Alive
It really wasn’t that far for Cordia to run from the shed where she’d seen Jaris across the field to the church, but she was running as fast as she could, tears still streaming down her face, pulling the bottom of her gown up she wouldn’t trip. By the time she reached the little white building, she was gasping for air. Under normal conditions it would have been difficult, but it was even more challenging for her to regain her breath when all that she sucked in stunk of death. Her side was throbbing, she now realized. She bent over, trying to get enough air so that she could ask someone for help. Finally, she caught her breath enough to get some words out.
A young woman was approaching the church from the general direction that Cordia had come from, though at a much more practical pace. “Excuse me,” Cordia said, still panting. “I’m looking for someone.”
The young girl’s eyes widened. She looked at Cordia as if she thought she were mad. “Yes?” she asked, bewildered.
“I’m sorry,” Cordia said, finally breathing fairly normally again. “I’m looking for William Tucker. Do you know him?”
The girl seemed to think for a second. “Oh, Will,” she acknowledged, shaking her head. “Yes, he’s in the church.” She started to walk away, but Cordia grabbed her arm.
“I’m sorry,” she said again. She had waited long enough. “Is he alive?” She was not about to walk into a church of deceased men and try to pick him out. If she never had to choose from a lineup of dead men’s faces again, it would be far too soon.
The girl’s expression became increasingly strange. “Of course, he is. Why else would he be in a hospital?” she asked. Then, shaking her arm free, she strolled into the church and began to tend some of the men.
Cordia looked up at the sky, a sigh of relief washed over her, and she could feel a mound of weight lifted from her still broken heart. “Thank you, sweet Jesus,” she said. Then, she turned and entered the church. It looked like they had turned the pews into beds, roughly sawing off the backs of some of them. There must have been thirty on each side, and some men lying up toward the pulpit. They were moaning and groaning, coughing, some of them mumbling. How was she going to find Will in this mess?
Perhaps it was the look of anguish on her face, or perhaps it was to avoid any further conversation, but just then, the girl from outside walked over, tapped her arm and pointed.
Cordia’s eyes followed in the direction of her finger. The first true smile she had felt in days spread over her face. There he was. “Thank you,” she said over her shoulder as she walked quickly over to where he was lying on one of those makeshift beds toward the back of the church.
His eyes were closed. But he was breathing. She could tell that by the way his chest was rising and falling. She stood there for a moment, gazing down at him. It had been so long since her eyes had fallen upon his face. Though an overwhelming sadness for dear Jaris was still eating away at her insides, she could not stifle the happiness that she was finally feeling in this moment of knowing that Will was alive.
As if he could feel her looking at him, he began to stir. Then, his eyelashes started to flutter. She moved from where she had been standing at the foot of the bed, and knelt down beside him, hovering just above his head.
Will had an overpowering feeling that someone was looking at him. It was so prodigious that it woke him from one of the soundest sleeps he could recall enjoying in months. He opened his eyes slightly and then closed them again. There appeared to be a woman crouched beside him. At first glance, he thought it was Cordia. But that was not possible. She was all the way up in Lamar. He started to fall back to sleep, but then he decided he had better check again. He lifted his heavy eyelids one more time and then closed them. It was Cordia.
“Hello,” she said quietly.
After a few seconds, he mumbled, “You’re a dream.” He scratched his face but did not open his eyes.
“What?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.
“I said, ‘You’re a dream,’ a fabrication. You can’t be real.”
She laughed then. How long had it been since she had done that, laughed? “I am real,” she reassured him. “Open your eyes, and you’ll see.”
“Nope,” he said stubbornly. “No use in torturing myself.”
Cordia laughed again, “Come on,” she said. “I have driven all this way to see those deep brown eyes of yours, and now you won’t open them. Now who is being tortured?” She glanced down just long enough to find his hand, clasping it gently, and when she looked back up, his eyes were open and fixed on her. “Hello,” she said again.
He was smiling back at her now. “Hi. Miss Cordia Pike. Didn’t know if I would ever see you again.”
She nodded, understanding what he was hinting at. “How are you?” she asked, still studying his face.
“Well,” he began, “can’t complain too much. Been better. Could be much worse.” He was still holding her hand, but now he reached over with his other and gently began to play with her hair. “Don’t your ma throw fits when you don’t put this up?” he asked teasingly.
She shook her head at him. “Well, you can’t be too bad. Feeling good enough to be ornery.”
Now he began to laugh, at least as much as he could in his condition. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sure you didn’t come all this way so that I could give you trouble.”
“No, no I didn’t.” Then, she changed the subject back to his injuries. “Where are you shot?” she asked.
“Uhm, one here, in the shoulder,” he said pulling the top of his shirt open so that she could see, “and one here near my collarbone.”
She grimaced at both wounds, though they were bandaged. Still, the idea of getting shot was not a pleasant one. “Did it hurt really badly?” she asked quietly.
“Actually,” he said, “I don’t recall. I passed out from losing too much blood pretty quick. Hurt something awful later on when the doctor dug the bullets out.” She covered her face when he said that, which for some reason, almost made him laugh again. “Don’t feel so good right now, either. But I reckon I’ll be all right.”
Cordia prayed that what he was saying was true because she couldn’t imagine losing both Jaris and Will at the same time.
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