Saints Among Us Read online

  June groaned, her slight shoulders slumping as she joined Alice. “I wonder if we can get some help with this stuff.”

  “Alice!” She barely had time to turn around before a man’s arms swept her into a bear hug.

  “Mark! For heaven’s sake.” She was laughing, but her heart gave a little skip at the sudden reunion.

  “I’m so glad you made it. How was your trip?” Mark stepped back and smiled at her.

  “Long,” she said with a heartfelt sigh. “But we’re here now. With your supplies,” she added, hitching her thumb at the packed vehicle behind them. “Mark, you remember June Carter.”

  “Great to meet you.” Mark shook June’s hand. A tall man, he dwarfed Alice’s traveling companion. “Let me find Riley and introduce you two. He is the supplies manager, and he will need to inventory all this stuff before I start grabbing it out of his hands. We need the antibiotics badly.” Mark looked around, then cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled, “Riley! Job for you.”

  A young man in a red T-shirt with sleeves raggedly torn off at the shoulders appeared from around the corner of the house. In one ear he wore five silver earrings in different sizes. Both wrists were tattooed so heavily that he appeared to be wearing bracelets, and his hair was dark at the roots and colored a bold yellow blonde at the tips, cut short to spike straight out all over his head. “Yo, Doc. Whassup?”

  Do not judge, Alice reminded herself. He’s here, so he must be a good man. “Hello,” she said, offering her hand. “I’m Alice and this is June. We’ve brought medical supplies for Mark—Dr. Graves—and some other things from our community.”

  Riley shook her hand enthusiastically. “Cool beans! Let me round up a few more hands and we’ll get this stuff inside.” He shook a stern finger at Mark. “And don’t you be making off with any of it until I’ve had a chance to log it in.”

  “Wouldn’t think of it,” Mark assured him with a grin. As Riley sprinted away, Mark turned back to Alice and June. “Riley worked at a shelter that was destroyed in the storm. He single-handedly rescued seven dogs and nine cats whose cages were flooding. Some of the dogs in the lower cages had to swim in place before he could get to them. He put them all in his pickup and barely got out before the road washed away.”

  “I suspect we’re going to hear many stories of miracle workers this week, aren’t we?” Alice said.

  Mark nodded, and she thought she saw the sheen of tears in his eyes for just a moment. “The selflessness of all these people who dropped everything in their daily lives and came to help is overwhelming. Every single one of them—you included—is a miracle in my eyes.”

  “We haven’t done anything yet.” Alice smiled to lighten the mood.

  “Joe.” Mark beckoned to another man who was hustling by with a clipboard in one hand and a walkie-talkie in the other. “This is Alice, and this is June. They’re friends from home, here to work for a few days.”

  “Great!” Joe shook Alice’s hand with an enthusiastic grip so firm she winced. Then he produced a pen. “Write down your names and addresses for me, the dates you’ll be here, and what expertise you may have.”

  “I don’t work with animals on a regular basis,” Alice confessed as she took the clipboard and began to write.

  “She’s a nurse,” Mark said at almost the same moment.

  “A nurse. Fantastic. We don’t just need animal-care workers, although we love them.” Joe motioned to the front door of the house. “If you wouldn’t mind, there’s a girl inside with a pretty ugly cut across her palm that you might take a look at. She doesn’t want to go to the medical center, but I think she should.”

  “I’d be glad to check on her.”

  Alice turned, but Joe grasped her elbow. “It’s been cleaned and bandaged. It’s not urgent. I’d just like to know if she’s going to need stitches.”

  “I work with cats,” June told him, “but I can help with other things too.”

  “Do you do laundry?” Joe looked sheepish. “It’s not a glamorous job, but it’s desperately needed. We’re running out of towels again. It’s near the cat room,” he added with a hopeful expression. “You could work in there between loads.”

  “Lead on,” June said. “I don’t mind a bit.”

  “You’re a saint.” Joe turned to Mark. “You busy?”

  “Not right this second.”

