The End of the Trail Read Online Free

which appeared to be infected.
    â€œEwwww,” Biff said. “It feels like something’s about to come bursting out of my leg like in an Alien movie.”
    â€œProbably something green and hungry,” Joe said. “Like Chet.”
    Chet gave Joe a dirty look. “I’m not green....”
    â€œOkay, you guys, give Biff a break,” Rhonda said.
    â€œHey, I can take it,” Biff declared. “I give back as good as I get.”
    â€œLie down, Biff,” Rhonda said. “I’m going to clean your wounds, then prepare your plaster. This will take about half an hour, and you’ll need to lie still for a while to let the plaster set.”
    â€œWhy not just use one of those Velcro splints?” Frank asked. “That would be a lot easier.”
    â€œI don’t have any more,” Rhonda said. “I don’t have access to a continuous supply of medical paraphernalia out here in the woods.”
    â€œThis is great,” Joe said. “We’ll be laid up in this town for days before Biff heals.”
    â€œNot that long,” Rhonda said. “We’ll get Biff moved soon enough.”
    â€œThere go our plans for hiking another hundred miles on the trail,” Frank said.
    Rhonda gave Frank a stern look. “I don’t think youwant to go without your friend. And you can always come back sometime later to finish your hike.”
    â€œSorry,” Frank said guiltily. “If Biff needs time to heal, we’ll stick around, of course.”
    Rhonda opened a cabinet next to the bed and pulled out several rolls of surgical tape. She laid the tape next to Biff and began wrapping it around his leg. Biff’s face contorted with pain, but he remained silent.
    â€œSo,” Chet asked. “How did you become a nurse?”
    Rhonda pulled another layer of tape around Biff’s leg with a twist of her arm. “In Vietnam,” she said matter-of-factly.
    Biff’s eye’s fluttered open, despite his pained expression. “Vietnam? You were in ’Nam?”
    â€œYeah,” Rhonda said. “From ’67 through ’69. I worked at a Mobile Surgical Unit near Da Nang.”
    â€œWow!” Chet said. “A MASH unit. Like on that old TV show.”
    â€œIt wasn’t much like TV,” Rhonda said. “It was mostly boring—until they’d bring in a helicopter filled with guys who had been shot full of bullets or who had stepped on land mines. A lot of the soldiers didn’t live to get home. But we did our best to keep them alive.”
    â€œI’m sure you did,” Joe said, not knowing what else to say.
    â€œThe Vietnam War was fought mostly in jungles, with snipers waiting to shoot you when you didn’t expectit,” Rhonda continued. “I know guys who still can’t sleep because they’re worried that somebody’s hiding around the corner to kill them. They don’t like to remember what happened. A lot of them saw their best friends get killed.”
    â€œI can’t imagine going through that,” Joe said.
    Rhonda looked up from the bandage that she was wrapping around Biff’s leg. “Be grateful that you don’t have to. I lost some friends over there. Some really close friends.”
    â€œDid you have a boyfriend over there?” Phil asked.
    â€œA husband,” Rhonda said. “I really don’t want to talk about it.”
    Silence fell over the room. Finally Biff said, “While I’m here, maybe you can tell me some of what you saw.”
    â€œMaybe,” Rhonda said. She stood up and walked to the cabinet, where she removed a plaster kit to apply to the bandages she had just wrapped around Biff’s leg.
    A smile creased Rhonda’s face. “I haven’t told my stories in a long time. Maybe it’ll be good—for me, too.”
    â€œIt must be pretty painful to recall some of it,” Frank said.
    â€œYou can’t