Doc Ch. 19

"Hold it there son. I have done brought you more tents and other supplies along with the vaccine from Fort Laramie. It came with its own doctor. He's in the town right now vaccinating the townsmen and should be here soon. I thought I should ride ahead to warn you that he says he knew a doctor Clay Thomas at Fort Laramie and was sure that he was dead, so he came with the vaccine to make sure of you, since he said he was a good friend of Clay's. I came ahead with the supplies to fill you in before he surprised you. First his name is Dave Timmons, and he said that you both went to school together in Philadelphia and joined the Army together, stationed at Fort Laramie. He's about 5 foot 10 with sandy brown hair and a huge handlebar mustache but seems to be a very nice guy."

"That's good news but why did you bring the girls back with you? You know that this is still very contagious and doubly so to Indians?"

"They were all vaccinated along with the rest of the family three days ago we also vaccinated everyone in Hill city and left instructions with Judge Miller and taught Rose and Sally how to give vaccinations to the rest of the people in the area. When they heard that I was coming up here there was no way that your wives were going to be left behind. It was either bring them or leave them hogtied on the ranch, knowing that as soon as they got loose they would follow anyway."

"Three days are not long enough. It takes 10 days for the vaccinating to take full effect. So they'll just have to go back with you!"

"I'm afraid you're stuck with us. We're going to pitch camp right here with one of these tents we brought. The only way I could get them to let me leave was to drag them all the way up here; they kept telling me that their place was with you. So while we wait the next seven days we will be going around with the doctor to make sure everyone has been vaccinated."

"Okay, but before you go to any claim or cabin you have two of my men checking out to see if anyone is sick there first. I don't want any of you to be exposed unnecessarily."

"We can do that. I don't want to catch smallpox either especially when I only have seven days left before I'm immune to it."

While they were setting up their small camp I drove the other supply wagons back to our camp so that when the men came in they could start setting up more tents and cots.

After I got back to our camp, Rev. Smith came up to me and asked who the people were. When I told him that was my uncle Henry and the three women with him or my wives and the boy was my adopted son, he said. "I thought the Chinese woman Moon was your wife. I told him she was but the other three were also my wives. This really set him off, and he started preaching and calling me a sinner for having more than one wife and started quoting Scripture wrongly to me, telling me that all my wives were harlots and I was going straight to hell. This really pissed me off. I got right up into his face and yelled, "You say one more word about my wives and it'll be the last you ever say. They are all good women with hearts of gold to go out of their way to help anyone. And I won't have you badmouth them."

He quieted down but it seemed like every time I looked his way he was glaring at me. I wasn't sure how much longer I would put up with this. Sure he was a hard worker but it seemed he didn't learn anything about medicine being a surgeon's assistant. Of course most surgeons during the war didn't know hardly anything about medicine and were at best butchers.

A couple of days later I met Dr. Timmons. He looked at me strangely and said, "Clay, is that really you? Everyone told us you were dead from that cholera epidemic. How'd you get here?"

"Yup it's me Dave. Sorry to disappoint you about me not being dead but that was the town doctor that died. I had just finished and reported back to the Fort. I told them that my enlistment was up the week before, and then I was headed back to Hill City to my home and family."

"It's great to see you again Clay. I'm glad to hear that you're still alive. So you're the doctor in these parts now?"

"I'm a little more than just a doctor." I showed him my badge. "I'm also a deputy US marshal for this area."

"I remember you working as a police officer in Philadelphia while going through med school, but I thought you had all that lawman business out of your system by the time we graduated."

"Nope, I guess it runs in the blood. You know, the last three generations of my family were all lawmen, and it seems that I am carrying on the family tradition."

"So how do you work that out and still be a doctor at the same time?"

"Actually it works out pretty good since all the towns around here are small. I'm making a circuit of them all anyway so I can work as both a law man and a doctor quite conveniently. The federal judge back home in Hill City has given me the power to deputize men in each town to help me so basically I'm just the one in command."