  “Want to give them the two-minute tour before they get started?”

  “With pleasure. Let’s help Riley unload this stuff first.”

  With the help of Mark, Riley and two female volunteers he’d rounded up, Alice and June got all the supplies they’d brought unloaded in a few minutes. Then Mark hopped into the SUV and took them quickly around the camp.

  In the tiny house was the critical care unit, where very sick dogs were taken; the cat room; a room for exotics and birds; the laundry room; and the office, where supplies were kept. Outside the house was a canopy under which were several lawn chairs for people taking breaks. A tractor-trailer bed parked beside the house held pallets stacked with dry pet food, blankets, towels and kitty litter. Cat pans and dog kennels were stored beneath it in orderly fashion, arranged by size. There was another canopied area under which were baby pools for bathing incoming animals, pools of bleach water for sterilizing bowls and kennels, and a table full of every kind of pet shampoo imaginable.

  Next they walked a path through a mountain of supplies. Two women were separating the food, blankets and towels, leashes, collars and other items into groups, and several other people were carrying them back to the tractor-trailer for storage.

  Farther along the track were long lines of chain-link dog kennels, nearly all full. Canopies above them provided shade, Alice was glad to see. Some held several dogs, and Mark explained that as they got to know the animals, the ones that were not aggressive were housed together to make room for newcomers. A dog-walking area was roped off with bright yellow rope, and a large area surrounded by chain-link fencing was available for exercising dogs with balls and Frisbees.

  At the very back of the extensive setup were the “accommodations.” Tents, picnic canopies, a few campers and one enormous RV filled the space. Behind the house, just a short walk from the tent area, were two portable toilets and an enclosed area that Mark explained was partitioned into a primitive shower. Water was at a premium, so people were asked not to use the shower more than once every couple of days.

  Alice and June exchanged wry glances. “I’m glad we were forewarned, or we might be having heart palpitations right about now,” June said.

  “So that’s everything,” Mark said. “Let’s set up your tent. You probably won’t get back here again until bedtime, and by then you’ll be awfully glad you did.”

  With Mark’s help, they got June’s tent pitched quickly, their air mattresses inflated and their sleeping bags unrolled. June hung a lantern from the center of the tent and set up two camp chairs and a tray table. Since June owned so much equipment, they hadn’t needed to borrow Shelby’s things after all. “There. Home sweet home.”

  “Almost.” Alice went to the SUV and rummaged in her bag for a moment. Returning to the tent, she laid her Bible on the table. “There.”

  Mark nodded. “An excellent touch. I brought mine as well. Sorry to rush off, but I need to get back to the house.” He ducked out of the tent.

  “Wait for me. I need to look at that girl’s hand,” Alice said.

  “And I have laundry and kitties waiting.” June started off along the path toward the front of the lot where the house stood.

  “Bring a flashlight,” Mark said to Alice as they prepared to follow June. “It gets dark quickly, and that path is rough when you can’t see where you’re walking.”

  Alice immediately headed for the house. The young woman of whom Joe had spoken lay on a sofa in the office, which consisted mostly of a small desk, two sofas and a table surrounded by piles and piles of pet medications.

  “Hi, I’m Alice,” she said to her patient. />
  “I’m Frannie.” The young woman held up her roughly bandaged hand. “And this is the result of my losing battle with a bale of wire.”

  “Ouch!” Alice winced as she began to unwrap the wound. “Let’s just take a quick look at this.”

  “I don’t want to go to the hospital,” Frannie said quickly. “It’ll take too much time away from my work here.”

  “Which you’re going to miss anyway if this gets infected,” Alice pointed out. She pulled away the gauze and inspected the cut that stretched across the young woman’s palm. “I really think you should get this stitched up. I can put some butterfly bandages on it to hold the edges together for now, but you need to see a doctor.”

  Frannie sighed. “I knew you were going to say that. Can’t you just stitch it up?”

  Alice shook her head. “Not without a doctor seeing you. And you probably need a tetanus shot as well.”

