All tagged 2010
A muzzle flash lit up my tent. The shotgun erupted again without warning, from just a few feet away. Flattening myself to the ground, I remember three rapid-fire thoughts: “I don’t want to get shot!” Then: “I’m the medic. I don’t want anyone to get shot.” And, as another blast shattered the night, and men shouted and raced across a meadow littered with volcanic boulders: “Someone is at least going to get cut or break a leg on those rocks.”
It was midafternoon Wednesday in January when the phone rang. The winter light through the windows was clinical white, and I was alone in the house. It was the doctor… “ Just wanted to let you know...” he began. I could sense warmth in his voice, a smile. I sat up straighter, pressed the receiver against my ear. “Your pregnancy test was positive.”
“Sweat stings my eyes, and my breath comes hard at 4,100 feet, but damned if I'll quit sawing. Muscle burn in my arm and shoulder confirms the toughness of the foot-thick cedar crushing the barbed wire fence that we're here to fix… "You want a break?" calls Jim from upslope, where he and his wife, Peg, are grappling with a tangle of wire. Behind them, the fence line threads to the horizon. After this section is repaired and restretched, we'll follow it up…”