Life Renewed

A NEW LIFE FOR JAMES AND ANA, PART II

On the way home from town, something caught the pup's attention and he let out with a sort of "rowlf" sound and James asked him where that came from and named him "Rolf" on the spot. Also on the way back to the ranch, it started to snow lightly, then quickly building in intensity until by the time they reached the ranch, it was almost a whiteout and was really starting to stack up. He was going to have to get his cargo of meat put away quickly so it did not get covered up with snow. When he pulled onto his own road, the snow was about 3 inches deep and the pickup was slipping quite a bit. James decided right then that as soon as the roads were clear and dry he was going back to the bigger city and trade his pickup in for a new four-wheel drive pickup and tire chains, and to pick up another 5 or 6 dozen fresh eggs for his breakfasts. He still could not believe he had forgotten to buy laying chickens when he was making his plans for the winter's needs. He would get them in the spring though. First thing in the spring, as he knew it took about 6 months for a chick to get old enough to start laying. Sometimes they average laying an egg a day so he thought he might get about 12 or 14 chicks of different breeds that would do well in this environment. He might have to toss a few eggs, but again, it was better to have them on hand than not.

As it does about every year, in two days there was no sign of the snow and James and Rolf took off to trade his pickup for a four-wheel drive model. He selected a four-door crew cab F250 Super Crew in the Lariat XLT model, a very nice configuration that was loaded with comfort and then spent the rest of the day getting Rolf his puppy shots and seeing if the vet would let James buy the vaccines and let him give Rolf the shots at the due time. Not a problem according to the Vet, so that deal was finished.

After he had taken delivery of his pickup, James and Rolf went to a gun dealer and bought 5 rifles, a 22 LR, a 22 WRF magnum, an .280 Remington with a 3 x 9 scope, and a .300 Winchester Magnum with a 4 x 12 wide angle scope, and a 30-30 Winchester saddle gun; 4 shotguns, a .410 pump, 2 12 gauge Remington 1100 pumps with vent ribs, and a lightly used Winchester 1200 Deerslayer slug gun with both a slug barrel and a regular barrel. He added several pistols: a 22 magnum, two 40 caliber Glocks, a 9 MM Glock for a concealed carry weapon, a .357 magnum Colt Trooper and a .44 magnum Dan Wesson revolver for "just in case." Because of the current ATF laws, he asked the store owner if he should stagger the actual delivery so it would not attract undo attention but was assured that under the circumstances it would be legal to go ahead and get them all now, so he did. He also bought a good supply of assorted ammunition for each weapon covering ammunition for everything from CCI shot shells for snakes to heavy loads for bears. He also bought holsters for each pistol as well as a saddle scabbard for the 30-30. As far out as he lived, he thought he would see about getting a concealed carry permit also. Although he would only need to keep a weapon concealed while in town. Everywhere else it would be carried openly. As a last thought he bought several hunting and skinning knives including a couple of folding models. He had not bought knives in years and was amazed at the cost of a good hunting knife these days. He had always like Puma the best and bought them for his fixed blade knife.

James thought he had everything covered and was ready for winter now, so let it come, and a few days after Thanksgiving, come it did, and it came with a vengeance. The area had been under the influence of warm moist tropical air when an arctic cold front they called "The Polar Express" suddenly came in catching everyone unprepared and some even unaware, and dropping temperatures into the low teens during the day and much colder at night and with the moist air meeting the cold arctic air, the whole area was seeing much heavier amounts of snow than it had ever seen during this time of year.

James was standing in front of his picture window that first evening of the heavy snowfall looking out at the snow piling up on the front porch in the light of his porch and yard lights when he noticed headlights making their way up the road in front of his house. What a fool he thought they must be to venture out in this weather, and he also hoped that they were not needing go to far as the snow was really starting to stack up by that time, hopefully only to the next ranch. All of a sudden the headlights went sideways and then started shinning up into the clouds and James knew whoever the fool driving was had just slid off into the bar ditch, and that ditch was deep along there. They were in trouble.

Damn! Now he going to have to get dressed warmly and get the tractor out of the barn and warmed up enough to go down to see about getting the fool out of the ditch and back onto the road. Hopefully it would not take very long. The tractor did have a cab to protect the driver from the elements. Now if the heater in the cab works.......

James quickly donned his heavy coat, his cap and new winter boots and grabbed some insulated gloves and a pair of regular leather gloves, driver's gloves he called them as they were thinner and more pliable than the insulated type but not nearly as warm, and a good flashlight. He made it to the barn thinking that it was a good thing he knew where the barn was as it was getting hard to see and the snow was already about 10 inches deep on the flat. He thought he should move his new snow blower onto the back porch and cover it with a tarp so it would be handy at all times.