  After another volunteer drove Frannie off to the nearest emergency clinic, Alice cleaned and bandaged a succession of minor injuries. She monitored one young woman who’d had an asthma attack and sent someone back to the tents for the girl’s inhaler.

  In between nursing people, she helped in the canine critical care unit. Mark took one small dog with a large wound on its belly to the mobile vet clinic, leaving in charge one of the two veterinary technicians who had come along with him.

  Gina was dark-skinned with enormous brown eyes and a smile that lit up the room. “I’m afraid your nursing talents may be wasted here,” she told Alice with a grin. “Mostly, we clean up messes, give medications and check vitals.”

  Alice smiled back. “And just what do you think nurses do?”

  Gina laughed. “You have a point.”

  “So where shall I begin?”

  “You could start taking the dogs out for their late walks. Be sure you don’t bring them back in until they’ve relieved themselves. Plastic bags are on the table you’ll pass at the entrance to the dog-walk area, and there are garbage cans for the waste. Several water stations are set up around the camp.”

  “All right.” Alice hesitated. “I’m willing but not particularly knowledgeable. Could you show me how to get a dog out of its cage? After all, they don’t know me from Adam. Will they bite?”

  “That’s unlikely. However, I can’t promise you it will never happen. Over here is a poster with canine postures and expressions on it. You usually can tell when one is scared as opposed to aggressive. The important thing to remember is to move slowly and speak gently. We don’t want to scare them any more than they are already.” Gina took a leash down from a hook on the wall and demonstrated the correct way of using it by slipping the lead onto Alice’s wrist. Then she let Alice try it on her. “I’ll get the first dog out for you.”

  Gina released the latch on a cage and put the slip lead on the first dog, which she said was a beagle mix, probably still less than a year old. Then she lifted the dog down from the waist-high kennel, and Alice could see its ribs and hipbones. “A lot of these guys have been starved and their energy’s pretty low. They may not be able to jump in and out of the higher kennels.”

  Alice nodded as she accepted the lead. “Okay, little man. I’m going to take good care of you.” She let the puppy sniff her hand, then gently petted it before leading it out the door and into the exercise area.

  It was nine o’clock on their first night at Camp Compassion, and Alice felt as if she had been there for days already. She’d met at least a dozen people.

  Now, as Alice and June stumbled along the path behind the beam of their flashlight, June sighed. “I’m hungry, but I might be too tired to eat.”

  “Me too.” Alice put a hand to the small of her back and rubbed at the sore muscles. “I thought I was in reasonably good shape until we arrived here.”

  June laughed. “I feel the same way. Guess we’ve been proven wrong.”

  Back at the tent, the two women opened bottles of water and prepackaged meals, which they heated over a small Coleman stove while they washed up with baby wipes. After eating, they rolled down the window flaps and fastened the zipper door from the inside, then doused the lantern and changed out of their filthy clothing.

  “Put your things in a trash bag and I’ll wash them while I’m doing towels tomorrow,” June suggested. “Good night.”

  “Good night.” Alice lay down with a grateful sigh on her air mattress as June did the same.

  “Lord,” said Alice quietly, “thank You for bringing us safely to this camp. Thank You for all these amazing people around us, for moving our hearts and spirits to care for Your creatures. Guide our hands to comfort and to heal. Give us renewed strength when we tire. We thank You for the many blessings You have bestowed on us. In the name of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”

  She turned on her side…and slept.

  Chapter Eight

  A lice’s second day at Camp Compassion began just as the sky was growing light. The dogs, which had been quiet throughout the night, began to bark and pace as soon as they saw the first person walking through camp.

  Alice staggered to her feet, unzipped the tent and stepped out into the fresh, cool air.

  “Good morning!” At a pop-up camper next to the spot Alice and June’s tent was pitched, a dark-haired woman stood, twisting a single long braid up into an efficient bun atop her head. She was taller than Alice’s five-foot-six-inch height and strongly built. She stepped closer and extended a hand.

  “Good morning.”

  “I’m Ellen.”

