Deer hunting trips by groups of 3 or more take time to plan. You get together, work out times, schedules, lists then stick to the plan. That's how it starts but that's not always how it ends up.
There were four of us, Steve, Bill, Jack and myself. Deer hunting over a weekend, a span of three hunts and nothing was guaranteed. We drove in Friday night, got unpacked, cleaned the wasps and mice from the outhouse and settled in, ready to bag some deer.
Saturday morning went by without much progress and Saturday afternoon was proving to be the same. Bill and I both hunted out of ground blinds surrounded by camo. Steve had a metal tripod stand and Jack, for reasons none of us know to this day, built a tree stand about 20 feet off the ground. A few deer came in, a small buck or two but no shooters. The sunlight was fading and darkness was filling in the holes between the limbs. I had left my stand and had just made it to the meeting place. I was the first one there and it was dark enough now to turn on the flashlight. As the beam of light hit the trees in front of me, I heard the most frightening noise that my ears have let pass. It sounded like a bear growling before an attack. But this was Central Texas, there are no bears here, but it made me begin to wonder. A minute passed and I heard it again. This time it was closer. The hairs on the back of my neck began to tingle. My goosebumps got goosebumps. It was at that instant that I started looking for a tall tree. Steve, hunting about 200 yards away, heard it too. He was so afraid that he wouldn't come down from his stand and Bill was nowhere to be found. I didn't know where Jack was either. He wasn't answering his radio and and out of the four of us, he would be the one most likely to get eaten first. Another minute passed and I heard a third roar but this time I saw a light. It was coming from the same direction as the bear and then Jack came over the radio. "Guys, come get me. I can't walk any further." What? What's going on? Are you hurt? Did the bear get you? "No." Jack said, I'm dizzy and I can't quit throwing up." And then it hit me. That was the bear sound. That was the sound that had me ready to run up a tree. Jack was puking his guts up. After a few seconds of checking myself, and my shorts, I started heading toward Jack. Bill and I both got there about the same time to find Jack on all fours, giving the ants a good shower of bile. Steve was still too afraid to come down from his stand. I looked at Jack and asked what was the matter. "I'm not sure but my head won't stop spinning and I can't stop throwing up.","I got dizzy up in the tree, tried to crawl down but fell the last 9 feet." So now fear turns not to concern but to laughter. Yep, our good friend, who brought us all out to hunt on his place, is so messed up he can't walk and we've get to crack jokes now. So after a few minutes of kicking a guy when he's down, cooler heads prevail and we realize that Jack needs to go to the hospital. Only problem is, we are over a mile from the camp house and now Jack can't walk. So guess who gets to carry puking Jack back to the camp house. Yep, this guy. Now keep in mind, Jack's not small. He'll go 6 foot and weighs in around 2 bills. Probably average size unless you have to carry the guy a mile through the woods but it had to be done. Before long we were back at to the camp house and a trip to the emergency room was next on the agenda.
Because there was a possibility of hurling, we took Jack's truck. Apparently Steve and Bill had got together on the walk up to the camp house and designated me to drive. They were going to follow us to the hospital, after they took a shower and ate supper of course. We were only 15 miles from town but 5 of that was down a bumpy dirt road and it didn't take long to find out that bumpy dirt roads and dizzy guys throwing up don't mix. As soon as we pulled out of the gate Jack started in on me. "You've got to hurry up Tim, I don't know if I'm gonna make it." Don't know if you're gonna make it? Now you're dying on me? So I sped up. "Slow down Tim.""The bumps are making it worse" says Jack. What the heck? I can only do one or the other. "Try reading a magazine or something to take your mind off of it." I said. Well, let's just say that wasn't the best solution but I've never claimed to be a doctor.
We get about a mile down the road and I start hearing a banging noise coming from Jack's truck. I don't want to stop because Jack might die but it gets louder and louder and pretty soon I know that if I don't stop, I might tear up Jack's truck and his wife will never let me hear the end of it if that happens. I pull over and look underneath and somehow, some way, Jack's spare tire near the back of the truck had loosened up and was dragging the ground. How in the world can this happen right now? I'm betting that Steve and Bill had something to do with it. I crawled underneath and took the tire off and threw it in the back, got back in he truck to see that Jack was still alive.
After what seemed to be an eternity, we pull up to the emergency room and I carry Jack inside. We get him checked into a room and the nurse asks me to take a seat in the waiting room. After thirty minutes or so, Bill and Steve show up, cleaned and fed, and take a seat in the the waiting room with me. Before long, Steve leans over and says, "Did you call Jack's wife?" "Geez! I totally forgot." Who wants to give her the bad news?" Bill says. We talked it over for a few minutes and after a quick game of Roshambo, best two out of three, I lose and give her a call. "Kara, this is Tim. Don't be worried but we had to bring Jack to the emergency room." I waited for the nervous, desperate reply of a freaked out wife. "What's wrong with him?" Kara asked. "Well, he's dizzy, throwing up, and can't walk." I replied. "We're not sure but they are checking him out now." What Kara said next will be burned into my brain until the day I die."Well, it's probably just a virus. He'll be alright." she said. My eyes opened up like cannon balls as my mouth hit the floor. Enough to where I heard Steve lean over and say to Bill, "I bet Kara told him to pull the plug." "You think that's all it is Kara?" I asked. "Yeah, he'll be fine." she said. "OK, I'll call you if anything changes" I replied.
I hung up the phone and looked over at Steve and Bill. :"What'd she say Tim?" asked Bill. "She said that it's probably just a virus and he'll be fine.""And we should go back and hunt in the morning".
A couple of hours had past as we hung out in the waiting room, watching TV, tilting the vending machine and waiting for some kind of word when a nurse finally came out and told us we could go back to see him. None of us knew what it was but it had to be serious because of the long wait. We got back to the room and pull the curtain back and there lays Jack looking like death warmed over. He's lost what little color he had in his face and his eyes looked sunken into his head. The only color he had were these big red bumps all over his skin and we begin taking bets on what it was. Cancer was the early favorite followed by measles and then poison sumac. "Bill, we need to call Kara. This doesn't look good." Steve says. Then before any of us could ask how he's doing, Steve peeps over my shoulder and says, "Hey Jack, can I hunt your stand tomorrow " Bill and I hit the floor laughing. What little bit of Jack's eyes are showing roll back in his head. Jack, you alright? Jack moans and looks up at us. "What did they say Jack?" Steve says. Jack can hardly talk. His hand shook badly as he reached for a cup up water. After taking a little sip he whispered, "Vertigo". What did he say? Vertigo? "Isn't that just a balance problem?" I asked. Yes, but they gave me something to help that caused an allergic reaction."said Jack, "That's what has taken so long.""And they're gonna keep me here all night." After a bunch of ribbing and pansy related name calling, the head nurse walks in and politely tells us to keep it quite or she was going to give me a Foley. "I'm not sure what that is but if you're giving it, I don't want it." was the reply. After saying our goodbyes to Jack and reassuring him that Kara was truly concerned, we headed back to the camp house. Sunday morning we hunted, Steve on Jack's stand, then headed home after that. We later found out Jack was transported to Temple later on in the night after having a reaction to another drug, then after spending a day there, somehow made it to his mom's house where he would spend the next week under her care.
Jack's doing better now. Not in the normal sense of the word but considering Jack's proneness to accidents, he's better. That weekend trip of deer hunting would be the catalysis for many accidents and injuries in the future to Jack on our hunting trips to his ranch in Central Texas. I later found out the purpose of a Foley and was glad I shut up when I did.
No comments:
Post a Comment