Riding The Whirlwind Read Online Free

turned toward the pick-ups parked a few feet away.
     
    “Good luck out there boys.” Bill Ryder turned
and slammed the door on the trailer so hard the whole trailer
shook.
     
    The men were quiet all the way out to Elk
Mountain, each of them wondering what they would do for a living if
Ryder shut it’s logging operations down.
     
    When they got to the landing the old yarder
was there and they stood for a minute and looked at the steep
mountain side which looked formidable in the early morning light.
The mountain side looked so steep to Paul that if he stepped off
the landing he would slide all the way to the bottom of the
mountain.
     
    “OK boys.” The crew leader looked at each one
of them, “Its going to be a hot and hard day down there, so I want
you men to look sharp and work careful, if you feel like you are
getting too hot, call a break. Lets go.”
     
    Paul stepped off the side of the hill as he
heard the yarder operator hit the starter on the diesel engine of
the yarder.
     
    By the time he got down to the first tangle
of logs the yarder operators horn tooted three times signaling the
yarder was ready.
     
    The first day on the mountain Paul worked,
sweated and swore at the tangles of logs and bushes.
    A couple times he thought he would pass out,
but he knew he was not the one that was going to call a break. With
his clothing soaked through he kept on working.
     
    On the way back to the yard at the end of the
day the exhausted men looked with hollow eyes at nothing as they
rode the back of the pick-ups down the mountain.
    It was dark when Paul cranked the engine of
his old ford and drove home.
     
    The next day the men were still tired when
they stepped off the landing to work through some of the most
grueling hours any of them had ever put in for Ryder or any other
logging concern.
     
    “You ain’t going to beat me bitch.” Paul said
to the side of the mountain as he drug the cable over to the first
tree and set the choker.
     
    “That’s one hell of a tree squirt!” Carl
called over, then cranked his chain saw to limb another tree.
     
     
     
    Paul didn’t hear the warning when the yarder
cable snapped and slammed across his hard hat and shoulder.
Everything went dim and gray, then black.
     

Part four
     
    Paul opened eyes that were just slit’s a day
later in the Portland O.S.H.U trauma unit. His face was swollen
almost beyond recognition, the monitors beeping quietly.
     
    Huh, I thought we were working logs on the
side of Elk Mountain, did I just dream it? He tried to hold on to
the thought, but it slid away from him as his eyes slowly closed
under the influence of the strong medications.
     
    Sue had stepped out for just a moment and
when she came back in and sat down beside her husband’s bed she saw
no signs of him awakening.
    A doctor came in and lifted the lids of his
eyes and shined a light at them, but Paul did not move.
     
    She wearily laid her head on the rail of the
hospital bed and slept for an hour and a half, the nurses didn’t
bother her when they came in.
    She awoke with a start as his hand moved
under hers; she had gone to sleep with her hand on his.
     
    Paul mumbled something, but she couldn’t
understand what he said.
    “Wagger, wagger.” She went running down the
hall to the nurse’s station.
     
    “Paul is awake! He’s awake, come quick!” and
she hurried back to the room, the nurse following her.
     
    “I called the doctor. He wanted to be alerted
when he wakes up.” The nurse told her as they rushed into the
room.
     
    “I wa wagger.” Paul said through his swollen
lips.
     
    The nurse took an eye dropper and squeezed a
tiny bit of thickened water into his mouth. “That’s all you can
have for now Paul, you have to be still, the doctor will be here in
a minute.” The monitor had dropped off his finger so she replaced
it, and the buzzer stopped.
     
    “Wha happened?” his tongue was thick as his
eyes darted around wildly at the room.
     
    “You’ve