Part 7 (2/2)
”Somchai?”
Silence.
The whir of wings flapping fluttered past my left ear. Bats.
I was desperate for something to drink. I wondered how close the dripping water was. Could I open my mouth and let some drops fall in? I tried to s.h.i.+ft my body, but a blaze of pain stopped me. I could do nothing but lie in the stillness and feel my heart rage against my ribcage.
It seemed like hours pa.s.sed. Where did Somchai go? I was alone in the dark with no clue about when he would come back, and no power to help myself. It made me remember Julia's date nights when I was a kid. I tried to deepen my breath, but it hurt my ribs too much when my lungs expanded. I wished I could close my eyes and sleep.
I would have given anything to be back home; not in Ottawa, but back in our rented house in Vientiane. I wanted to find Nok and tell her how sorry I was for grabbing her like that. I wanted to walk with her by the river and forget all about the drunk guy, the basketball fight, and my mother.
My bladder felt like it was going to explode. I had to pee so badly, but I couldn't move. I tried to s.h.i.+ft to my right side so the p.i.s.s would run down the cave path, mixing with its slickness, but I couldn't do it. Suddenly, I felt a rush of warm liquid and wetness between my legs. I felt anger rising up my body, but I had no way to release it. I couldn't move. It rose and rose until I felt like a balloon about to pop. I screamed long and loud. Why would Somchai leave me alone?
I was about to go berserk when I thought I saw light flas.h.i.+ng along the ceiling of the cave. A bat whizzed past me. The light started to bob up and down. Then I heard someone calling out in Lao, but I couldn't understand what they were saying.
”I'm here!” I yelled. ”Over here!”
More indecipherable Lao reverberated off the cave walls. I heard footsteps quickening their pace. I could tell someone was almost upon me. I was flat on my back, my head pointed in the direction of the footsteps, but I couldn't turn to see who was behind me. I was so powerless. It didn't sound like Somchai's voice.
Suddenly a headlight seared my eyeb.a.l.l.s. When it moved off to the side it took my eyes a while to adjust to the darkness that was left behind. I saw a stranger wearing a ma.s.sive, old-fas.h.i.+oned pair of gla.s.ses that looked almost clownish on his small, brown face. I attempted to sit up, but he pushed me back down.
”He's a doctor,” I heard Somchai say from behind, and then felt a rea.s.suring hand on my shoulder. A rush of relief flooded my body. My breath returned. He came back.
We sat in the darkness, Somchai holding a Thermos of cool water to my lips every so often, as he and the doctor debated what to do. I had never tasted water so refres.h.i.+ng and sweet. Suddenly there were more shouts and footsteps.
”Some villagers offered to follow us in case we needed more help,” Somchai explained. ”They're coming now.”
I could hear an animated conversation happening behind me, but I couldn't understand any of it. It sounded like two more men were there.
”They're going to make a stretcher so we can carry you out,” Somchai said.
”Make a stretcher?” I said in a weak, whispery voice.
”Yeah, there's a clinic in Vang Vieng, but they're not well equipped.”
More hours seemed to pa.s.s. My body convulsed with cold. Somchai had wrapped a blanket around me, but it didn't seem to be helping. He patted my shoulder.
”It won't be much longer, brother,” he said. He looked worried.
Finally the men arrived. Somchai lifted me up by the shoulders and the doctor placed his arms underneath me to support my back. Pain shot through my entire body. They laid me on the makes.h.i.+ft stretcher. From what I could tell it was made from some long poles of bamboo and material like a woman's sin. My brain pounded against my skull.
When we came out of the cave the sunlight was unbearably intense. The men loaded me on to a long-tail boat and we rowed across the river. Flies buzzed around me as my skin began to slowly cook in the sun. I could hear the rhythmic dipping of the oars into the river.
”We're going to the clinic, Cam. They don't have much, but they will see what they can do,” Somchai said.
The clinic was nothing but one bare room with some hospital-green cabinets in a corner, and one light bulb dangling from the ceiling. They laid me on the floor in the stretcher. The doctor took out his penlight and began to examine my broken body.
”Concussion. Sprained ankle. Three cracked ribs,” Somchai called out my injuries as the doctor explained them to him. Just the sound of his voice was a.s.surance that everything was going to be okay. ”You will be in pain for a while, but you're going to be okay, brother. The doctor says you will heal.”
I took a deep breath of relief.
”There's just one thing,” Somchai said, wincing slightly.
”What?” I asked, afraid of the look on his face.
”You need st.i.tches in your chin.”
”Okay, that's not so bad, considering.”
”Well,” Somchai began. ”The good news is that they do have suture thread here at the clinic.”
”And the bad news?”
”They don't have anesthetic.”
I swallowed.
”Can the st.i.tches wait?” I asked.
”For what?”
”Until we get back to Vientiane?”
”Brother, I am sorry, but you aren't going to be ready to travel back to Vientiane for a few days. We are going to miss most of Lao New Year.” He looked away. I knew that to him it was the equivalent of missing Christmas.
”Oh, man,” I said. ”Your sister is coming, right? From Thailand.”
”I'm not leaving you here, Cam.”
”Thank you,” I said, and I meant it.
The doctor prepared the st.i.tches. I pressed my lips together. As he approached me I could see the flash of the silver needle. I flinched. The doctor said something to Somchai.
”Brother, it is important that you stay as still as possible. Here, I will hold your hand.”
I felt like a child as he rubbed the top of my hand and then took it in his. He began to sing softly. I felt the sharp sting of a needle puncturing my flesh.
”It's my favourite Lao folk song,” Somchai began to talk quickly, trying to distract me. ”It's about farmers who have nothing. Their fields won't grow.”
The needle pierced me, stinging each time it moved in and out, in and out. I clenched my toes. The pain seared from my chin all the way down to my groin. It was all I could do not to scream.
”But the farmers are not sad. Instead they dance in a lam vong circle with their families. Everything is okay,” Somchai continued.
I thought of Jon and the basketball guys back home. I couldn't remember experiencing friends.h.i.+p quite like this. My heart swelled with a kind of love that I had never felt for a friend before. Finally the doctor pulled away from me.
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