A Life Wasted

Frost Bite

I drove all the way to Atlanta. There I went to a Barns & Nobel book store I knew and read up on frost bite. After seeing the pictures there was no question that I had frost bite injuries. From what I read it was likely I'd be losing body parts. The danger was from blood poising, which could kill me. I stink at understanding medical stuff, but I understood what I read about were I to go to a hospital they would likely cut off the bottom half of both my feet, most of my left hand, and all of my right fingers. Even to my untrained eye all of those parts looked dead.

Of course I couldn't go to a hospital. I didn't want to lose my feet, hand, or fingers, but I didn't want to die either. Even with that said, I wasn't going to a hospital. The only alternate treatment I could find was that I should avoid cold weather as it would cause worse damage--no problem there--and I should soak the injured limbs in warm water. This was a problem as I would need a motel room for that. It was a problem because I had no cash at all.

From the beginning I had thought of going to anti-abortionists for help. I'd managed to locate a few of them after some computer time at a small town library. I picked a person who looked likely and drove to that person's home. (Note that I am keeping this gender neutral as I don't want to give away who this was, even if it was a man or woman). This person answered the door when I knocked and said, "Can I help you?" I thought I would have been recognized, but was not. Rather than give my name I held up my black left hand with its obvious dead fingers and said, "I got that getting away." That was all it took. The person understood who I was and took me in.

I was fed two delicious hamburgers, given money that had been saved for an emergency such as this, and prayed for. I was too hot and the person too well known to have stayed there or I would have been welcomed to stay. After I left I felt better. Not physically better, but emotionally better. Just knowing that I was not alone, that people like this person cared enough to risk prison to help me, well that meant a great deal to me.

Wanting to put a distance between myself and this person, for their safety, I drove a long way before stopping to get a motel room to soak my feet. When I did stop it was in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, home of Dollywood. I picked Pigeon Forge because I knew it was dead in the winter and that motel rooms were cheap in the off season. I think I paid $18 for my room, which is about as cheap as it gets. I only rented the room for one night, but my plan was to stay long enough to start the healing process on my body.

As soon as I entered the room I started the bath water. I turned on the TV for background noise, then stripped down and got in the tub. I was so filthy that I immediately drained the tub and refilled it. I couldn't stand the water too hot, more like lukewarm. I could tell immediately that this is what I needed because everything started to hurt. It was like my feet and hands hadn't hurt at all because they'd been frozen, but now that they'd thawed out I could feel the pain. It started as an intense numb feeling, and then slowly graduated to a serious pain. Two days earlier I had shoplifted several bottles of Motrin, which I'd been taking. With this new pain I got out of the tub and went into the other room to take some more. There I heard my wife's voice. On TV.

I didn't hear the first part of what she had said, but Mary was there on TV. She said she was worried and asked me to call home, just so she would know I was okay. She said other things too, but I was too shocked to take it in. The show that was on was America's Most Wanted. I'd missed the first part, which had been an episode about me, but after Mary's interview they gave and update. They said that I'd been spotted at a truck-stop in Knoxville, Tennessee that very day. They said that I had eaten at the truck stop restaurant, even interviewed the waitress who'd served me, "A number six, eggs sunny side up." Mary would have known that wasn't me as I don't like my eggs that way, but there wasn't' any doubt that it was me. Apparently I'd broken into several games in the truck stop's game room and stolen money there. Later I was seen in the truck lot, asking drivers for a ride.

It wasn't me they had seen. Normally a false sighting would be good for me, but this one wasn't. Knoxville was an easy drive to Pigeon Forge. I was so close to that false sighting that I could easily get caught because of an intensified area search. Abandoning the room was a sickening thought, but I had no choice. I dressed as quickly as I could and left Pigeon Forge. I took a back road south through Cherokee, North Carolina and into an area of North Georgia that I knew because my mother once lived there. I drove all the way to Atlanta before getting another motel room. This one cost more.

*"A Life Wasted" is now available in paperback! Check it out at Claytonwaagner.com. And thank you for your continued reads and support! Sorry we haven't been able to respond to everyone. Dad has a lot going on right now. All good things, but time consuming.  

~Rebecca