Saving Danny

Chapter 1

At the tail-end of a prolonged rain storm, Danny Maxwell was negotiating the treacherous rocky 'Devil's Downhill Staircase' at 40-45 mph, the recommended speed for motor cross riders to smooth out the dips and rises of the terrain, when disaster struck

Tons of water, logs and debris were swept down the steep hillside above by floodwaters through the forest and across the staircase, smothering Danny and his 125cc Honda dirt bike and dumped them 200 yards below on to the flats of the valley floor.

Two hours later, farmer's wife Brenda Cummings, was walking her dog on a lead to inspect the damage to pastureland when Thompson halted abruptly and pointed to part of the extensive pile of debris just clear of the tree line.

She peered and said, "Christ, it's the arm and leather jacket of some poor sod who was stupidly riding the forest track despite the foul weather. I best notify the cops."

Brenda attempted to pull Thompson away to move on but the Labrador resisted.

She guessed what this was about. The victim might still be alive.

Brenda tied her dog to a stump and waded through the slush and climbed over solids until reaching the victim, err possible survivor.

His head and exposed arm were against a rotten piece of tree stump.

"Hi," he croaked, opening his eyes.

Brenda almost wet herself in fright, not having though about what she might find.

"I'm Danny, pinned by a log under mud. You'll need to get help."

She couldn't accept that.

"I can't leave you. I'm Brenda Cummings and this is our farm. I have a responsibility to ..."

"Then stay and possibly watch me die Brenda. We have no idea of the injuries I might have hidden under mud."

"Oh god, what should I do?"

"Speed off home quickly but safely and call the cops. Get them to send in a recovery team by chopper with shovels, a couple of chainsaws and crowbars."

"H-how can you be so calm?"

"It's probably influenced by my interest in survival Brenda. Lightly kiss me on the lips and off you go."

Christ, worried Brenda as she rushed off. She'd given him a wet kiss. Perhaps he'd realized she was emotionally fired by her discovery rather and considering she must be the local slut.

* * *

At the rescue scene, the female weekend medic in the search and rescue team, had left Danny's helmet on, saying well at least he'd been riding sensible dressed in the best safety gear.

She introduced herself as Ruby.

"Danny, your vital signs are all okay considering and I suspect physical damage is minimal at this point. Here's a shot of morphine and try to keep relaxed."

"That's promising. Give me a kiss and stand back and let the rescue crew extract me."

"I cannot kiss you; that would be unprofessional."

"You're acting as a medic, not a doctor Ruby. Just be Miss Nice once in your life."

She delivered the sweetest little kiss on his lips and stood back, smiling cheerfully.

"Gosh, that guy is overly-focused on kissing or perhaps it's the shock of his horrible accident. How he survived it I'll never know," said her aunt Brenda. "Perhaps he's the leader of a motor-cycle gang who move around the country fornicating at will and have trained themselves to cope with anything."

"Actually, Auntie I know of him. He's the operations manager of his parents' company First Choice Frozen Foods. They supply the university kitchens where I lecture week-days and my friend Susan Watts works in that firm's accounts department and thinks he's the catch of the decade."

"Are your sure he holds such a responsible position?"

"Yep, and perhaps he generally is a responsible person."

"That strains belief."

"Well Aunt Brenda, if you are up to your neck in muck and goo and pinned down by a log you might think a kiss or two before you die might be a good way of going out."

"Omigod dear, you're probably right. How uncharitable of me to think otherwise. Now realizing that, if he'd wanted more I may have obliged."

"Me too aunt," Ruby mused, surprising herself. She'd been off men big time since catching her hot boyfriend Mick Carter screwing one of her girlfriends over the front of his car almost six months ago.

* * *

Danny's horrific ordeal was splashed over the front page of the 'Riverton Clarion' next morning as part of coverage of the aftermath of the rainstorm that left washouts and flooding in its wake.

'Surviving the Jaws of Death' screamed the headline, describing Danny Marshall as a prominent Riverton young businessman, aged 34 and top sportsman and male lead in the winning duo of that year's paso doble Latin American Dance Championship.

Ah, that's why his face had looked vaguely familiar, Ruby (30) thought, sucking the tip of a lock of her blonde hair as she read the article for any praise of the search and rescue operation.

