Acts of Nature

the glossiness in her eyes did not match the relative strength of her posture.
    “This is Sherry Richards,” I said. “We got knocked around quite a bit by the storm and she’s broken her leg. It’s a bad fracture and I’m not sure how much blood she’s lost but we’re going to have to get her to a hospital.
    “Do you guys have a way to call in a rescue helicopter? They could probably get out here before it gets too dark.”
    Morris touched the bill of his baseball cap and stepped forward. “I am really sorry to see your pain, ma’am. We will surely do whatever we can do.”
    Morris could see behind Sherry’s front of strained focus. He could tell she was hurting and stepped forward again, not enough to be pushy or in a way that could be taken as impolite, but seemingly out of concern. He let his eyes move from her face down to the heavily bandaged leg.
    “Y’all think you’d be able to move, ma’am? If we could get to the boat, I mean. She’s a bit of distance through the hardwood yonder.”
    Sherry was watching the man’s eyes, just like I had, just like any cop, assessing, with whatever lucidity she had left.
    “I’ll do whatever I need to do, Mr., uh, Morris, was it?”
    “Yes, ma’am,” he said and men turned to me. “You see, Mr. Freeman, we done lost a lot of equipment over to our place. All our radio stuff was dunked wet and lost. And the only cell phone we got, we ain’t had much luck with. Figure that the towers and all were probably knocked down by the storm.”
    He was looking past me at the boys when he said this, as if for confirmation. When I turned to see their reaction I caught one of them, the thicker one, looking at the metal door to the other half of the cabin. He could not have missed the electronic locking mechanism next to the frame and was perhaps puzzled by it.
    “Well, sir. We do have some fresh water on board we could bring in and we can take a look for anything we might use for some kind of a stretcher or something,” Morris said. “Is there anything inside the other room there that you figure might help us on that account, Mr. Freeman?”
    I hesitated, and then lied, not knowing for sure whether a guy like Morris was perceptive enough to recognize the hesitation.
    “The door is locked up,” I said, nodding to the obvious mechanism that none of them had missed by now. “So I’m not sure what’s in there. And to be honest, with your boat we could probably be to the state park ramp in just over an hour so I’m not sure we’re going to need anything more, Mr. Morris.”
    The man looked again straight into my eyes, a practice that by now was a little unnerving, and when he smiled that little faux-friendly, backwoods smile again I felt my fingers start to flex. The testosterone of fight or flight was leaking down into my fist from somewhere back in my brain.
    “OK, then. Why don’t we just go see what we can get from the airboat to see how we might get the missus out of here,” Morris said pleasantly.
    When all three of them moved toward the door, my first thought was that they would leave us. In a few minutes we would hear the engine start and they would pull out to continue on their way. They don’t need us, we need them.
    “How about if one of you stays to help me break down this other bed,” I said. “You know, maybe we can use the frame as a gurney and all four of us could lift her through the trees.”
    They all stopped, the boys looking at Morris.
    “Now there’s some thinking, Mr. Freeman. Sure. Wayne, stay here and help with that idea. We’ll go get some tools and whatnot from the boat and plan out a path. That just might work.”
    Again the smile, which also stopped the beginning of a protest from the one called Wayne.
    “We’ll be back directly,” Morris said and then he and the other boy walked out. I heard them splash as they jumped down from the deck and all I could do was hope that they wouldn’t look carefully under the foundation and notice the opening left by the trapdoor that I’d forgotten to close under the next room. As the sounds of their movement faded, I watched the sullen look on the kid’s face deepen. He might have been wondering if he too was being left behind.
    “So, Wayne,” I said, reminding him that the older guy had already let his name out, a betrayal to some degree. “Let’s see about using this bed as a trauma cot.”
    He looked over as I pulled the other bed frame out away from the wall.
    “I tried to