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When the next strong gusts came, Juliet was ready. She pulled back her head, bared out her teeth, and let out a long, powerful, wail. This time when the wind howled at her, Juliet howled back.
And that’s how P.J. found Juliet. Stuck deep in the mud and howling at the moon.
What the hell?P.J. stood frozen to the spot as his mind tried to reconcile what his eyes were seeing. It took him a minute to assess the nightmarish scene. The entire setting was so surreal that P.J. felt like he was caught in an old time creature feature movie. He wiped the rain from his eyes twice before his vision cleared and sent the correct signal to his brain.
“Help me.” Juliet pleaded through a mouth covered in mud. The whites of her eyes were bloodied from the effort of straining to pry herself loose from the quicksand like clay. Juliet’s teeth were chattering, and it seemed like the earth was intent on swallowing her up. She reached out for P.J. with arms that were tired and weak.
Juliet’s desperate plea broke through the raging weather and at once galvanized P.J. into action. He pushed the gun back into his waist band, took off his hat and jacket, and did his best to cover Juliet’s head and body from the storm. The cold, driving rain immediately stabbed into P.J.’s with its icy shards. The pain served to bring home to him how much Juliet must be suffering. He didn’t know how long she had been out here, but he knew with every passing moment that the likelihood of her getting hypothermia was increased tenfold.
The moment P.J. knelt down next to Juliet, he felt the sodden ground shift under him. It took precious long minutes while P.J. and Juliet worked together to try to get Juliet out of that mud. All the while the weather railed against them. As soon as they made some leeway…managed to wiggle Juliet an inch or two one way or the other… the crevice they had created would fill up with the driving rain and swallow up another inch of her.
“Juliet! I’m going to have to go and get something to help get you out!” P.J. yelled against the raging storm. He knew that it was the last thing Juliet wanted to hear, but she wasn’t going to last much longer like this. He could already begin to feel her fading in and out of consciousness. P.J. was going to have to leave Juliet in the black night and freezing mud in order to save her.
“No!! Nononononononno!!!” She wailed like a wounded animal and began to claw at the earth around her. “We can do this. See, look? We can! We can do this! We can!”
P.J. felt horrible about what he had to do, he felt terrible that he would have to leave her, even if only for a few minutes. He had to hand it to her, she had been a real trooper. Juliet had done whatever P.J. had asked of her without question. She had moved at his every demand and followed his every direction. Juliet had expended all of her energy to try and help P.J. as he twisted and turned and pulled painfully at her body in an effort to release her from the mud. But with the soft ground continually shifting beneath his unsteady feet, P.J. just couldn’t maintain enough balance to give himself the leverage that was needed.
All the while the storm raged on. The unrelenting torrents of rain had begun to freeze and turn into sleet. This time when P.J. made another move to free Juliet, his own foot sunk to his ankle and it took a strong effort to pull it out. Juliet seemed to be disappearing before P.J.’s eyes. She had been trapped in the freezing mud too long, she had to be losing a tremendous amount of body heat. He was worried that soon her system would begin to shut down. P.J. was afraid that any moment Juliet might pass out and thus become dead weight. If that happened, he would never be able to get her out by himself. With her car stuck across the road, lines down, and roads washed out all over town, help would not be possible. Taking swift and drastic action was the only hope they had. P.J. was going to have to leave Juliet here alone while he went to get supplies. There was simply no other choice.
Now, P.J. sat on his haunches with his arms wrapped around Juliet’s torso, his hat on her head, and his leather jacket draped over her shoulders. He held on to her tight, kissed the top of her head and murmured reassurances. P.J was doing his best to keep Juliet as warm and as calm as possible.
“Juliet.” He repeated low into her ear. “I have to go get us some help. I have some rope in the house, I need to go…”
“No! No!” She wrapped both her thin arms in a tight hold around his neck. “P.J. please. I can do it. We can do it! I’ll try harder, I will! We can do this! JUST DON’T LEAVE ME HERE ALONE!” Juliet begged P.J. in a terror filled scream that was loud enough to rival the storm. “PLEASE DON’T GO!”
P.J. felt it like a punch in the gut when he had to peel Juliet’s arms from his neck.
But when he had to kick off the hand that held his ankle in a death grip?
That, P.J. felt in his heart.
Juliet thought she might be dying. After suffering the pain of what felt like a thousand needles, now she couldn’t feel her legs. She was a lump of mud in the middle of a rising pool. The smell was terrible… mold, muck, decay, and now urine. Juliet thought idly that she must have peed her pants.
He had left her. P.J. had left her there all alone.
Juliet just prayed that he hadn’t left her there to die.
Juliet tried to keep her eyes glued to the path where P.J. had disappeared, but the force of the wind and the rain made it almost impossible to keep her head up. Juliet listened though. To every howl, to every creak, to every snap that might signal P.J.’s return. Her head hurt with an intensity that made her vomit in long, gasping shudders. Juliet’s belly burned with every heaving wretch. Her eyes became heavy, her brain was beginning to shut down. Juliet knew that she had begun to move in and out of consciousness.
“Juliet? Juliet? Damn it! Juliet, wake up!” She heard P.J.’s sharp tone. And Juliet wanted to respond to him, she did. She was just so tired. Through the haze, she heard the tinkling sound of glass breaking. It was a pleasant noise…like windchimes or…
Wham!
Juliet felt the sudden snap of her neck as it was pulled back. All at once, the powerful smell of ammonia crashed through the sensitive membranes of Juliet’s nostrils and rampaged through her lungs. She reflexively breathed in sharply. Her eyes watered, her face flushed. Juliet felt as though she had been kicked in the face by a donkey.
“Smelling salts.” P.J. explained abruptly, as he quickly unscrewed the thermos he held in his hands. “Two hour old coffee laced with whiskey. Hot and strong. Take in as much as you can. Now open up.” And without further ado, P.J. McCabe put a strong thumb and index finger on either side of Juliet’s cheeks and squeezed. Then he carefully poured long sips into her open mouth. When Juliet’s eyes met his over the thermos, P.J. tried to smile at her. “That’s good, babe. Real good. A few more sips to warm you, then you and me? We’re getting you outa here. Yeah?”
Juliet took one last, long, gulp of the bitter, bracing brew and called out weakly. “I’m ready.”
“Okay. Let’s do this.” P.J. took off the heavy rope that was wrapped across his chest and made a large loop. “Put your arms up, Juliet. Higher. Yeah, like that, but closer together.” He commanded as he dropped the rope to just under Juliet’s breasts. Then he pulled tight. When she winced in pain, P.J. didn’t hesitate. “You can slap me for this later.” He told her as his big hands moved quickly and firmly over Juliet’s breasts. P.J. worked fast to readjust the rope to give him the most leverage and her the least pain. Then he brought out a pair of leather work gloves and put them on Juliet’s hands. P.J. tightened the fit by placing rubber bands over the cuffs.
“You’re gonna have to do your best to hold on to the rope when I start pulling. If you can hold on, it will take some of the strain from the tight loop off your chest. The gloves will stop you from getting rope burns.”
Then P.J. took a minute to find a thick, strong branch. When he did, he threw the end of the rope over that branch to create a pulley. All the while the weather continued to howl and shriek and punish the earth around them.
“Okay. You ready?”
“I’m ready!!” The sudden and resolute strength in Juliet’s voice shocked P.J. His eyes snapped right to her. When Juliet met that stare straight on, P.J. noted with surprise the trust that radiated out from her eyes. Juliet looked at P.J. like he could do anything. She looked at him as if she knew that he would save her or die trying.