She'd watched the telecast with her mother and coloured when recalling her mother saying, "Omigod, look at the athletic body of that male dancer (Danny). You should have that up against you instead of the scrawny body of that Mick Carter, who I suspect has inherited the tom-cat morals of his father."

Well, Mick was history and Danny was unlikely to give her a second look and so where did that leave her? Lonely, frustrated and having only girlfriends for company, that's where.

She read the piece again where Danny was quoted as saying, "Farmer's wife Brenda Cummings, waded through stumps and muddy shit, excuse my French, almost up to her waist to check if I was alive. She told me she'd spotted my one arm raised through the debris and into the air after her dog Thompson stopped and pointed in my direction."

"Brenda was magnificent. She cleared crap from around my face to give me an improved air supply, kissed me and told me to keep staunch and waded off to get help."

"I awoke later to find a beautiful vision inches from my face, the gorgeous Ruby Salter, who works weekends as a volunteer medic with the Riverton-based search and rescue organisation. She managed to have me believe I'd survive and meanwhile other members of the team shovelled away shit, pulled branches off me and used chainsaws cutting away the thick log that had pinned me down."

"Thankfully, I remained mainly oblivious to the noisy mayhem around me because Ruby had me cradled in her arms and was humming to me as if I were her precious baby. I was lying uncomfortably and in some pain despite the pain-killers but over-all I felt like I was safe and in Paradise in the softness of her arms. Thanks Ruby and the team for performing a near miracle."

Ruby wiped her eyes, scarcely believing a male could express himself so graphically and sensitively. She now recalled cradling him amid the bedlam and her anxiety that they might be losing him because his vital signs had slowed perhaps more than would be expected in post-trauma.

The article concluded by listing Danny's injuries as a fractured right shoulder, three cracked ribs, dislocated right hip and severely bruised lower right leg. His condition had improved from 'critical' to 'serious'. He had fractured the proximal humerus of the right arm, displacing two segments. Surgery using screws and a plate was required to fix the segments together.

Ruby calmed somewhat. She believed the descriptions of her actions at the recovery scene were beyond reproach and the cuddling reference was nothing abnormal in attempts to calm a patient amid stressful conditions. The injured man's comments, although somewhat over-the-top, were nothing more than err eloquently expressed thanks for her doing her job competently and the expert attention he received assisted him significantly.

She smiled and thought if he could talk rather passionately like that to a newspaper reporter, then how well could he chat saying sweet nothings softly against her ear?

She half-shivered in delight and then scolded, "Stop it you silly romantic. By now he'd not remember who you were, what with his mother and sympathetic girlfriends at his bedside caressing him with stroking, sympathetic utterings and promises of helping in his heroic recovery.

Pulling a lock of her hair into her mouth for baby-like comfort against a sometimes-conflicting world, Ruby sat at her laptop ready to draft some lecture presentation notes on the relationship between essential utility services and development of urban communities, to be presented to first-year urban planning degree students.

She typed in a heading 'Sewerage Collection and Disposal' and her mobile phone went.

"Room 132, Salter speaking."

"Hi gorgeous Ruby."

She knew it was him!

Her knees slammed together and she sucked in breath and she thought omigod, the unbelievable was happening.

"Please call me Ruby or Miss Salter,"

"I was only quoting gorgeous from the newspaper's report of your part in rescuing me."

"The newspaper was quoting your use of that adjective along with my name."

She wished she hadn't said that and then knew why.

His voice deepened and he said evenly, "I apologise for being a little brash and forcing you to become pedantic. I won't bother you further."

Ruby panicked. She was turning a friendly phone call into a disaster.

"Wait, don't go. Ask to date me."

"What?"

He sounded astonished,

"I-I thought I'd need to make a couple of calls before inviting you to come to see me.

"Danny, I can't believe I blurted that invitation to you to date me. I knew I had to say something desperate to avoid you cutting your call. I realize we can't date just yet but I will visit you in hospital."

"How gorgeous of you Ruby; you've made my day."

They chatted and Ruby arranged to visit him that evening.

