Traveling Light by Thalasinos Andrea

Author:Thalasinos, Andrea [Thalasinos, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2013-07-16T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

It was early afternoon when she got back to Rick’s. The cars were gone. She put Fotis in the yard with Sam and went to check in on the eagle. Rick’s front door was wide open; Sigmund stepped out as she neared.

“Oh great,” she mumbled. She stopped and looked at the bird, wondering if he’d try to block her entrance.

Sigmund stayed put. She shuffled around him and into the foyer; the finer hairs on her body prickled as she moved.

“Rick? You here?” After several moments, she headed out toward the raptor ICU. Sigmund followed, grunting.

“Get lost,” she muttered. He looked up adoringly.

Rick’s truck was in the driveway. She saw the raptor ICU door was closed but not latched.

She pushed it open. “Rick?” she called.

“In here.” The eagle lay faceup on a towel on the metal table, panting. “Darryl called. His white count’s sky high; something’s going on.”

She walked up to the table and touched the bird’s shoulder. “That was your hunch.”

He turned toward her. “Yeah. Glad I started those antibiotics.”

The bird pivoted his head toward Paula and blinked. She stroked the brown feathers on his chest with her index finger. His eyes closed. “Ella, oraios mou.” With the other hand she began smoothing the feathers on the top of his head. The white head feathers always looked wet. The bird opened his eyes again, too weak to turn his head back. Hard to believe it was the same fierce creature of the other day.

“Hi,” she said. The bird seemed to like her touch, plus Rick didn’t tell her to stop.

“Gonna be another long night,” he said, and began to set up a tiny bag of IV fluids. “He’s pretty dehydrated. Tubed him some fluids earlier, but this’ll be more direct.” He moved toward the counter, opened a drawer and took out a tiny needle with what looked like an attached valve. He set the needle into the eagle’s side. The bird didn’t jump.

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

“Not a needle.”

Rick then wrapped the bird’s torso unwinding a roll of white gauze to stabilize the needle, and then several more times with what looked like an Ace bandage to hold the valve in place. “I’m afraid he’s got pneumonia,” Rick said as he exhaled. “High lead levels can cause respiratory distress.”

“Will the antibiotics help?”

He raised his eyebrows, looked at the eagle’s face and sighed. “Hope so.”

Paula watched the bird, head turned toward her, too weak to protest. How could lead buck shot and sinkers down such a majestic creature?

“Why don’t hunters and fishermen just switch to nontoxic?”

Rick looked at her. “You tell me.”

“They should be forced to watch this bird suffer,” she said angrily, her voice close to a holler.

“Shhh,” he said. “Shouting upsets him.”

“Sorry, it just pisses me off.”

Rick looked sympathetically at the bird.

“Think he’ll make it?”

“He’s pretty weak.” Rick pulled up two tall wooden stools. “I’ve seen too many die. Unless we get this secondary infection under control there’s no telling.”

Paula scooted up the stool, leaning on the metal table to get closer to the bird.

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