. “Let me look at your injury.”

He began shaking his head; the pain would subside eventually. He needed to get back to Talofofo, but one look at her face and he stopped. Maybe fate had intervened to give him the courage to do what he’d been putting off for more than a year. A jab in the arm caught his attention and he looked down to see Nana, her eyebrows raised at him. He didn’t need her to speak to know what she wanted him to do. She’d been bugging him for months to get in touch with Anna.

After nodding to his mother to let her know he understood her silent message, he followed Anna silently to a tent that had just been erected. A man was delivering boxes.

She opened a zippered bag and one-handedly pulled out a folded cot. Anna had always been self-sufficient, preferring to do the hard work herself rather than ask someone else for help. It was her strength that he’d been drawn to when they’d first met, and also what he had counted on to get them through their son’s death.

“Sit,” she said sternly.

He was lower than her on the cot, so he tipped his head back to take her in. She looked the same, yet different. The luscious brown and golden locks that had hung all the way to her waist were cropped short now, close to her earlobes. Once vibrant blue-gray eyes were tired and had crinkles around them that hadn’t existed five years ago. Her face held more definition, less of the fullness that used to be there. She was far more beautiful, but hauntingly so. Sadness shrouded her.

“You’ve lost a lot of weight.” He winced as the words left his mouth. Didn’t mean to say it out loud.

She pressed her lips together. “Yeah, well, I haven’t had your relatives stuffing food down my throat.”

His gut twisted at the bitterness in her voice. One of his favorite memories was right after she’d given birth to Lucas. Her face had a plumpness to it, her skin shone brightly, her normally slim figure had a wonderful feminine roundness. His relatives had showered her with attention and food, and she’d welcomed the nurturing for herself and baby Lucas. It was the only time in their marriage she’d embraced the presence of his extended family.

“Remove your shirt.”

He wasn’t going to make this any easier on her than it was on him. She had left him. Nico had done everything he could to get her to stay. When he finally let her go, it was with the hope that distance would heal her. He’d emailed her. Once a week for the first year, then monthly until he’d given up two years ago when she still hadn’t answered. Not a single text, email or call. Not even to tell him she was okay. She’d even shut down her Facebook page, so he had no idea where she was or what she was doing. He’d finally resorted to emailing her sister Caroline, who at least had the decency to give him regular updates on what was happening with Anna, and let him know that she wasn’t lying dead in a ditch somewhere.