Nine Lives - Danielle Steel Page 0,82
full force of what it meant being with him hit her like a wrecking ball while she waited.
The search continued on Friday morning, and the dispatcher told her they were “still guardedly hopeful,” which didn’t sound good to her. Helen suspected Paul was dead by then, but didn’t say anything to Maggie. She felt desperately sorry for her, and Jeff did too.
The patrols found a single signal at noon. Paul’s group had been missing for four days by then, and had gone farther afield than the rescue patrols thought they could, possibly trying to avoid the storm that was coming in. There was only one signal, and Maggie selfishly prayed it would be Paul’s. They had found each other again after thirty years, and she didn’t want it to end like this, with him dead under an avalanche on some kind of insane macho pleasure trip. The rescuers located the other signals that afternoon, scattered in the area. At first they thought there was too much wind to go in. And then, mercifully, the wind died down, and they were able to fly in.
They found Paul’s group just before dark. Maggie felt like she was in a daze by then, as she listened to what they could tell her on the phone. Three of the men were dead, the tail guide too. Two were in critical condition. The lead guide was in a coma with a shattered spine. An hour later she learned that Paul was one of the men in critical condition. They were airlifting them to the Trauma Center at Vancouver General Hospital, but by the time they got there, the lead guide had died. He was thirty-six years old and had four kids.
Maggie sat in her kitchen feeling paralyzed, not sure what to do, if she should make a run for it and go to him, or wait for further news once he got to the hospital. He might even be dead by then. She called Aden to tell him Paul was alive but in critical condition. It was all she knew, she didn’t know the extent of his injuries, or what his chances for survival were. Probably very slim by now. They had been out there for too long.
“He’s tough, Mom, he’ll make it,” Aden said, wanting it to be true. After she hung up, she knew she wanted to see Paul, before he died, to say goodbye and tell him she loved him. She hadn’t had the chance to say goodbye to Brad. Maybe this time she would.
She ran upstairs and threw some things in a bag, toothbrush, toothpaste, underwear, sweaters, jeans. She called the airline, and then Helen to tell her what she was going to do. She called a cab, closed the house, and was at the airport in time to catch a flight to Vancouver. She texted Aden that she was on her way and would call him with any news. It had been a hellish week, worse than anything she had ever been through, hoping he would make it, and terrified he was already dead. She had been afraid they might not even find his frozen body until spring.
She sat rigid in her seat on the four-hour flight, bracing herself to see him. She had no idea what he’d look like after being buried in the snow or exposed to the elements for four days.
When they landed, she took a cab to the hospital, and was told that Paul was in the Trauma ICU when she got there. Without even thinking, she said she was his wife, and a nurse led her in to see him. If she hadn’t known it was Paul, she wouldn’t have recognized him. His skin was gray with red, burned patches on it, his lips were translucent, and he looked as though he had aged twenty years since she’d seen him.
They were trying to bring his body temperature back up to normal. His hands and feet were frozen and the doctors were watching them closely for signs of frostbite and gangrene. They warned her in the hallway that he might lose his hands and feet. She prayed for him that it wouldn’t happen. It would kill him. But even if it did, she suspected he would find a way to do something dangerous and risk his life again. They would have to cut off his head or cut him in half to stop him.
He opened his eyes for an instant and looked as