The Sea Hawk (28 page)

Chapter Twenty-two

"RICKY! WAIT FOR me! I'm gonna tell Mommy!" The little girl scampered as quickly as her six-yearold legs would carry her along the shoreline. She saw her brother stop and examine something in the sand and tried to speed up. He had been teasing her all afternoon. He was bored with watching his little sister and decided the best way to get rid of her was to wear her out. It always worked with their new puppy. Just run his little legs off until he fell over exhausted.

"Hurry up, Pammie!" He was getting tired of the cat-and-mouse game himself. He squatted down and used a stick to loosen the damp sand around a sea shell. He picked it up and carried it to the waterline to wash the sand from it. It had seemed almost white, but the water brought out a pinkish hue. It wasn't as pretty as some others he had found, but was a good size to add to the shell collection in their aquarium back home. By the time he stuck it in his pocket, Pammie made it to him.

She grabbed his hand and squeezed his fingers hard. "Ow!"

"You're 'sposed to stay with me," the pint-size towhead said with a pout.

"I know. I was just playin'. Ready to head back? Dad will have our burgers off the grill by the time we get to the tent and I'm starving."

The sun was dropping quickly toward the horizon, sending orange and red streams of light across the top of the water. Pammie shielded her eyes and smiled. "Good night, Mr. Sun." Looking up at her twelve-year-old brother, she asked, "Does the sun sleep under the water all night long?"

"It never sleeps under the water, Pam. It's always in the sky. When we don't see it here anymore it's because it's shining somewhere else. That's how we know it's time to rest."

"Oh," she said as she thought about that idea for a moment. Her eyes suddenly brightened. "I'll race you to that log down the beach, but you gotta give me a head start."

Ricky squinted down the beach and tried to figure the distance. "Okay, but only to five this time. Ready? Go!"

He smiled as his sister dug her little feet into the sand and sprinted away. He knew he could catch her, even if he counted to ten. Counting silently to five, he let out a war whoop and set out after her. She looked back over her shoulder and squealed with laughter which only slowed her down. A few seconds later, he flew past her, closing on the log. Laughing, he turned back toward the log. A few yards from it, he stopped quickly, breathing hard. He spun around just in time to catch his sister and swing her up into his arms.

Squatting down on one knee, he said, "Get on, Pammie. I'll give you a piggyback ride back to camp."

She glanced past him at the log. "What's--"

"Just get on! We have to get back right away!"

THE SUN WAS well below the horizon as the Jeep Wrangler began its trip down the beach, guided by Ricky Lawrence and his father. The sheriff's deputy shined a high power beam along the shoreline while a second deputy drove.

"How far from our camp were you?" Ricky's father asked.

"I don't know," the boy answered with a shrug. "I didn't think it was this far though."

"Are you sure it was a body?" the driver asked. "Not just some seaweed caught up on a log or something?"

"It was a body!" Ricky insisted, trying to see any familiar landmark in the dark. "With blonde hair."

"Could have just been a bleached out log," the driver muttered.

"There!" Ricky hollered suddenly. "Over there!"

The deputy swung the beam down the shoreline and backed it up to see the object lying at the edge of the water. "Wait here," he ordered as the two deputies jumped out of the Jeep and hurried to the waterline, flashlight beams bouncing on the figure. The closer they got, the more they knew the boy was right.

Kneeling on either side of the lifeless body, they looked at one another briefly before one of them reached down to feel for a pulse on the woman's neck. Quickly, he drew his hand back. "Fuck! It ain't much, but I think I felt a pulse. Call for an ambulance!"

As the second deputy sprinted back to the Jeep, the other placed his hand on the body's waist and carefully turned her over. The sight of the woman's face startled him and he barely stopped himself from falling over. "She should already be dead," he said to himself. "Jesus! What a mess."

By the time the county paramedics arrived, the woman stopped breathing and the deputy lost the weak pulse he found earlier. He and his companion began CPR, but they weren't confidant their efforts would be successful. As red and blue lights swept across the lonely strip of sand along the North Carolina Outer Banks, paramedics relieved the deputies. They quickly dragged her away from the water and stripped the rash suit from her motionless body, charged their defibrillator and carried on a nonstop conversation with the local hospital emergency room doctor. With each jolt, her body jumped involuntarily on the sand.

