Chapter 16

When I awoke,I was awash in blinding white light.

Had I died?

It took me a couple of seconds to recognize Keone squatting beside me, peering into my face. His truck engine rumbled, only a few feet from where I lay; the headlights had me in their blaze. A searing pain in my side made it hard to take in a full breath.

"What happened, Kat?" he said. "I came back to get my dinner and maybe work things out, and found you lying here!"

I tried to respond, but with so little oxygen to work with, I could only hiss out, "Hey."

"Don't try to talk," he said. "You must have fallen. I've got an ambulance on the way. They're coming from Hana, so it's going to be a few minutes."

I tried to sit up, but the fireworks flashing knocked me back down. "I must have hit my head as well as my ribs. I slipped on the rock."

"Kat, please lie still. You must've done some damage because you were out cold when I arrived."

I blinked; it was the only movement I could handle without causing more pain. "This is so embarrassing. I thought I saw someone by the door, and I turned too fast."

"Rubber slippers aren't great when the footing is uneven," he agreed. He took my hand. "You're so cold. Just try to relax and breathe."

"Breathing doesn't feel good," I wheezed.

The ambulance arrived. When the EMT gently palpated my left side, it took all the grit I could gather to keep from vomiting up my dinner.

"Tender?" he said.

I nodded, light-headed from having to take tiny sips of air rather than filling my lungs.

"I think you may have cracked your ribs. You're gonna need X-rays. First, let's get you to the clinic."

Next thing I knew I was being carefully rolled over and slid onto a backboard. Then they hoisted me onto a gurney. Mental sparklers continued to flicker and flash. Beyond the light display my brain was putting on, I saw a profusion of stars in the black velvet of the Ohia night sky.

Keone watched them hook me up to an IV and check vitals. "Call Aunt Fae," I wheezed.

"Already done," he said. "I'll follow and meet you there," he called, as they closed the door.

"Let us examine you," said a nurse wearing a blue mask over the lower part of her face when we arrived at the Hana Urgent Care Clinic. A female doctor, also wearing a mask, and with dark curly hair similar to Lei Texeira's, arrived soon after and, after checking me over, ordered X-rays. "We don't have the capability here at the clinic, but tomorrow I'll need you to get down to the hospital in Wailuku and get that taken care of. Are you going to need transportation?"

I was too muddled to answer but I heard Keone say in the background, "We're good. I'll make sure she gets there."

The doctor left and the nurse came over and wrapped a wide elastic bandage around my torso. I winced as each layer of binding cinched my injured torso tighter, but after it was secured, the tape did make me feel a bit more comfortable.

The doc came back in and handed Keone some paperwork and a small white paper bag.

"Make sure she only takes one every four hours after this first dose," she said. "These are great for acute pain, but they can become a slippery slope."

I took a couple of the pain pills under supervision, drinking down a full paper cup of water from a dispenser, and then Keone helped me limp back to his truck.

He opened the back of the extended cab and tried to settle me flat on the back seat, but I had to bend my knees up to fit. The pain meds eventually kicked in and I was breathing better, but the trip back from Hana to New Ohia seemed never-ending. I felt every rut, every pothole, and every dip in the road.

Aunt Fae met Keone's vehicle out in our driveway. "I've been worried sick," she said.

"Kat's got to go to Wailuku for X-rays tomorrow," said Keone. "Like I told you when I called, she fell outside the K K shack. The doctor's pretty sure she's cracked some ribs."

He rattled on about finding me, the trip to the clinic, and the doctor ruling out organ damage and a concussion, but I'd tuned out.

I was focused on his assessment that I'd simply fallen. Now that I was more comfortable and out of immediate danger, I revisited the moments after I'd grabbed the takeout bag and stepped outside.

I hadn't fallen. I'd been pushed.