"That don't seem like the loner Clay that I know so well asking for help. Just how many men have you deputized so far?"

I kind waited a minute and said. "Well let's see so far... None!"

He started to laugh and said. "Yup, same old Clay!"

"Well, you know I've been kind of busy lately," I said.

"No shit, I can tell you been busy as hell. What is the status of your patients now?" he asked.

"So far I've had 426 patients and lost 53 adults and 21 children. It's the children who hurt the worst to lose!"

"You only had about 20% fatalities? That's amazing you having so few fatalities with no real medicine to use! How did you do it?" He asked.

As we planned to examine the patients, I said, "There really wasn't much I could do but try to keep their fevers as much under control as I could by keeping them covered with damp cloths until their fevers broke. I also used willow bark tea a lot to help keep them comfortable. We also made sure that they ate and tried to keep their strength and stamina up as much as possible. It seemed as if we caught them in the early stages they would survive. Most of the fatalities were from those that we didn't catch any time, and their bodies were so weak."

"That's still truly amazing but why do you have their hands wrapped in Muslim cloth or socks?

"I'm hoping that by doing that I can try to limit some of the scars commonly received from smallpox. If I can keep them from busting the blisters, there is a good chance of limiting the scars." I told him.

"I never would have thought of that! However, seeing is believing and I'm truly amazed at the job you have done here. I have orders from the Fort to stay and assist you until his epidemic is under control."

"That's great Dave, I can always use the help. To tell the truth I'm running on coffee and adrenaline right now."

He laughed and said. "I guess you know that I traveled out here with your family. Your uncle Henry is quite a character. And is it true that all three of those girls are your wives? You never struck me as a lady's man before, you always seemed kind of quiet and shy around women."

I laughed back and pointed at Moon and said. "See that little Chinese girl over there? She is also my wife. I have four wives now!"

This really started him laughing at me, and he asked. "Four wives! You were always so shy. How did that happen?"

Still laughing I said. "It all kind of snuck up on me. First I was at Red Cloud's camp and was treating Running Deer for a broken arm when her father brought up that pretty pony over there and handed me the reins. Thinking that I was trading for the horse I handed him a box of cigars and the next thing I know I found out that I traded for both the twins. Then Red Cloud brought over Dawn and her son Standing Bear and told me it was to help out with my lodge the next thing I know the twins had invited her to be wife number three so besides marrying her, I also adopted her son. Then about six weeks ago I was in Hill City just before Hickok died and this miner, who had hassled my wife Dawn about three weeks before, was dragging Moon through the street when I confronted him. He told me that he had bought her from her uncle for $20 gold. Since we just fought that war for slavery I gave him back his $20 gold and went to confront her uncle. Her uncle told me that selling young female family members was a common practice in his culture and refused to return the money stating that since I paid for her she was now mine to do with as I wished. I tried just write off the money and let her go, but she said that she did not want to go back to her uncle. I told her, that since she had nowhere else to go, she could stay with my family until she got back on her feet but the next day as I was heading out for here they informed me that she should be a wife also since she wanted to be my wife. I tried to refuse this, but it seemed that my other wives would not take no for an answer. So when his epidemic broke out. She informed me that she had had smallpox as a child and was therefore, immune. Furthermore, her father was a doctor of herbal medicine in China and had taught her a lot of what he knew. So when I sent the others home, she stayed with me to help me with this epidemic and a lot of the herbs and remedies came from her."

"Poor Clay, I don't know whether to cry for you or laugh at you. From talking to your wives, I can tell that they all adore you. You've got to be one of the luckiest men alive. Maybe if I hang around you some of that let me rub off before his epidemic is over, and I have to go back to Fort Laramie."

"Join the club. Uncle Henry over there every time I see him start talking about the way I'm accumulating wives he starts cackling like some hen sitting on a nest full of eggs. What the hell, another person laughing at me is no big deal anymore."