  “I’m Alice. My friend June and I just arrived yesterday.”

  The woman gestured to her camper, from which the sounds of other people stirring could be heard. “My children and I have been here for three days. We’re from Chicago.”

  “We’re from southern Pennsylvania, not far from Philadelphia. Is there anything we should do first, or do we just look for jobs that need to be done?”

  “There are volunteers assigned to feeding and walking this morning. Afterward, we’ll all gather for the daily camp meeting. Where were you working yesterday?”

  “I was in the critical care unit. June was doing laundry and helping with cats.”

  “That’s where you probably should go if you’re ready to get to work. Ah, here they are.” Ellen grinned as two teenagers with dark, curly hair emerged from the camper. Both were tall, although the girl was built more delicately than either her mother or her strapping brother. “Royce, Miranda, this is Alice.”

  “Hello, Alice,” they said in unison. Then they looked at each other and laughed. “You owe me a Coke,” said Miranda.

  As tall as she was, her brother still topped her by several inches, but their resemblance was striking. “We’re twins,” she said when she saw Alice studying them. “We love animals and we thought this would be a cool thing to do.”

  “Me too. But how did you get out of school?” Alice asked.

  The boy said, “We’re high school seniors. We’ve already taken our SATs and submitted college applications’”

  “So Mom thought we could afford to miss a week of school,” his sister finished.

  “The principal didn’t have a problem with it,” Ellen told Alice. “He thought it would be a great learning experience.”

  As the twins turned away to grab a bite of breakfast pastries, Alice said, “I can’t imagine how this experience would have affected me at their age. I might have wound up in animal care instead of nursing.”

  “I know what you mean. I’m a legal secretary. But I swear to you, if I didn’t have two kids to support, I’d quit and go back to school to become a veterinary technician. I’ve been happy to pitch in, but I keep thinking I could be so much more useful if I knew more about treating animals.”

  “I don’t know much either. I spent most of yesterday helping in the CCU, cleaning kennels and feeding. I didn’t mind though. Someone has to do it.”

  “And there are plenty of us to share the load,” Miranda said. “I think it’s a
mazingly cool that all these people came down here to help.” She gestured around them.

  “It is, indeed.” Alice turned to duck back into her tent. “It’s lovely to meet all of you. I’m sure I’ll see you again later.”

  “Who was that?” June was just crawling out of her sleeping bag.

  “Our next-door neighbors. A mom with two high school students. They’re from Chicago.”

  “The lady in charge of the cat room is from Montana.”

  “Montana! That makes me feel as if we didn’t have a long trip at all.”

  June paused in the act of shaking out her sleeping bag. “I wonder what we should do this morning.”

  “Ellen from next door said to do the same thing you did yesterday. There is a camp meeting every morning and I suppose assignments are given there.”

  The two women tidied up their tent and ate boxes of raisins and donuts they had purchased before they left what Alice thought of as “civilization.” Then they walked up to the little white house that served as the center of operations. Alice headed for the CCU while June went to start yet another load of soiled towels and begin feeding cats.

  “Good morning, Alice.” Gina, the perky, pretty vet tech with whom Alice had enjoyed working the day before, already was hard at work.

  “Good morning. What would you like me to do?”

  Gina gestured to a bank of kennels along the far wall. “Start walking those guys, especially the ones whose cages are still clean and dry. I’ll clean out each kennel while you’re outside.”

  Alice reached for a slip lead. The first dog she took out was a young white pit bull. He sat in the back corner of his cage eyeing her mournfully. Alice said a quick prayer for safety and took a deep breath. “Hi, baby boy. Remember me? I’m your friend Alice and I’m going to take you outside now.” She moved toward the dog, slipped the lead over his head and took in the slack. The dog slowly rose to his feet and came listlessly to the door of the kennel, where Alice lifted him down. He promptly leaned against her legs. He was so thin she could see every rib along his side. “You’re going to feel better soon,” she promised him, stroking his broad head. “A day or so of good meals and you’ll get your bounce back.”