This is the third part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I and Part II before continuing.
By the time they had finished circumnavigating the island, the last ferry was long gone. Rather than wait on the dock, Carrie nodded in the opposite direction. “Why don’t we head for the camp ground and try to get help there? Someone is bound to have a first aid kit and some extra food they’d be willing to share.”
Tommy didn’t have any better ideas, and even if he had, he was too tired and in too much pain to argue.
He nodded and they started hopping away from the dock.
The camp ground was farther away than they had thought, and Tommy’s foot was killing him by the time they finally saw a camp fire.
“Excuse me,” Carrie said as they approached.
Three figures sitting around the fire, two men and a woman, all turned towards them at the sound of her voice. Upon seeing the state they were in, all three immediately jumped up to offer their assistance. One of the men took Carrie’s place on Tommy’s left side and Carrie heaved a sigh of relief as Tommy’s weight was literally lifted off her shoulders. The other man went to Tommy’s other side, taking the stick from him and wrapping Tommy’s arm around his shoulders. Together, they lifted Tommy as though he weighed no more than a sack of flour and maneuvered him to the folding chair the woman had just vacated.
“What on Earth happened to you?” said the woman.
“We lost track of time and had to run the rest of the way around the island to make it back in time for the last ferry,” said Carrie. “His foot slipped and he landed on it wrong. We think it might be broken.”
“It sure looks broken,” the woman said as she knelt to inspect the foot in question. She looked up at Tommy and said, “I need to take off your shoes and socks.”
Tommy whimpered.
“I know it’s gonna hurt, but it’s the only way to assess the extent of the damage.” She untied the shoelaces on his left shoe, then looked up at Tommy’s face with a dubious expression. “You ready?”
Tommy nodded, but everything about his facial expression contradicted the gesture. Carrie offered her hand for him to hold and he grasped it tight before the woman had even touched his foot.
She took off the shoe as gingerly as she could, but Tommy’s foot had swollen into the shoe, making it harder to take it off. After a fair amount of moving the shoe back and forth on her part and screaming and squeezing Carrie’s hand on Tommy’s part, it finally came off.
Tommy and Carrie both breathed a sigh of relief, but they weren’t done yet. The sock still had to come off. The woman gently rolled the sock over itself, starting at the ankle and working her way down to the toes. It still hurt, but it was nothing compared to the pain of taking off the shoe.
Once the pain had subsided enough for Tommy to catch his breath, he risked a look down at his foot and what he saw almost made him gag. He couldn’t believe it was his foot. Not only was it swollen and discolored, but it was bent at an unnatural angle, the toes pointing inward, even when his heel was facing outward. “Oh crap,” he moaned.
“Yeah,” said the woman as she looked down at his foot. “I was going to take off your other shoe and sock for comparison, but I’m assuming your other foot doesn’t look anything like this?”
Tommy shook his head.
“What do we do now?” said Carrie.
The woman shrugged. “Nothing we can do. That’s going to require multiple surgeries and at least six weeks with a cast to heal properly. For now, all we can do is keep it elevated. Ed, bring your chair over here so he can use it as a foot rest.”
The man Tommy assumed was Ed maneuvered his chair so it faced Tommy and was close enough that Tommy could lay his foot on it. The throbbing pain didn’t stop, but it did subside enough for Tommy to heave a sigh of relief.
“Better?” said the woman.
“Much,” said Tommy. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. I’m Hailey, by the way. This is Ed and Fred.” The two men waved and Tommy managed to raise his hand and wave back.
“I’m Carrie, and this is Tommy.”
“Nice to meet you, Carrie and Tommy, although I’m sorry it’s not under better circumstances.”
“Me, too,” said Carrie.
“Now, how about some grub?”
To be continued…