Ruby dressed totally in black for the visit, admiring her chic appearance in the mirror and then realized that the hospital patient she planned to see might believe he was being visited by a female funeral director. Not a good look.

She changed into tan leather pants and a peach-coloured modern top and went out to say goodbye to her mother who knew she planned to visit the hospital.

"Good heavens girl, go and get something substantial under that top; your boobs are practically hanging out."

Undismayed, knowing her mother was prone to exaggeration and probably could only see a glimpse of bra, Ruby returned to the wardrobe.

* * *

Omigod, Danny breathed from his hospital bed as Ruby walked into the one-bed hospital room. He eyed a vision of loveliness wearing a short tight plain black crocheted dress with a red choker sitting above the shallow scooped neck. On this occasion the weekend medic's blonde hair was down and swirling around the nape of her neck.

Ruby had decided no standing back coyly but no tonguing either.

They nodded in recognition and she planted a gentle kiss on his lips and pulled away unhurriedly and sat down.

"Jesus," he crocked.

She smiled in sweet satisfaction at having drawn that response. Bullseye!

"It's lovely seeing you again Danny and I trust you feel your recovery is underway."

He rubbed his chin and said he'd never expected to see her again.

"This visit is an exception as we are discouraged against becoming familiar with people we encounter in the field of action. But you did express a couple of astonishing comments in that newspaper article and I felt compelled to visit and find if you really weren't a rough-neck bikie."

He smiled and said that way of female viewing things was much like the thought of smart males that it can be imprudent to think all women are beautiful even if that's confined to spirit. You reveal yourself as an embracing thinker as well as a beauty with a figure that sets a new benchmark."

She giggled and said he was nice.

They chatted, she received an updated medical report and he studied her features and listened to her intently.

The only intelligent consideration she believed she could reach was that she was under his serious assessment. Well, he had nothing else to think about when not on the phone.

A little later, a teen aged about twenty and wearing sneakers without laces, grubby blue jeans and a clean and stylish style top waltzed in and stopped in her tracks when she spotted Ruby.

"Omigod Bro, you've found the snow queen you've yearned for. How wonderfully romantic."

Instantly embarrassed, Ruby jumped from her chair and said she must go.

Danny said in the commanding voice of a senior executive, "This is the medic who rescued me, Miss Salter. This is my sister Ronnie. Ruby, hug her and then kiss me.

Ruby poised to recoil but the patient let out probably a fake groan of pain and she quickly hugged the sister, both smiling, and stepped over to the bed.

Danny, smiling, whispered he wanted a real kiss this time, long and lush to also impress his kid sister.

She had little to lose, Ruby thought and drew from her arsenal a special kiss she held in reserve for special occasions.

She pulled away and looked down at Danny, feeling warmly disposed toward him and then smiled when she saw his eyes were almost popping.

"Bye Danny, I'll see you soon. Bye Ronnie," Ruby said, and almost floated out the door.

Chapter 2

Thelma Marshall had been listening to her daughter idly but that changed when Ronnie added, "Besides being rather dishy for her age according to her photograph, Mrs Slater is a member of your outfit. I looked her up in the society's Year Book and found her there. Her address is Fairfield and she' convenor of your festival refreshments sourcing and operations sub-committee."

Frowning, Thelma said, "Please don't refer to hallowed Riverton Regional Arts Society as my outfit. Little wonder I don't know the woman. The refreshments sub-committee is our smoothest-running sub-group within the society by a country mile, which means I'm never involved with it. Did the Year Book give her occupation?"

"Yep, she's director of the city council's parks and reserves department which is probably why they've collected so many top horticulture awards."

Thelma gasped and said. "Omigod, the replacement director we have been unable to find may have been sitting within our ranks all the time."

"Who's that," Ronnie asked innocently.

"Don't be a twerp, you know very well who is now centre-of-mind, but not a word about this, do you hear or I'll probably divorce you as my daughter if your loose talk harms the society."

"Mum, which is more important, the society or your son's happiness in bringing his elusive snow queen to his breast."

"Ronnie, please don't talk such fake romantic drivel; keep it for your creative writing classes."

Her usually demure daughter flared.