"Call in and see if we've had any missing person reports around here," the sheriff ordered as he watched the struggle to reclaim the woman's life.

"We'll probably be havin' to notify a next of kin."

After the third jolt, a paramedic felt once again for a pulse as everyone held their breath. A grin spread across his face. "We got her back, but it's weak," he said. "Let's get an IV going and get the hell outta here!"

Ten minutes later the ambulance made its way up a sandy hillock toward the only road on the island. The woman was unconscious, but had a faint heartbeat. Her breathing was labored and the mask feeding her oxygen didn't seem to be helping very much. It was twenty miles to the nearest hospital and the conversation between the paramedic and the hospital continued. Aside from the fact the woman definitely had sun bleached strawberry-blonde hair they couldn't give any further description. Her face, arms, and legs were heavily blistered and badly swollen. Her lips were cracked open and there was a fear that if the swelling continued from the burns, the skin on her feet and hands might split open as well. Her eyes were swollen shut and they struggled to insert a breathing tube. Despite the cool of the evening, her body felt hot to the touch. Her arms were heavily blistered and it took the paramedic several minutes to find a vein to start an IV.

The paramedic leaned over her to check the IV drip providing fluids for her ravaged and dehydrated body. "Think she's gonna make it?" the driver called back.

"I dunno," he answered. Looking down at her, he frowned. She might wish she hadn't made it, he thought. He wished he could stroke her head to let her know someone was with her, but there was no unburned spot on her head. "How much longer?"

"Five minutes!"

"Make it two and I'll buy you a six-pack!" the EMT laughed.

Suddenly the woman's body went limp. The medic searched for a pulse. "Contact the hospital," he instructed the EMT. "Tell them the victim is in cardiac arrest and we're starting CPR."

THE REAR DOORS of the ambulance flew open and the paramedic jumped out, pulling the gurney with him. A doctor and two nurses were next to him before the legs of the gurney were set. "We've got her. Vitals."

The paramedic began rattling off the patient's meager vital signs. "She went into cardiac arrest en route. We shocked her once and got a pulse back."

"Might be swelling in the brain from the heat her head has endured. You did good, Johnnie," the doctor said as they rolled the gurney into an empty bay and lifted the woman quickly onto a treatment table. The doctor glanced briefly at the paramedic. They had done everything they could, but it didn't look good.

Chapter Twenty-three

JULIA SMILED AS she felt the coolness against her lips. She didn't need to open her eyes to recognize the touch of Simone's lips brushing against hers in the cool evening sea breezes wafting over them as they strolled over the deck of
Le Faucon
. Longing filled her soul, followed by desperate loneliness as she remembered. Simone was not there. Julia would never feel her warm embrace again. Tears formed beneath her eyelids and stung as she squeezed her eyes tightly, pushing them away and down the sides of her face.

The nurse softly applied cooling aloe gel mixed with an antibiotic cream to the burned areas of her patient's face hoping to successfully avoid any widespread scarring. She saw the tears as they made their way toward the pillow beneath her patient's head.

"I am so sorry, sweetie," she said. "I'll be through in just a few more seconds and let you rest."

Julia took a deep shaky breath. The fingers lightly touching her face were soothing. "H...hur...ts," she mumbled as she exhaled. The soothing touch stopped immediately. Julia felt the loss of it and tried to frown. Unexpectedly, a voice spoke softly in her ear.
Simone?

"Can you hear me?" the voice asked. "If you do, can you wiggle your fingers?"

Julia's brain sent messages to her hands. She could feel them try to move, but wasn't sure they had. Her fingers felt heavy and stiff and she didn't know what was wrong. Frustration ran through her. She needed to do something. Where was she? This couldn't be what happened when you died, she thought. It hurts and it's not beautiful. Their family priest promised it would be beautiful! Her head began to throb as she concentrated on convincing any part of her body to do what she wanted. Suddenly, as if the flood of orders had all been released simultaneously, her arms and legs began to jerk and twitch, causing them to brush against the tent covering her body. As the pain seared through her, she tried to rescind her brain's orders, but they were just as slow to respond as the first orders had been.

