Fly Like a Girl by Mary Jennings Hegar

Author:Mary Jennings Hegar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2020-03-02T16:00:00+00:00

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The rotation at TK was rough. Even when we thought we had done some good, things could go bad very quickly. One night we were called out on a mission and assigned a two-Apache escort. That was never a good sign—it meant that we were going into a particularly dangerous area. On that night, we were headed into the heart of bad-guy territory to pick up a wounded three-year-old out of an unfriendly village. Intel reported that the three-year-old was in need of medevac due to chemical burns he had sustained inhaling fumes from his father’s homemade fertilizer bomb.

As we landed, I surveyed the town in my night-vision goggles. About fifty yards away from us, people began to emerge and cluster together, pointing and gesturing at us. The small crowd began walking our way and suddenly grew to a group of about thirty people jogging toward us. This didn’t look good. I called it in to the Apaches overhead and started checking to see if anyone in the group was armed. How close could we let them get before we would have to take off?

When they were about twenty-five yards away, Curt slightly lifted the collective, ready to pull pitch and get us out of there. Just then the beautiful attack helicopters that were with us flew a low pass about fifteen feet off of the ground, right off our nose. The message to the growing crowd was clear: That’s close enough. The townspeople screeched to a halt, continuing to stand there and wave a fist now and then, but we were able to load our patient and get out safely. Didn’t they know we were trying to save one of their kids?

The boy’s father boarded the aircraft alongside his son but wouldn’t speak to us. He just glared at us with his sun-darkened, wrinkled eyes. It was as if he expected us to try to kill them both at any minute. The little boy, on the other hand, quickly stole our hearts. We could see that he was in pain and utterly terrified. The sound of the helicopter was probably the loudest, most frightening thing he had ever experienced, and Thor, who was checking his vitals, was clearly scaring him. It was at that time my medic won my loyalty forever.

I had never really noticed, but apparently, Thor carried a Beanie Baby–sized teddy bear on his vest for times just like this. When he pulled it from its pouch and then lifted the boy’s hand to place the bear on his chest, the little boy’s fear disappeared. The smile that briefly crossed his face before he snuggled into the teddy bear was the type of moment that reminded us why we were over there.

After we got him back to the base and into the hospital, I couldn’t seem to get him out of my mind. I kept going back to visit this little angel, as I often did my other patients, to see how he was doing. Each day he looked a little better.

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