James is a jerk
What do we do when camping?” A confused Leah asked her dad after he mentioned that they would be spending the weekend at a camping ground. “Well basically we will be sleeping in a tent for the weekend; it will give you a chance to spend some time in nature. There’s fishing, hiking, campfires, and lots of outside games. There’s a lot of animals in the woods that we can look for. How does all of that sound to you sweetie?”
Leah though about what her father said for a minute before asking “Can I bring my book?”
“Oh no, honey, no, this weekend is for us to spend some family time together; and we can’t do that if you spent the whole time with your face buried in a book.”
“If it’s family time why is James coming with us?” Leah asked confused.
“Sweetie, the Carter’s have lived next door long before you were born, they have been like family for a long time now.” Her dad said as he finally looked up from his news paper to look at Leah.
“I don’t like James! He’s mean to me; I don’t like playing with him!” Leah said as she stomped her small foot as hard as she could.
“He’s younger than you love, just give him some time.” Her dad said as he folded up the news paper and set it aside.
“I don’t want him around!” Leah’s voice started to rise.
“Leah enough!” His voice boomed as he stood up from his chair. “We are going camping this weekend and you are going to play nice with the Carter boy, got it?!”
“Yes daddy.” Leah said in a meek voice as she headed up to her room.
What Leah was not aware of was that two other families besides the Carter’s would be joining them for the weekend. Joining Leah and James are siblings Matthew and Elizabeth Copper and Joyce Hudson. Elizabeth and Joyce are around Leah’s age while Matthew is a couple years younger. Leah never imaged that she would enjoy camping this much. She spent hours catching frogs with Joyce, her dad and Mr. Copper showed her the correct way to bait a hook. She sat on a log next to Matthew as they watched Joyce’s dads build a fire in the fire pit. When Elizabeth and Joyce called to Leah about a game called horseshoes, she jumped at the chance to play a new game.
Halfway through their second round of horseshoes was when everything changed for Leah. Leah was winning five to three against Elizabeth when the adults started calling the kids for dinner. Elizabeth and Leah decided to race the 20 feet it would take to get to their parents. They were quickly joined by Joyce and James. James got to close to Leah and ended up elbowing her out of the way. Unprepared, Leah lost her balance on the incline they were running next to. She rolled three times on her way down the steep incline until she landed at the bottom. Hearing the commotion, Elizabeth stopped to see what happened and noticed Leah laying unresponsive at the bottom of the drop-off.
“Leah! Leah! Mr. Rilke! Leah fell down the hill!” Elizabeth yelled as she and Joyce knelt on the ground. Kurt swung around to see the girls looking down the incline, he took off towards them just as Leah started to stir.
“Leah honey!? Can you hear me? Are you ok?!” Leah managed to pull herself up from the ground and looked up at her father with blurry eyes. “Daddy? My head hurts.” Leah said as she tried to get her feet underneath her. “Baby don’t move, ok? I’m coming down!” Kurt said as he started to slide his way down the drop off. Leah finally managed to stand up, but she made the mistake of stepping closer to the hill after a dizzy spell caused her to loss her balance. She had stepped next to a hole when she felt a sharp pain on the side of her leg. Leah screamed as she fell backwards and a brown snake with a black rattle let go of her leg and scurried back into its hole. Kurt had only managed to get a glimpse of it, but he was able to identify it as a timber rattlesnake. That couldn’t be possible though, the campground was supposed to be free of snakes. But when did mother nature play by anyone’s rules but her own? Kurt finally reached Leah who was now sitting on the ground crying. After the longest minute of Kurt’s life, he picked up his daughter and climbed his way back up the hill.
“Honey bring the car around! Justin grab a wet cloth and soap.” Kurt yelled for his wife and James’ father. When he finally reached the top, he laid Leah on the ground as Justin returned with the rag. Kurt started to clean the wound when Leah lost consciousness and Kurt was unsuccessful at waking her back up. When Maryann pulled up with the car Kurt loaded Leah in the back and Maryann jumped out of the front seat to allow Kurt to drive while she got in the back with Leah. Maryann pulled Leah’s head into her lap while Kurt got in the front seat and started to drive to the nearest hospital. Maryann wrapped her arm across Leah to keep her on the seat and she started praying that Leah would be alright.
Kurt and Maryann sat in the waiting room for three hours as their daughter fought for her life. When a doctor finally emerged Kurt and Maryann rose up from their seats.