Seemingly out of nowhere hands pressed gingerly against her arms and legs, pinning her down. A steady flow of tears burned their way along her cheeks and temples as she opened her mouth and took in jerky breaths. Finally her movements slowed and then stopped. Voices around her spoke excitedly to one another and then fell silent.

"My name is Dr. Gorman," a quiet voice close to her ear said. "You're in a hospital in Wilmington, North Carolina. Can you tell me your name?"

TALBOT AND GINA were packing for their trip to Georgia to ready Julia's home for sale when the call came. Julia was alive! Tal couldn't remember a moment of their trip from Richmond to North Carolina. Now as he searched for a parking space close to the hospital entrance, Gina could barely contain herself. He was as anxious as his wife to see and touch his daughter again.

Gina opened the car door and stepped out, not waiting for her husband to open it for her as she usually did. By the time he caught up to her she was in the hospital lobby. He took her arm and stopped her. "Gina, wait. Please!"

"What is it, Talbot?"

"When I spoke to Dr. Gorman, he described Julia's injuries. I just want you to be prepared to see her. It may not be a pretty sight," he said as gently as he could.

"She's alive and that's all that matters. I don't care what she looks like! She will heal," Gina said as she smiled up at her husband.

They held hands and cast reassuring glances at one another as they waited for the elevator to reach the fourth floor. Approaching the counter at the nurses' station, Talbot cleared his throat. "We're Julia Blanchard's parents," he said. "Which room is she in?"

"Just a moment," the nurse said. Walking across the station, she paused for a moment and spoke to an older man with thinning gray hair. He nodded, closing the chart he was writing in and followed the nurse to greet the Blanchards.

"You made very good time," he said as he extended his hand. "I'm Dr. Gorman. I spoke with you on the phone."

"Where is she?" Gina asked impatiently.

"I'll take you to her, but she still has a long way to go. We will be running more tests over the next few days. The burns on her body are quite severe and may require plastic surgery in the future. Will she be staying with you when she is discharged?"

"I don't know, Doctor," Talbot answered. "If not, then we will be staying with her."

Gorman chuckled. "Well, she is apparently a very determined young woman. Otherwise, she would have died. Follow me."

Talbot nodded and put his arm around Gina's waist, giving her a light hug. "We told her you were coming," Gorman said with a smile. "We made her as presentable as possible."

"Thank you, Doctor," Gina said. Taking a deep breath, not sure what to expect, she slowly pushed the door open. They walked quietly toward the bed and saw Julia's red, swollen face resting on the stark white pillow.

"Please don't stare at me," Julia said softly, her eyes still closed. A tear traced its way along her cheek as she spoke, burning the raw flesh.

"Oh, Julia," Gina said as she burst into tears. "You're beautiful!"

Julia forced her eyes open in a reddened slit and managed to raise the corners of her mouth into a semblance of a smile. "I bet you say that to all the lobsters," she quipped, eliciting a relieved laugh from her parents.

"We've been worried sick about you, young lady," Talbot said with a frown. "You scared your mother half to death."

Regina stared at her husband in disbelief. "Don't make it sound like you weren't worried yourself, Talbot Blanchard," she admonished. "That detective in Savannah is probably still recovering from the tongue lashing you gave him."

A laugh escaped from Julia even though she tried to suppress it. "Ow, ow, ow," she groaned. "Damn, it hurts to laugh."

"Then don't do it, dear," Regina commented calmly, leading to another burst of painful laughter from Julia.

"Oh God! It hurts and feels good at the same time," Julia sputtered.

A tear escaped Julia's eye and drifted along the side of her face. Unexpectedly, her father stepped closer to her and reached his hand out tentatively, brushing the tear away. He gently took her hand in his and leaned down. "I'm so proud of you, my precious jewel," he whispered, using his childhood nickname for her.

Julia squeezed his hand, ignoring the pain from her burns, and whispered back. "I love you, Daddy."

When Tal raised his body again tears filled his eyes, but Julia could see the love and concern in them. Regina watched them and smiled. It wasn't like her husband to be so emotional. Clearing her throat she said, "Dr. Gorman says you're going to be here for a while, Jules."