The Soldier that Saved Me (ON HOLD)

Chicken Dinner

"The soldier is the Army. No army is better than its soldiers. The soldier is also a citizen. In fact, the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one's country." ----George S. Patton Jr.

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I picked up some dry sticks, dragging them across the long grass, carefully making sure that I did not cut my hands on the thorns. Prairie sticks were always jagged, yet we didn't have any trees to cut so we had to rely on these. I threw them into the small fire on the site where we were camping, and sat on the ground next to Jeb.

¨Okay Blue, I thought of another pickup line so you will definitely fall for me.¨

I laughed at Jeb's nickname for me and his confidence to make me like him, then nodded.

    He coughed then looked at me with a sparkle in his eyes. ¨Are you cold? You look like you could use some hot chocolate. Well, here I am!¨

    I burst out laughing. ¨Sorry, no! Though, I wouldn't mind some hot chocolate. But where is Phaz?¨

    ¨Mr. Soldier went to get dinner.¨

    ¨Dinner?¨" I furrowed my eyebrows. How could he get dinner in the middle of nowhere?

    ¨You know...¨ Jeb made the action of a chicken then a sound of a shooting gun.

    ¨Ohh..¨

Phaz returned about an hour later, carrying the carcass of a chicken. I could barely look at it, but I wasn't going to let him know that. He'd called me a princess for the last time. Smiling, I walked up to him, grabbed the chicken by the legs, winked, and turned back to the fire. As soon as I was facing away from him, though, I nearly gagged.  

"So!"  I heard Phaz's voice behind me, "I guess you're plucking and skinning our dinner?"  Stopping in my tracks, I turned around to see him with a triumphant smile on his face. I couldn't let him win.

"Of course I am!" I exclaimed with an overly perky tone.  I walked back to the little camp I'd set up and sat down on the cold, hard ground.  Plucking a chicken is exhausting and absolutely disgusting work. But don't get me started with skinning one.  For some reason, Phaz was positive that chicken skin would ruin the flavor of it when cooked over a fire. Personally, I saw no reason to take the skin off at all, but he was adamant, so I borrowed one of his knives and began working.  

Obviously, I had no clue what I was doing, but I had to prove Phaz wrong.  Getting frustrated just thinking about it, I began to work faster, making short angry cuts while trying to separate the chicken meat from its skin. It seemed that no matter what I did, the skin was determined to stay on. I took a breath to calm down, slowly slicing into the disgusting fowl in a long sliding stroke.  

There was chicken blood everywhere, and suddenly I felt a strange pricking feeling on my palm. I tried to ignore it, as that was the hand that was holding the chicken and I couldn't really move it. Then I noticed a thicker, lighter-colored trail of blood running down my hand. I hadn't cut that far into the bird, had I? My hand burst into fiery pain, and I realized what I'd done.  Shouting in pain and surprise, I dropped the chicken and looked closely at my hand.  

"Woah!  What's your deal!  That's our dinner!" Jeb, obviously oblivious to the fact that I had a three-inch gash on my palm, was shouting.  

"Calm down.  I think she cut herself,"  said the lower-pitched voice from the far side of the fire.  In less than a second, Phaz was holding my hand and dragging me towards the fire.  Terrified, I pulled back.  

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Trying to get your hand into the light.  I can't see." Momentarily embarrassed, I allowed him to lead me to the fire.  

"Jeb, are you strong enough to go and get some water from the river?"

"I guess, but wouldn't you be faster?"

"I have medical training.  I need to be here." His voice was strained and rough.  Jeb, without further argument, got up and grabbed his crutches to leave.  

"It's just a scratch, it's really not a big deal!"  

"When you're out in the desert, with no access to real medical care or antibiotics, any wound, no matter how small, can be fatal because of infection." 

"OK, you officially have me scared," I said, my voice rising a little.  I stepped backwards, trying to keep away from him. Phaz was scaring me..  He had chased Jeb off like it was the end of the world, and now he was telling me I could die. 

He turned away from the fire, the flames highlighting his silhouette.  After taking a breath to calm himself, He spoke again, this time in a concerned and almost gentle voice.  

"Sorry.  I didn't mean to scare you.  You just need to trust me and everything will be ok.  When Jeb gets back, I'll boil the water and clean out the wound.  But for now, we need to stop the pressure. Glancing around, and clearly finding no other cloth to use, he took off his shirt and ripped a long piece from the bottom, about 2 inches wide.  He stepped toward me and began wrapping my hand, gently winding the cloth around it. Even as distracted as I was at the moment, I winced at the pain in my palm.  

"Sorry, I was trying to be gentle," pausing and giving me a look out of the corner of his eye, he finished. "Princess." Immediately I forgot the pain in my hand and his missing shirt, I shoved him, surprising him and causing him to stumble backwards, pulling the cloth around my hand tight and a shot of pure pain ran through my veins.  

Reacting quickly, I followed him, trying to alieve the pain in my hand. The loosening bandage caused a new flow of pain and blood to engulf my palm. Regaining his balance, Phaz resumed wrapping my hand.

"Just stay still.  Once your hand is wrapped, I'll try and find something in my bag for the pain."

"The chicken!" I suddenly said, remembering the bird, now covered in dust and dirt. 
    "That's not important right now, just sit down and relax.  We need to get your blood pressure down. It'll help with the bleeding." His voice was still quiet and calming, but clearly he was still nervous.  

When he finished wrapping my hand, he stepped over to grab his shirt just as Jeb was getting back.  

¨Dang. I didn't know it was that bad.¨ Jeb said, whistling low. He went back to the tent to grab a spare shirt.

Phaz didn't respond as he poured the water into two buckets, I assumed one for me and one for the dirty prairie chicken.

He unwrapped my hand just enough so he could pour some water over the wound. I grimaced in pain. 

"Just look at me." He said, touching my chin so I could focus into his eyes. 

His face was beautiful. Even though he wasn't like any of those cliche boys that had clear solid color. Phaz's eyes were smoky, tinged with the most beautiful blue you could ever think of. As my eyes began to drift across his face, I noticed that his cheekbone was chiseled perfectly.

"Done. You're good to go, Princess." He tied the last knot. "Does it hurt anymo--" Phaz stopped abruptly when he looked up and saw my face a couple inches from his. I hadn't even noticed myself drifting through the air towards him. His eyes widened as they flickered down to my lips

"Pri--I mean, Ocean..." Phaz tried to say. Our faces were getting closer and closer.

"Hey! Look what I found! I still have my Jamaican spices with me, guys!"

We suddenly fell back away from each other as if we had been struck by lightning.

"Woah you guys okay?" Jeb said, walking towards us with a red plaid shirt in his hand.

Eliaphaz coughed and stood up. "No, just a big tarantula came up and scared Ocean." He quickly walked away to our makeshift tents.

"Tarantula? In Missouri?" Jeb raised an eyebrow.

"You never know what can happen." I said.