“Mr. and Mrs. Rilke, the antivenom has started to take effect. We won’t know more until Leah wakes up, but she is currently on oxygen to regulate her breathing. We will have to keep her here for a couple days to monitor everything, but we are optimistic.” Dr. Ramirez said as he led Kurt and Maryann to the room Leah is staying in. Maryann sobbed when she saw Leah for the first time, she slowly sat down on the chair next to her bed and grabbed Leah’s tiny hand in her own. Kurt tried to hold back his own tears as he stood next to the bed and just looked down at his little girl, feeling like he had failed her.
It took three hours for Leah to wake up and she did so with a start and immediately tried to rip the oxygen mask of. “No, no, honey don’t do that.” Kurt said as he moved her hand and replaced the mask. Leah calmed down at the sight of her mother and father. After the mask was reattached Kurt went to find a doctor. After returning with Dr. Ramirez and a nurse Kurt stood behind his wife as nurse and doctor started to run tests. “Hello Leah, I’m glad to see you are awake, you had us worried for a while there. Nurse Hillary, will you check the oxygen levels. I think we can take you off the oxygen in a couple minutes since it seems your breathing has returned to normal.” After running a few tests Dr. Ramirez was able to take the mask off of Leah’s face causing her to start coughing. When Leah was able to calm down, she looked at her mom and asked “mommy? What happened?”
“You got bit by a snake baby, the doctor had to give you some medicine to make you feel better.”
“Am I ok?” Leah asked her parents. Dr. Ramirez ended up answering instead, “The antivenom has taken effect but we have to keep you here for a day or two to make sure you don’t get sick again. You will also probably have a scar on your ankle from the bite.”
“But she will be ok?” Kurt said as he looked down at Leah laying in the hospital bed.
“Yes, she will.”
After three days of lying in an uncomfortable hospital bed Leah was finally released. It would take another four days for Leah to be allowed to go back to school. When she walked into her classroom on Monday she was immediately tackled by Martha, followed by Toni, Rachel, and Nora. The girls not having heard from her in over a week by now, were worried about her. They tried to ask her all kinds of questions, but she told them she would tell them what happened at recess when they were all together. If anyone noticed the slight limp in Leah’s leg as she walked to her desk, they didn’t mention it. After three hours of boring class, it was time for recess…and time to meet the rest of her friends. She once again was tackled, this time she was knocked to the ground by Fatin, she was also excited to see Dot and Shelby again. When Fatin finally let her go, Leah was able to move to sit under the tree near the monkey bars. Fatin sat right next to Leah as the rest sat across from her in a half circle. Leah then proceeded to tell her friends about camping, the race, the snake, and finally waking up in the hospital.
“Hospital food is disgusting; I couldn’t wait to go home. Plus, I missed you guys.” Leah had said.
“If I ever meet James, I’m going to beat him up, he shouldn’t have touched you!” Toni said as she punched the ground.
“Toni, we know your mad, but you can’t beat up people like that, you’ll get in trouble.” Shelby had said with concern in her voice.
Toni looked down at the ground as her face got red with anger. Fatin, who was lying her head on Leah’s shoulder reacted to Dot’s next question. “Can we see the bite?”
Leah was reluctant but soon removed her shoe and sock, before rolling up her pant leg. The scar was nothing more than four sharp points two on each side of her right leg. After a few more questions the kids decided to leave Leah alone and start playing. Fatin stayed sitting with Leah after she informed everyone it still hurt to stand for more then a few minutes and would rather stay sitting. Leah looked at Fatin and asked, “Aren’t you going to play with them?”
Fatin shook her head as she said “No, I’m ok right here, Nora can I borrow your markers?” Nora, without looking up from her notebook, tossed her pack of markers to Fatin. Fatin pulled a few markers out of the pack and told Leah “Give me your leg.”
“What?”
“Give me your right leg.”
Leah stuck her leg out to which Fatin grabbed it and put it on her own leg before starting to draw with the markers around the snake bite.
“What are you drawing?” Leah asked trying to see what exactly Fatin was doing. Fatin leaned over to block Leah’s view. Sighing Leah leaned back and let Fatin do what she wanted. After a few minutes Fatin was done and finally let Leah see. Fatin had drawn a butterfly at the base of Leah’s leg. The body on the front of her leg with the wings spreading to the sides and connecting across the bite marks and turning them into parts of the wings. Leah smiled when she saw it and thanked Fatin. Fatin trying to avoid looking directly at Leah said “Whatever, I was just board.” Saved by the bell, in a way, the girls stood up at the call from their teacher. Fatin waited for Leah to roll down her pant leg and put her sock and shoe back on before reached down to help Leah stand up. She walked with Leah as she limped to the door. After returning back to class Leah sat in her seat listening to the teacher drone on. After she started to space out, she looked down at her leg where her pant leg had ridden again. She smiled when she saw the drawing and though maybe the bite wasn’t so bad.