"Mum, have you completely forgotten what's it like to have your heart race at the sight of someone who suddenly looms large at you or how you used to look doe-eyed at dad when you two were newly and deeply in love?"

"Oh darling, what can I say?" Thelma said, with a catch in her breath.

"Say nothing. You've warned me to be careful about saying anything about this and I'll remain mindful of that," said her rather wise-for-her-age younger child. "I may use some titbits judiciously if I believe that might help. Meanwhile, you think of ways of landing this probable highly desirable candidate for replacement director while leaving the pathway open to the possibility of gaining a highly desirable son-in-law."

"But Ronnie, those two things are totally incompatible."

Ronnie kissed her mother on the forehead and whispered, "Since when has president Thelma Slater ever proclaimed as early as Day One that a problem is too difficult to solve?"

"God, you'll be famous one day Ronnie, probably as the country's most relentless motivator." Thelma said, with a solitary dry sob.

* * *

Ruby was at a rear table in one of the cafes at Buchannan University when she recognised Ronnie Slater approaching and waved, aware the younger female was walking directly to her.

"How did you manage to come across me in this warren of buildings?"

"I searched you out."

Ruby looked at little taken aback but waved to a passing waitress with a tray loaded with used dishes and ordered two coffees after consulting Ronnie and put money on the tray.

"Are you a student here?"

"Yep, in the Arts Department specializing in creative writing."

"Good for you, and I suppose you already know what I do?"

Ruby nodded and said, "While it's early to be saying this and based on the slightest of evidence, I suspect that something special has brought you and my brother together."

"That is quite possible, but as you said it's early days. Are you here to warn me off?"

"Not at all."

The two women eyed one another warily.

"What I'm about to say is very confidential and I don't want you to reveal it to anyone."

"That's asking a lot."

Ronnie said she was taking a risk by becoming involved.

"I see. Well fair enough. You have my promise to divulge nothing about this conversation but how you are able to have such potentially volatile information mystifies me."

Their coffee arrived and they sipped.

Ronnie was straight into it.

"Being nosey, I looked in the Regional Arts Society's Year Book and found your mother was a member and committee woman and told my mother, the society's president as I believed she'd be interested, and that produced unexpected results. After learning more about your mother's connection with the society, she concluded your mother just might be the natural successor to fill the vacancy of director of the society."

"Omigod, my mother in that role. But what's the catch?"

"This is where it gets tricky, Ruby. I know my mother well and anticipate she'll think she cannot be seen to be nominating the mother of her son's new girlfriend for the directorship as that would be considered by some, perhaps many, as notional nepotism."

"That can't be so. Your mother and my mother don't even know one another."

"I can believe that in a society of more than 5000 full-subscribed members but we cannot expect all people to consider that when rallying to any allegation of nepotism."

Ruby nodded and said she could accept that argument with difficulty.

"But we don't even know if Danny likes me significantly."

"Are you kidding? You're his fantasy snow queen that he told me stories about when I was little and he'd always said he'd triumph over oppression and marry her."

Ruby looked set to dispute that.

"You are almost an adult. Surely you don't seriously subscribe to fantasies?"

"Of course not. But you must concede that actually you do fit the basic specifications of a snow queen to a guy with a rather vivid lingering imagination stretching back to the story-telling days of his early youth, minus the snow of course."

Ruby chuckled and called Ronnie 'a persuasive mind-bender'.

Ronnie took the plunge.

"Look Ruby, your mother has not yet been approached about possible nomination as the replacement director of the arts society and probably not even you have a clue about whether she would accept nomination and be prepared to put aside some of her other commitments to fulfil such a role."

Ruby frowned and asked what was Ronnie attempting to suggest.

"I say carry on regardless, at least for the time being. In any event, the worst possible scenario has been envisaged. That is, the majority if not practically the full membership of the society may not care a fig who the children of the nominated replacement director are dating."

"That's sound argument Ronnie, but it still leaves me hanging."

"And that's unlikely to change anytime soon sweet lady."

"But I'm not even sure he really likes me visiting him."

"Lady, he's partly fallen for you already and when he's out of here and gets you into his car for some smooching, as one of my girlfriends told me almost breathlessly, Danny has the potential to slide your panties off faster than any female could ask what on earth was he doing."