James opened the barn and got into the tractor's cab and found that it started right off. While he let it idle at a low RPM to allow the oil and hydraulic fluids to warm some before being put into use, he hunted for and found some chains and two straps and shackles and a couple of tarps in case he had to lay down to hook the chains to the car and loaded them into the cab. He pulled out onto his road and started down to where he had seen the car slip into the ditch. He had the tractor in four-wheel drive to keep from also going into a ditch. He also kept the front bucket close to ground so he could drop it quickly if he stated to slide. When he arrived at the wreck site, he first saw that it was very doubtful that his tractor was going to get this car out of the deep ditch tonight if at all. He would need light to see by and see where the was driver was positioned now. He looked in the car and saw a person slumped against the driver's door. He honked the tractor's horn a couple of times but the person did not respond.

Afraid that the driver was badly injured he angled the tractor to best light up the car. Funny the thoughts that come to you at a time like this, but he just decided right then to have adjustable floodlights added to all the tractors and motorized equipment. James put the tractor's front bucket down to keep the tractor from moving and then grabbing a flashlight, he got out to check on the driver. He found that the door was locked and he had to find a wrench in the tractor cab to break a window so he could unlock the door and access the driver. He broke the rear window so he did not get glass all over the unconscious driver. When he had the door open the interior light came on giving him barely enough light to see that the driver was a girl or woman—he could not tell which as yet. He did not want to move her yet so he started a slow check to see if he could find anything broken or bleeding. He felt her head, face, and scalp and found no traces of blood, but did discover a large bump on the woman's forehead and another on the side of her head closest to the driver's window, indicating to him that she had bounced off the steering wheel and probably the window before falling unconscious. The bumps were swelling outwards instead of inward towards the brain and he knew that was a good sign. He was hoping she was only temporarily knocked out and would awaken quickly. He continued his first check of the lady and started checking her arms and then her rib area and "oops!", definitely a woman from the feel of it. Sorry, Lady. He tried to check her legs but couldn't as they were under the steering wheel.

James was unsure of what to do. He knew he needed to get this woman out of the car and the position she was in and into his warm house as quickly as possible as it was getting really cold in her car. Heck, it had already gotten really cold. She was not dressed for the exposure at all and while not wet as yet, hypothermia could be a factor before he got her inside and warm. Grabbing her under her arms, he started to lift and pull but her leg was getting hung up between the steering wheel and the seat. He felt around until he found the release for the steering wheel and moved it into the upmost position and tried to move her again. He gained a little but still could not free her completely. He decided to get into the back seat and reach over the seat and see if a straight pull might free her leg and allow him to positon her so he could get out and them pull her up the seat and out through the open door. He reached in and grabbed her left leg and carefully pulled up on it until he could put her foot on the seat. Once more he lifted and pulled but this time the woman started to slide up the seat as he pulled. Once she started to slide when he pulled, the thought came to him about what he was going to do when he got her out of the car.

First of all, he did not know if he could get into the cab while holding the lady and secondly, if there was even enough room in the small cab for two people. He decided he had best get her belongings out of the car before he got her out. He checked the backseat and found only a small overnight bag and a couple of sacks of clothes which he grabbed. He took the ignition key and went to the back of the car and crawled into the ditch and opened the trunk and found a couple of blankets. This gave James an idea and he quickly got all the bedding out of the trunk and took it to the tractor. He raised the bucket to waist height and started to work. He put down the tarp from the barn and then a blanket and then he carefully removed the lady from the car and laid her in the front bucket on top of the blanket and then used everything else including his own coat to cover the woman completely from the top of her head down to her feet to try to keep her as warm as possible and pulled the other half of the tarp over her to keep the snow off of her. After he got her tucked it, he shut the car door and got back into the tractor cab and realized that now that his adrenalin had slowed, he was wet and about frozen, and knew the lady in the front bucket had to be as bad or worse.

Driving carefully rolled upwards slightly to keep the woman from falling out, but at the same time, as quickly as he could, he made his way to his house. When he got to the yard, he pulled as close to the door as was possible and once parked he jumped out of the cab and opened the front door so he could carry her in with little difficulty. Once he got her inside and on the bed, he quickly covered her up with the comforter and a couple of quilts so she might start to regain her body's normal temperature. He brought in the bedding from the tractor and the bags of clothes she had in the back seat. James had to scold Rolf away from what he seemed to think was a new point of interest. James put his coat back on and quickly put the tractor back into the barn and closed it up and returned to the house and stripped off the coat and vest he was wearing along with his winter boots opting for a pair of slippers instead. After a quick glance at his patient/guest, who had not moved an inch, he refilled his glass of Crown to knock some of the chill off, changed out of his wet clothes and went in and after adding a couple of sticks of wood to the fireplace, took another hard look at the situation with his patient.

There was no way that an emergency vehicle of any sort could get to him except for maybe a dog sled. It would be several days before a helicopter could even fly. And who knew what might happen to cell phone service during times like this. What to do, what to do. His first aid training had not included much information about a situation like what he found himself in at the present time. After he finished his drink, he put on a pot of coffee and got the makings out for hot chocolate in case his patient did not drink coffee. It really did not matter what she drank, she just needed something warm inside her to help warm her from the inside out. She just had to wake up first. He went back to her in the light to recheck for injuries.