"Wow Clay! You have been sure mellowed since last time I saw you. If anyone had laughed at you back then they would be picking their sorry asses off the ground before they knew it."

"I guess I have mellowed some. Maybe it's married life or do you think it's just exhaustion?"

As we continued to examine the patients, I saw Rev. Smith sidle up to Dr. Timmins to try to get him to take over as he still saw me as a heathen and not fit to treat decent people.

Dave turned and glared at the Reverend and said. "What the hell are you talking about? Dr. Thomas is one of the best doctors I've ever known. You know that the normal fatality rate of smallpox is it between 60% and 75%? Dr. Thomas treating these people with common sense and herbal remedies has got a fatality rate of less than 20%. And you think he should be replaced? Are you out of your God damned mind?"

"You don't have to take our Lord's name in vain! Look at him, the man has four wives, against the teachings of the Bible. He is going straight to hell and is contaminating all these people in his care."

"What the hell do you mean contaminating them? Don't you know without Dr. Thomas most of them would be dead right now? I swear I'm starting to think you don't have the sense enough to pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel! Just get the hell out of my sight!"

"Maybe they were better off dead than have their souls contaminated by associating with such a sinner."

"That does it you have about five minutes to get your ass out of this camp before I shoot you myself! Go along, get!"

"You can't throw me out of this camp. These people need my spiritual guidance. If it wasn't for me praying over them and trying to help pave their way to heaven through my sermons there would be a lot more dead."

"Now I've heard it all. You are taking credit for all the hard work everyone else had done. These people don't need some fool preacher lecturing them and giving a sermon while they're sick and their loved ones are dying. They need comforting and proper medical attention."

"I was helping with giving him proper medical attention I'll have you know I was a surgeon's assistant during the last war!"

" A surgeon's assistant? That's not even the equivalent of a bad nurse! During the last war most surgeons were nothing but a bunch of butchers with no or little medical training themselves. Being a surgeon's assistant during the war is nothing to brag about. Basically you were just an orderly and clean up boy. Now I told you to get your ass out of here and let somebody that knows what they're doing try to help these people.

After watching him slink away I went up and asked Dave what the problem was?

"Idiots like that just seem to rub me the wrong way again that they are all holier than thou. That one is more dangerous than the rest, he's all up on his high horse just because you have more than one wife. It just burns my ass when someone like that has the gall to try to take credit for all the lives that you have saved thinking it is his prayers and sermons that kept them all alive and not your medical skills."

I just laughed at him and said. "Face it, as old Dr. Jenkins our professor at medical school used to be so fond of saying. You can't fix stupid!" I said, remembering my grandpa Jake telling me about his father quoting his uncle Clay's favorite story about medical school.

This started Dave laughing. "I haven't thought of Dr. Jenkins in years but face it, that saying that he was so fond of is still as true today as it was then!"

That night our search crews, after scouring the outlying areas for the past few weeks only brought in two more sick people. Maybe things were going to start slowing down due to the quarantine that we placed on people traveling to neighbors and other towns. I showed Dr. Timmins the way we had been treating the people coming in, saying that if we caught this early enough their chances of survival were a lot higher since most of our fatalities had come from people being brought in when they were almost dead and too far gone to save.

The night after that we only had one person come in. Then the third night we had six more. We thought it was almost over and to have six come in one night was very depressing. We got set to work the next two weeks but after about a week they really started tapering off with only one person every few nights. After the third week, we had more sick showing up in the patients whom we had were almost well but only four more deaths. After the last person had recovered, and we hadn't had any more come in after a week of vigorous searching, we decided that the epidemic was over.

Thank God it was finally over. I was exhausted. Looking over at all my wives with Moon I was wondering how such a little thing could still have so much energy left in her. It seemed like she was everywhere at once with energy to spare. After all this time working with her, just watching her, I discovered I loved her just as much is the other wives. All I could think of right now must go home with all my loved ones and sleep for a week.