Act Two: Nurse Judy
I awoke, startled and alone. The dark room seemed big and empty. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I threw the heavy comforter off of me and drug my feet over the edge of the high bed, standing up. The clock told me I had only been asleep for two hours. Dammit, I thought, walking toward the bedroom door. I should go check on Judy, make sure everything was fine. We did, in fact, have a stranger in our home.
I lifted up on the door as it opened, because I knew the racket it made if you just pushed it open. The door opened quietly. Shuffling out of the hallway and into the blackness of the balcony that overlooked the stairway and front room, I looked down upon the living room. Red and orange flames jumped and bounced, casting dark shadows that danced on the logs that made up the cabin walls. Judy sat there, perched on one of the kitchen stools beside the couch that the stranger was laying on. Next to her, on the end table that she had moved, was a bowl of hot water, steam drifting into the air and a pile of white cloth towels stacked beside.
She was sitting, in her white cotton tank top and thong underwear, one leg under her, one hanging off the stool, while rubbing the stranger's bare chest and stomach with a warm cloth. With each pass zig-zagging its way from his thick shoulders, across his chest, over the small bumps of his abdomen and down near his hips, then dipping the rag into the hot water she would rub him down again. The thin white sheet that covered him, she had pulled down to his hips, just below his belly button.
I slowly crept down the balcony, watching her, amazed at how easy it was for her to provide for others and take care of them. I stopped about halfway down the hall, behind a plastic fern sitting on the ledge in a large green planter, as if we watered it and it would grow. I paused behind the fake plant, watching her take care of our stranger, watching her hand dip the white cloth into the bowl, ring it out, then work its way down his chest and stop just above the sheet.
This time, when her hand stopped, the cloth didn't go back into the bowl. This time the cloth and her hand froze, shaking and stayed on the stranger's abdomen. Judy glanced up the stairs, toward our bedroom, looked down at the stranger's face, pausing for a moment, then peered back at her hand, lying on his stomach.
I wondered what she might be thinking, what might be running through her mind. Then she looked back up the stairs, her eyes squinting, eyebrows raised, and lips pursed, like she was questioning something. Her eyes, as quickly as they had shot up, turned, staring back at her hand holding the cloth.
Releasing the damp towel, her fingers swiftly took hold of the sheet covering the stranger and lifted it up, and up and up. Her head bent sideways and down, gazing under it. She gently pulled the sheet back more and bent her head more sideways and down, until she was seeing what she intended to. Her eyes shot back up the stairs, toward our room, where I was supposed to be, guilt like a clowns make-up, painted on her face. Her eyes moved back down under the sheet, glaring at the huge snake that lay dormant. She leaned forward, reaching out with her other hand, pointer finger out and touched it, poking the thin skin until a white indentation appeared. Her head dipped closer until it was almost under the sheet.
"Hey" The deep voice, groggy and surprised broke the silence. "What are you doing?"
Judy popped up, startled, dropping the sheet back over the man's waist.
"I...I...Why nothing sir." Her hand took hold of the rag on his stomach, face a bright red; she waived the soggy cloth in the air.
"Why... I'm taking care of you." long pause. "that, yes, that is what I am doing." Judy wasn't good at lying, and now was a good example.
I chuckled silently from the balcony as I watched. My wife was trying to sneak a peek at our stranger's privates and was caught. My prudish wife, who would never do such a thing, was just caught being a voyeur. I was oddly impressed and somewhat excited. I continued to watch, unseen, from the balcony above.
"Thank you" Continued the stranger his eyes still clouded and dark. "My name is Jeremy. I am not sure how I got here... and I am very cold." His body shivered as he spoke.
"I'm Judy, and we are not sure how you came to be here either." My wife answered. "You showed up at our door, hurt and cold, so we have been tending to you."
"I remember driving over the pass, on highway 12. I remember seeing nothing but white...then a bright flash and excruciating pain... then walking for a long time down a road. And that's it." His voice trembled from the memory.
"You are here now." Judy patted his chest. "and you are safe. There is a large cut on your head that I have bandaged, but I think you will be ok." She turned in her seat, facing him.
"My family doesn't know where I am, I don't think anybody does." He said, not able to hide the desperation in his voice.
"I am sorry about that, Jeremy, but we have no land-lines here, and no cell reception. With the storm coming in, we probable can't get you back to town for two or three days. We are in the middle of nowhere." Her voice trailed off, like she wished it hadn't.
"Let's just think about getting you better... I mean.. for now. Does your head hurt? Is there a lot of pain?" She thought changing the subject might make things better.
"It does...It actually hurts really bad." His hands reached up and grabbed his head. "I must have really hit it hard."
"It's ok. I'll get you some pain pills." Judy jumped up, spun around and headed for the kitchen.
The stranger's eyes opened wide and followed as her heart shaped ass rocked back and forth. She didn't seem realize that she was still in her thong.
"Here you go." She reached out, palm up, offering him two small white pills, and a glass of water. She forced a smile.
"Thank you." His eyes not meeting her eyes, he picked the pills from her palm, one by one and placed them on his tongue.
"is everything ok?" She asked, watching him swallow the pills. "Are you alright?"
At that moment, Jeremy understood she was completely oblivious to what she was wearing; she seemed concerned only with his state of well being. His eyes widened.
"Where is your husband." He assumed. "is there anyone else here?"
"Oh, he is upstairs, in bed. I'll wake him in a while." She smiled gently at him.
"It's ok." He returned, looking deep into her green eyes. "You can look." His face remained solemn.
"I'm sorry...?" Judy questioned, her eyes narrowing and head tilting to the side. "look?"
"Yes. You can look at it. I realize that it's rather large, it has really been more of a curse then a blessing all my life. But for sure, you can certainly look at it." He glanced down his half covered body.
"Huh?" Now she seemed to be stalling, or at best trying to avoid the topic.
"I saw you looking, go ahead." He calmly spoke.
The stranger reached down and grabbed the sheet that still covered his lower half, but Judy's hand shot out and took an immediate hold on his wrist, stopping him.
"It's ok" he jerked his hand away from her grasp, pulling the sheet down to his thighs in the process. "I'm kind of a freak show. You can touch it too, if you want."
