An Alaskan Proposal. Beth Carpenter
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her fingers around her neck and pretended to gasp as if there was something stuck in her throat.
“Hands on the neck are a classic sign, but even if a person isn’t doing that, suspect choking if someone who was eating suddenly seems panicky. But unlike the baby, Sabrina can talk. Let’s ask her. Sabrina, are you choking?”
“Yes,” Sabrina answered in a stage whisper, tilting to one side and giving a couple of fake coughs. “Please save me.”
Leith grinned. “Remember, if she can answer you, her airway isn’t completely blocked. Let her try to cough it up herself. But if she can’t, that’s when the Heimlich comes in. Let’s try it again. Sabrina, are you choking?”
Still holding her hands on her neck, Sabrina nodded. Leith moved behind her and put his arms around her, explaining to the class how he was positioning his hands just below her ribs. “And then I’d push in hard to drive the air from her lungs and dislodge whatever is blocking her airway. We won’t do that today, because I could injure her that way. A cracked rib is a small price to pay for saving a life, but let’s not risk it today.”
“Excellent decision,” Sabrina croaked. The kids laughed.
“However, I do have a training vest in my bag. First, I want you to pair up and see where to position your hands, and then we’ll get out the vest and practice.”
The kids broke into twos and practiced. Once he was satisfied everyone had the basic idea, Leith had Sabrina wear the vest. “See, this foam plug is the food that’s obstructing the airway.” He stepped behind her and positioned his hands over the air bladder in the vest. “Now let’s see if I can do it properly.” He tightened his arms around her and gave a hard thrust to the vest. The foam plug popped out. The kids cheered.
All the kids in the class took turns using the Heimlich maneuver on Sabrina. It took some of them several tries, but Leith coached them patiently until they had all succeeded. Sabrina was glad when they moved on to the next lesson, until she discovered it involved head wounds.
“You have lots of blood circulation in your head, and so heads tend to bleed heavily. Suppose Sabrina fell against a piece of furniture and cut her head right here.” He pulled a red sticker from a sheet and stuck it to her forehead. “Who can tell me how to stop the bleeding?”
“Put a tourniquet around her neck?” one of the boys suggested, grinning.
“That would do the trick, all right, but it would also stop the blood from getting to Sabrina’s brain, and remember, you’re getting paid to keep Sabrina’s brain safe. Let’s try direct pressure instead.” He pulled up a chair. “Sabrina, can you sit down, please?” Leith took a gauze pad from his kit and pressed it to her forehead. “Here, push here.”
Leith turned toward the kids. “Position. Examine. Elevate. Pressure.” He ticked off the words on his fingers. “If you’re a chicken about blood, remember to PEEP.”
Sabrina groaned. “That pun is more painful than my head wound.” Everyone laughed, including Leith.
Before the day was done, Sabrina had been bandaged and splinted, and had her arm put into a sling. Also, while Leith was busy with some of the kids practicing CPR on a dummy, she’d explained to three girls who asked how she’d created the ombré effect on her fingernails and told them where to find an instructional video on the internet.
At the end of class, Leith held up some papers. “Great job, everybody. For me to certify you in first aid, you’ll need to pass this test. So, before we start, let’s review. What’s the first thing to do if you think an older child is choking? Kara?”
“Ask them.”
“Good.” Leith moved on through all the lessons. Between Leith’s goofy memory aids and the practice sessions, these kids had it down. Leith really was a good teacher. Sabrina only hoped she would be able to learn as much about the outdoors tomorrow as he’d taught these kids today. Because if she could, it was just possible that this unusual plan of hers might work.
LEITH SWALLOWED THE last of the coffee in his travel mug while he waited for the light to turn green. He’d been a little surprised to find that Sabrina was living in this part of town. Not that there was anything wrong with this particular neighborhood, but most of the houses here were old and small. Based on the way she dressed and the amount of money she must spend on manicures, he would have thought she’d have chosen a shiny new apartment in a trendy part of town.
She’d surprised him yesterday, too, when she’d accepted her role as training dummy with good grace. In fact, the melodramatic way she’d acted out the injuries really helped keep the kids focused. The other day at the office, when she’d declared herself a hard worker, he’d had doubts. In his experience, hard workers didn’t talk about it; they just did it. But he was starting to think she might be the exception to that rule. He hoped so, anyway, because if he was going to get through all the lessons he had planned for today, she was going to have to put in some effort.
It still bothered him that she was hiding her lack of experience from her employer. He’d been lied to and taken advantage of, and it stank. But she was trying to acquire the skills she’d claimed to have. And was her deception any worse than what he was doing, having Sabrina pretend to be his date to the wedding?
Dinner at his sister’s had gone just about the way he’d expected. Volta, with all the subtlety of a locomotive, had seated him next to the new nurse at the table and kept throwing out random pieces of information designed to force them to bond. “Leith, Marley’s blood type is B negative, just like yours and mine. That’s only two percent of the population. Interesting coincidence, huh?”
What did you say to something like that? Marley had seemed like a perfectly nice person, but after going through a divorce three years ago, Leith had decided the safest route was to avoid getting involved with women, period. So, when Volta made a point of asking him if he had a date for the wedding in front of Marley so that he’d almost be forced to invite her, it had given him great satisfaction to assure her that, yes, he did have a date. He’d almost laughed out loud at the expression on his sister’s face when her plot failed. Fortunately, Marley didn’t look all that brokenhearted. She was probably glad to have gotten out of Volta’s trap unscathed as well.
Leith couldn’t understand why his sister was so fired up to find him a girlfriend. As far as he knew, Volta had been on less than a dozen dates since her daughter, Emma, had been born seven years ago, seven months after Volta’s husband had died in an avalanche. Leith worried about his sister sometimes, but he didn’t push her. So why did she feel entitled to push him?
Anyway, this nondate with Sabrina would take care of that problem for the time being, and all he had to do was teach her a few basic camping skills. How hard could that be?
He found her apartment building, a weathered fourplex split-level. Her door was down a half flight of steps. He knocked. A minute later, she opened the door a few inches, pulling a restraining chain tight. “Oh, hi. You didn’t have to come get me. I thought you’d just call my cell.”
“No, I...” He’d been lectured by his mother that a gentleman always walked a lady to and from her doorway. Of course, she’d meant on a date, and this wasn’t a date. “Never mind. Are you ready to go?”
“I think so. Let me grab some yogurt for lunch.”
“No need. I brought food to cook. That’s part of the lesson.”
“Oh, thank you. In that case, I’m ready.” She closed the door to unhook the chain and slipped out before he could see into her apartment. Today Sabrina wore tight jeans, a long-sleeved shirt and an Orson-brand fleece vest. She carried a small leather backpack that was obviously more for looks than practicality, since it wouldn’t last a day in the rain. At least she was wearing enough layers this time, and the sky was clear today. The jeans weren’t the most practical, although he had to admit, they fit her well. She carefully locked the door and turned to him with a smile. “I appreciate you doing this for me.”
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