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that way.”
      He brought us some cheese, deer
sausage and crackers, slicing off the thick white cheddar for me
and laying it on each individual cracker. Well, that was kind of
sweet. I took a few.
      We watched television for about an
hour and then the tears started again. “I need to go home and see
Kelly,” I kept saying. “I can feel her wondering where I am. She
needs me!”
      “Well, the chopper’s been in Plymouth
for service,” said Shay. “But when it gets back tomorrow I’ll have
you choppered out.”
      “Oh no, no, no. Out of the question.
Thanks but no thanks. I can’t get in one of those things, I think
I’d die.” My stomach turned a flip just thinking about it.
      “Well, then, you had better get to bed
because you’ve got a lot of work to do tomorrow,” said Shay.
      “I’m not the help!” I protested,
sitting up. “My back hurts so bad! My whole body hurts, even the
bottoms of my feet!”
      Shay got up and went to the hall
closet. He came back with a blanket that he spread out on the den
room floor.
      “Lay down on your stomach,” he
directed.
      “What? Oh no. I’m not doing that.”
      “Shut.” (He never said ‘shut up,’
always ‘shut.’) He snapped his fingers and pointed to the
blanket.
      Too tired to argue, I thought, Let’s
just get the damn thing over with.
      I lay flat down on the blanket and he
straddled my back, sort of sitting on my bottom, putting his weight
on his knees on the floor. He put both of his hands in the center
of my back, both covering my spine; left hand above, right hand
below. His hands felt large and warm.
      “When I push down with my hands, you
slowly lift your head and neck upward,” he said. “Then slowly bring
your shoulders up.”
      I did as he said and heard a big pop.
Then he got off my back, sat on the floor and pushed the pressure
points on the bottoms of my feet. That felt so good I just drifted
off to sleep right there.
      I woke up alone on my side of the bed.
It was morning. I got up and went for a soak in the tub (this time
no work clothes waiting for me, thank gosh!) I thought about Kelly
in the bath and started crying again. Well, I thought, one good
thing about crying in the bath, there’s no better place for
tears.
      While I was soaking and having a cry I
heard the chopper land outside. A few minutes after its massive
descent, I was startled by a knock on my door.
      “Hey Callie?”
      Thank gosh I locked the door, I
thought.
      “Callie,” Shay’s voice came through.
“The chopper is in and we’re taking it up to look at the damage.
Want to go along?”
      “Are you crazy?” I said from the tub.
“I told you I’d never get in that thing.”
      “When we get back I’m going out to
work, so I’ll see you this evening. Make yourself at home and do
anything you want today, okay?”
      “Okay,” I said from the tub.
      I ended up helping Cookie, ironing
Shay’s shirts and rearranging some cupboards in the kitchen so it
was easier for Cookie to reach.
      In the afternoon I made us a pot of
hot tea and we sat at the small kitchen table, which was quickly
becoming my favorite place in the house.
      “You know, Callie,” she said,"every
time I see Shay and you're not around, he says, 'Cookie, where's
Callie?' Then when you see me, it's, 'Cookie, where's Shay?' Now
then, that's when the two of you don't know the other one is
looking! When you're together in the same room, the two of you act
like the other one isn't even there."
      She shook her head and took a sip of
tea. “Now, old Cookie can see there’s something going on here that
you two kids can’t see. Nothing gets by old Cookie!”
      ***

    Shay came in around 7 p.m. and took a shower.
He said he needed to do some bookwork and then he was going to take
the chopper into Lincoln to order more feed to be dropped to the
livestock that was stranded. He asked if I’d like to help him tally
the count.
      “No,” I said,