A Good Deed Delay
Ben turned around, doing his best to trot along the ridge and down the hill to the entrance so he could take the opposite path to the lower area along the tracks. As he was doing his best to not fall down the hill, he realized that he still had on his backpack.
In his head came the thought, “I should probably throw this down, but what if someone steals it?”
He felt fairly certain that he wouldn’t really be able to navigate the path any quicker if he were to take it off. He settled on keeping it with him, and if he needed to take off the backpack to help, it would at least be near him.
Making his way into the path that he remembered from his earlier mission, Ben continued on, barely able to see his footing on the path through the weeds. His legs became covered in tick tree-foil seeds. Up ahead he could see the fallen tree, and as he got closer, there was the leg sticking out from under it that he had seen from up on the ridge.
“I’m almost there, hold on,” Ben shouted.
He got to the fallen tree and saw a man about 30 years old who looked like he had been in a boxing match and lost. The man was lying on his back, his lower body stuck under the tree, with a cut on the front of his head that was bleeding just enough to look horrendous, but in reality it was just a small cut.
Kneeling down over the tree, Ben said, “Are you okay? Is anything broken?” as he also glanced at his watch.
10:26AM
The man, hearing and seeing Ben, replied in a voice that sounded more embarrassed than injured, “Oh my God, I am so glad to see you. I’m okay except for this cut on my head. I’m really just stuck under the tree. I don’t think anything is broken.”
Ben breathed a sigh of relief as his mind didn’t want to process any of the long forgotten, first-aid training he had taken years ago that he was forced to take at his company.
“That’s good to hear. Here, I think I have a towel in my backpack,” Ben commented as he took off his backpack, opening the clasp on the top portion, and pulling out a towel he had brought in case he needed to wipe any dirt off of his camera tripod.
Ben made his way over the tree to the other side, doing his best not to put any weight on the tree, then trying to flatten any brush away from the man’s face.
He tried to remember what he was supposed to say, something about knowing first aid.
“I’m Ben, I have been trained in the art of first-aid. Are you okay if I try to help you?” questioned Ben.
The man lying on the ground looked a bit confused at Ben’s statement, but replied, “Yeah, sure, I guess.”
Ben did his best to bunch up the towel to cover the man’s wound, but it ended up unfolding, covering the man’s face as he went to soak up the blood.
“Here,” said Ben, embarrassed at his inability to treat a wound, “Maybe you better take it.”
“Yeah, thanks. I’m Ron.”
Ben handed Ron the towel then went back on the other side of the tree as Ron did his best to fold up the towel and put pressure on the cut on his head. Ben tried his best to assess the situation, even reaching under the tree to try to lift it, but the tree didn’t budge.
“I don’t know what happened,” started Ron. “I was walking along the path, and I heard this cracking sound. I looked over and saw the tree starting to fall. I guess I ran the wrong way, tripped, and my phone flew out of my hand. The tree landed on me, but I can’t move it.”
“Yeah, it’s wedged in there good,” said Ben, and there isn’t any way I’m moving this tree. I’m going to call 911.”
“Can you go look for my phone? I think it fell just up ahead,” asked Ron.
“Yeah, hold on a minute,” quipped Ben, slightly annoyed that Ron was more worried about his phone than Ben calling 911.
“911. What’s your emergency?”
“Hi, yeah, we probably need the fire department. There is a guy stuck under a tree… Yeah, he’s conscious, his lower body is just stuck under the tree… Where are we? Oh, heck, I’m not exactly sure how to put it, we’re just off the Prairie Path, there is this other trail, I think it’s called Ridge Trail… You can use my phone to find us? Oh, okay.”
Just then it occurred to Ben that Big Boy No. 4014 was on its way, and there he was, helping some guy stuck under a tree.
Ben looked at his watch.
10:36 AM
The realization then came to Ben that he probably wouldn’t be able to get his picture.
“You said your name was Don?” asked Ben.
“No, it’s Ron. I think my phone is over there, at least that’s the way I think it flew out of my hand.”
Ben was now in the torn between area of his brain between being annoyed at Ron for caring more about his phone, and the other half wanting to be a Good Samaritan. He noticed that Ron had a smart watch on.
“Umm, I think your watch can ping your phone. It probably can make phone calls, too, if your phone isn’t too far away,” said Ben, trying his best to not to be annoyed.
“Really?” said Ron.
Ron hit a button on his watch, looked at the screen, then pressed the icon with a phone on it. Ron’s phone made a pinging noise about ten feet into the deep brush.
“Dang, look at that!” exclaimed Ron.
Ben looked in the direction of Ron’s phone, noticing that interspersed among the prairie plants were vines that looked like they had “leaves of three.” He sighed a bit and traipsed through the brush, reaching down into the vines, grabbing Ron’s phone.
In the distance Ben heard what sounded like a fire engine as he made his way back to Ron.
“Really, I could have just used my watch to call for help?” asked Ron.
“Yeah, there’s an app on there that looks like a phone. I think there is also a button labeled “911,”” answered Ben.
Ron looked at his watch.
“Would you look at that. You learn something new every day!”
Ben looked at his watch.
10:45AM
As Ben heard the fire engine sirens sound like they were getting closer, the thought came to him, “Well, he seems fine, he knows how to make a phone call from his watch, maybe I can leave?”
“Here’s your phone.”
Ron took the phone like it was a bar of gold.
“It sounds like the fire department is almost here. Where were you off to before you came to my rescue?” asked Ron.
“I was going to try and get a picture of the old train that is coming through town. There’s a spot on the ridge I was going to set up my gear,” commented Ben.
“Really, when is it supposed to come by?”
Ben looked at his watch and replied, “In about ten minutes.”
“You could probably go, I hate to have you miss it. The fire department should be here any minute from the sounds of it,” offered Ron.
Ben was just ready to take Ron up on his offer, but then thought otherwise, telling Ron, “No, I have to stay here. The 911 dispatcher said they are using my phone to track our location .”
“Oh, sorry about that. Well, I guess we’re stuck here together for a while.”
With a sound of dejection Ben said, “Yeah, no biggy. It’s just a train.