“Land sakes, look at all of you!” Agnes hustled them just inside the crowded shelter to a small table near the canvas flap. Two lanterns swung from a roof pole, pouring their swaying streams of light onto the small area. The medicinal smell of antiseptic tainted the air, and volunteers nursed the disabled all around.
Through the crowd Hallie caught a glimpse of shadows moving in a brightly lit area cordoned off with sheets. Moans and sobs welled from behind the translucent sheet, the sounds louder than the noisy chatter and cries in the open area. One loud wail had the twins clinging to her, and Knut unknowingly squeezed her burned leg. Hallie sucked in a pain-whistled breath.
Agnes was too occupied rinsing cloths in a bucket of water to notice Hallie or her reaction. “Set the little ones up here and I’ll fix those burns.” She wrung out the cloth and came at Knut.
He eyed her suspiciously. “You’re not gonna hurt me are you?”
Agnes paused. “Of course not. I’m only going to wash off this dirty soot and then put some medicine on those blisters.”
Hallie had been holding her breath, knowing the twins to be especially leery of anything remotely painful. Agnes apparently had more experience with four-year-old children than Hallie had imagined. Agnes picked up a large brown bottle of antiseptic and poured it on a clean cloth. “Now, dearie, this might sting just a little, but—”
“What’s a sting?” Knut demanded.
“Bees sting, dummy!” Gunnar stated. “And it hurts real bad!” The argument began.
Hallie shifted her weight off her bad leg, and Dagny must have noticed. She elbowed Hallie to get her attention. “Get your leg tended first,” she whispered. “The boys’ burns are minor, and they’ll fight Mrs. Treadwell all night if they think they’ll get away with it.”
“I’ll get my leg looked at later.” Hallie no more wanted the scatterbrained Mrs. Treadwell tending her hurts than did the boys.
Dagny lifted her chin to apparently tell Hallie a thing or two, but she was too late. Liv, the picture of innocence and goodness, approached the minister’s wife.
“Mrs. Treadwell, Hallie’s hurt real bad. Much worse than these two. Please help her.” Liv’s sweet little plea worked. She pointed a tattling finger at Hallie’s leg.
“Well, Lord Almighty, why didn’t you say something before? Let me see, Hallie.” She plucked a lantern off the pole and leaned down to get a closer look. “My eyes! Sit up here right now while I go get a doctor.”
Resigned to her fate, Hallie sat on the table. Four anxious, dingy faces stared at the angry red flesh of her exposed leg. Dagny looked worried, Liv was the color of pea soup, and the twins’ identical faces mirrored their curiosity.
“Hallie?” whispered Knut.
“Hmm?”
“Does it... sting?”
“No, love. A sting isn’t so bad, you know. It’s just kind of a strong tickle.” She looked at her leg. The white skin on the inside of her calf and lower thigh had mottled into ridged bloody blisters. The edges were charred black. She closed her eyes for a moment.
“My, my, what’s this, young lady?” A harried doctor examined the burn. He noticed the fretful faces surrounding her. “I think, if this wound continues up as far as I think it does,” he said, “that we’d better fix you up in the back area.” He helped her off the table and led Hallie away from the others.
Cots lined the back wall of the tent, each bed filled with severely charred bodies. Women dipped toweling in buckets of milk and saturated the burned areas. Antiseptic couldn’t conceal the stench of burned flesh that tainted this air. The doctor led Hallie to another sheeted area and helped her onto the table. “Lie flat, young lady, and let’s have a look at this.”
Hallie lay silently while the doctor worked, cleaning her burn and piercing the festering blisters.
“I’ll just be a moment more. You’re a real soldier, young lady. Better than most men I’ve seen. I’ll need to put this salve on it and then wrap it to keep it clean.” He walked to the head of the table, and Hallie wiped the quiet tears from the corners of her eyes. His smile was kind, and he patted her hand. “You know, you’ll have a scar from this.”
Hallie nodded.
“Well, not to worry, my dear, any girl as pretty as you needn’t worry about scarring. No one but your husband will ever see it. Now you’ll need to change this bandage every few hours for a day or so, and then at morning and night for a week. Pop any blisters that fester up and apply this salve. Once it scabs over, you can stop wrapping it, but keep the salve on the scabs to keep them from cracking. The itch will drive you crazy, but it’ll pass. Use vinegar if it gets unbearable.”
He finished his doctoring and helped her up. “You can use this salve on those facial burns, too. Oh, and if there’s any sign of infection, you come see me right away. Second floor, Brannan Building, California and Stockton, Dr. Jim.”
Hallie found Agnes awaiting her at the entrance. The woman toddled toward her. “Are you all right, my dear? I got the others settled there on the hill. How’s that leg? Do you need some help?”
“No, I’m just so tired. How are the boys? Did they give you any trouble?”
“Heavens no! We got them all fixed up and they’re bedded down right up here.” Agnes followed a narrow trail through the throng of homeless, tired people that covered the lower slopes.
The women reached a small group snuggled sleepily near the gate to the signal house. Blankets and precious pillows were piled high for their comfort, and Hallie knew this was Agnes’s doing. “Thank you, Mrs. Treadwell. They’ve all been through so much today.”
“It’s nothing, my dear. I feel just terrible about this whole thing. The reverend and I lost the rectory, the church, and the school. We’re staying up here tonight and with my sister until we can rebuild.” Agnes placed her small hand on Hallie’s arm. “I feel just dreadful. We can’t offer you a place to stay right now.”