The first thing he really saw was that she was a truly beautiful woman of maybe 28 to 32 years of age, and those years had been very good to her he thought. Rechecking her whole body (except for the breast part) he was satisfied that she had nothing broken or perforated. He decided to go ahead and face the situation knowing full well she would get the wrong idea when she woke up and would be pissed at him, but he knew he had to get those tight and wet clothes off of her so her body could breathe and relax and start to warm, so while he had the covers pulled back for his exam, he loosened her tight jeans and pulled them off. Then holding her head and shoulders with one arm, he managed to get her sweatshirt and undershirt off and then he noticed that her lacy bra and panties were quite a beautiful set and wondered if she dressed that way all the time but pushed those thoughts out of his mind and got back to the business at hand. Her bra was beautiful, but was very tight on her and needed to come off so she could breathe. He went to his closet and got a long sleeve thermal undershirt of his and slipped over her head and eased her arms through the arms of the shirt and got it pulled down into position, then he reached behind her and unhooked her bra but left it on. After chastising himself for perving her this little bit, he pulled the covers up to her neck and dimmed the lights in the sleeping area of the great room.

By this time his coffee was ready and he poured himself a mug and sat down to see if he could get online so he could see if he could find out anything about helping her besides just sitting and waiting for something to happen. Funny he thought, this must be how doctors did things back a couple of centuries or so when there was very little knowledge about the human body in existence.

There was no internet or television available. The clouds and the amount of snow falling was blocking all the signals, so he had no way to learn any more about what to do. He made a note to himself to buy a good home medical/first aid guide or video the next time he went to town or else down load one. Might never need it again, but he knew it was better to have and not need than it was to need and not have. He realized that that quote could apply to so many things in one's life.

Fatigue had caught up with James by this time, so after letting Rolf out for a bit he grabbed the spare pillow off the bed and a couple of blankets from the closet and after stoking up the fireplace, he went into a sound sleep on the couch in front of the relaxing fire, thinking about his guest and hoping she would awaken and be all right and back to or almost back to normal when she woke up.

James awoke and looked around at the darkness still surrounding them and got up to check on the fire in the fireplace and added a couple of sticks of wood and reclosed the glass doors. As he was now fully awake, he noticed the time and saw that it almost 630 so daylight or whatever would pass for daylight in this storm should happen in the next half hour or so. He also noticed that his faithful pet Rolf was asleep with the patient who still had not moved, and in fact had his head on her arm like a pillow. James told him that he was lucky the roads were all snow packed so he could not take the dog back into town and trade him for a cat for being a traitor. As he said it, he noticed the immediate look of shame and fear on Rolf's face, or else he wanted to go out and pee. James went into the kitchen to make a fresh pot of coffee and let Rolf out onto his morning run. Just as he got it all into the pot and the pot switched on, he heard a noise and a scream from the other room.

James ran into the room to find the woman sitting up in bed holding the covers to her chest and a look of sheer terror on her face. She screamed at James to tell her who he was, where she was, what happened to her clothes, who took them off her and why, what happened during the night and a host of other questions that came at him faster than he could answer them.

He tried to get her to stop talking so he could answer the first hundred or so questions but she just kept on and on until James finally just yelled "QUIET!!" She stopped talking and just sat there with fear on her beautiful face and a quivering chin telling him she was about to lose it and start crying big time, then her face changed and it looked to James like she was getting ready to start in again when he held up his hand and she stopped and stared at him. James told her his name and that she was at his house on his ranch and that she had driven or slid into a deep ditch in the heavy snow last night and that he had seen her headlights shinning up at the clouds and got his tractor out to go check on her and found her unconscious in the car in the deep ditch with the motor dead and her getting colder by the minute and him breaking her passenger window and then getting her out of the car and into the front bucket under a pile of blankets and bringing her to the house where he rechecked her for serious injuries and then knew he had to remove her wet and tight clothes so her body could warm, breathe and relax so that she could warm and sleep soundly and peacefully all night and that her virtue was as intact right then as it was at sundown last night. That got him a strange look and she asked him "did you enjoy yourself, Pervert". James kind of smiled and asked if she wanted the truth or a bald-faced lie, then he told her that he did not really enjoy removing her clothes and putting her to bed almost naked.

She asked rather indignantly if he was gay or was there was something wrong with her that he could not enjoy perving at her in her moment of detachment. He told her that he definitely was not gay and that he would be lying through his teeth if he told her that she was anything other than an exceptionally good looking woman, but that he felt uneasy because of the necessity of it and besides that, his momma had raised him to respect women and their privacy, but if it made her feel any better he would be glad to look at her naked now that she was awake and lucid and then render an opinion for her. She thanked him for the offer but declined emphatically. James could see she was becoming more at ease and starting to relax some based on her last couple of comments and a hint of a smile on her face.

James asked if she wanted coffee or hot chocolate and then some breakfast. She told him she thought some coffee with cream and sugar and then breakfast would be just fine. James showed her where the clothes he took off her last night was sitting and the bags of stuff she had in the backseat of her car. He also told her where the bathroom and shower were and where to find fresh towels, tooth brushes, tooth paste and such if she wanted to shower first, and that there was a lock on the inside of the door.