called out. “If you could just bring me whatever bandages you have.”
“Well, I’d really like to clean it myself,” said JT. “Are you decent? Can I come in?”
She heard his knees pop as he knelt and lifted the tent flap. “Need a hand getting out? Let’s take a look at it in the sunlight. Dixie’s got some hot water ready. Aiy,” he said as his eyes adjusted to the dimness. “Ruth. What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
“It wasn’t like this at breakfast?”
“I didn’t look at it this morning. And at lunch you had the dog to deal with, and Mitchell and all. It’s not that bad,” she said.
“With all due respect, ma’am, if I took you into a clinic right now, they’d have you on antibiotics before you could blink.”
“That’s just it,” Ruth said. “I have some Cipro with me.”
“Cipro? As in Cipro?”
“We always carry Cipro.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“Because,” she began, “because,” but she couldn’t come up with a reason.
JT sighed. “Okay. So. Have you taken one yet?”
“I can’t find it.”
JT dropped his head. Ruth didn’t think such melodrama was necessary.
“I’m sure it’s around somewhere,” she said. “I’ll check with Lloyd.”
“What are we looking for? A prescription bottle?”
“A blue pillbox. About this long, with separate compartments for each day of the week.”
“Any chance Lloyd might have lost it?”
It was his emphasis on the word “lost.” Obviously he knew. She looked into his clear, blue eyes, then looked away.
“Does everyone know?” she asked evenly.
“Some might. Ruth,” he said, “I wish you’d said something.”
“The people back in the office might not have let us come.”
“But you could have said something to me, once the trip was under way.”
“I’m sorry,” said Ruth. “Don’t be mad.”
JT sighed. “I’m not mad. I’m just worried about your leg. And if we have to evacuate you, we’ll have to evacuate Lloyd too,” he said.
The word was sharp, sudden, unexpected. Evacuate? This wasn’t a rattlesnake bite or a broken bone—it was merely a cut, a cut that would heal if she could only find the Cipro.
“Don’t say that word,” she said angrily.
“Ruth,” he said, “I have to do what’s right.”
“But you can’t evacuate us! That wouldn’t be right! It’s our last trip! Do you know what it would do to Lloyd? Do you know? It would kill him,” she said. “One helicopter ride, that’s all it would take to erase everything.”
“But your leg,” he said. “If it gets worse—”
“It’s not going to get worse,” she said. “Well find the Cipro, and it’ll get better. Stop thinking like that.”
“He needs you to be well,” said JT.
“He needs to stay on the river!”
“At the expense of your leg?”
“You’re not listening,” she said. “My leg is going to be fine.”
JT ran his fingers through his hair, and despite her anger, she felt a maternal protectiveness toward him. Of course he was worried. Of course he would be thinking about an evacuation. But he didn’t know what it was like to be old, to be facing death square in the face, constantly aware of every event possibly being your last: your last Christmas, last time on an airplane, last trip down the river.
She didn’t fault him for not knowing this, but she wasn’t going to allow the word “evacuate” to be spoken in any form down here in the canyon. Not in her tent, anyway. She scooted toward the door flap, then motioned for JT to go ahead of her.
“Help me up,” she said. He gave her his hand, and she pulled herself up. The light was pink; golden dust flecked the air. Down toward the river, where they had set up the kitchen, people stood at the prep table, chopping vegetables. JT led her to a log, where she sat while he went and got the first aid kit, along with a pan of hot water.
“We’ve had a good marriage, JT,” she said when he returned. “We’ve been good to each other.”
JT knelt and pulled on a pair of gloves. “Well,” he said, wringing out a washcloth, “not many people can say that.”
“And I know what lies ahead.” She winced as he dabbed at her leg. “I know it’s not going to be pretty. I read the books. I go to the support groups. Sometimes I wish he’d just have a heart attack in the night.”
JT looked into Ruth’s eyes. They were gray and lashless, but she had penciled a thin line across her upper lid and darkened her eyebrows; and he wondered if there was any other woman he