Page 85 of Cilka's Journey

As they take care of those two men, Cilka goes back to the first man she spoke to, the one who is trapped.

“I’m sorry—one of your friends is dead.”

“The others?” he asks.

“They’re alive and we’re moving them out. Now we have to think about how to move this rock off your legs.” She stands, looking around in the gloom, feeling helpless.

“Don’t go, please.”

“I’m not going anywhere. I can’t move it though, it’s way too heavy for me, and I don’t want to roll it off. I think it needs to be lifted off, so it doesn’t do any more damage. Hang in there, Mikhail Alexandrovich, I’ll get something for your pain also.” She hunts for the supplies that Pavel had placed in the tunnel and finds the pain relief. She returns to Mikhail.

“Mikhail Alexandrovich, I’m going to give you an injection to help with the pain,” she says. “And then, when the men come back, we’re going to gently lift the rock from your legs and load you onto a stretcher. The ambulance is outside the mine and we’ll take you to the hospital.”

Mikhail painfully raises a hand and brushes it against Cilka’s face. She smiles reassuringly at him. She takes scissors from thecontainer and cuts through his coat and shirt, exposing his upper arm. She injects him slowly and watches as he relaxes, his pain diminishing.

Cilka sits in the gloomy, quiet tunnel, waiting, coughing regularly. Eventually, Pavel and the miner come back.

“All right,” she says, “you need to slide your hands under each end of the rock and when you have a good hold lift it off cleanly. Do not roll it or drop it on him.” She holds her lamp up for them. She holds her breath.

The men lift the rock, wobbling slightly, and drop it down to the side, panting with exertion. Cilka looks at Mikhail’s legs—bone protrudes through the skin of his right shin.

Pavel and the miner place Mikhail on the stretcher and they all hurry back down the long tunnel to the lift and up and out of the mine. The dead man will have to be removed when it is safer.

With Mikhail loaded into the ambulance along with the other two injured men, there is no room in the back for Cilka. Kirill leers at her. “You’ll just have to ride up front with us. Get in.”

Squashed between Kirill and Pavel, Cilka has to constantly remove Kirill’s big hairy hand, which is attempting to creep up her thigh. She winces at the cries that come from the injured men in the back as they are bounced around, Kirill showing no compassion or care for their injuries. She offers up words of comfort, telling them they are nearly there, nearly at the hospital, where doctors and nurses will take care of them.

The drive cannot end soon enough for Cilka.

CHAPTER 21

Cilka reaches over and opens the passenger door before Pavel can. He finds himself pushed out of the ambulance, Cilka right behind him. Two orderlies approach and open the back doors.

“This one, take this one first,” she points to Mikhail. “Then bring the stretcher back to get the other one.” She indicates the unconscious man lying on the floor.

“Give me a hand,” Pavel calls out to Kirill as he pulls the other stretcher free from the ambulance.

Cilka runs after the first patient, unbuttoning and flinging off her coat as she enters the ward. Yelena, another doctor and several nurses appear.

“This one, Mikhail Alexandrovich—small head wound, both legs crushed by a large rock.”

“I thought you said it was a small rock,” Mikhail whispers through clenched teeth.

“I’ve got him,” Yelena says. Two nurses tend to Mikhail, assisting.

“Over here, put him on this bed,” the other doctor calls out to Pavel and Kirill.

“There’s one more coming. Unconscious but with a strong pulse, obvious head wound.”

“Thanks, Cilka, we’ve got it,” Yelena says.

The unconscious patient is brought in and placed on a bed. Kirill leaves immediately and Pavel wanders over to Cilka.

“You did great work, stupid and dangerous work.”

“Thanks, you too. I wasted too much time being angry with Kirill Grigorovich when I should have been helping the patients.”

“Kirill thinks he was born to rule.”