Fighting Strong Read Online Free PDF Page A

and rebounded back on its hinges.
    Stunned, they both stared. Then Adam turned to Katie.
    “I kind of thought it would be harder than that.”
    “Yeah. Me too.”
    “Well, let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth.” He grinned again. “I thought a horse idiom was appropriate, considering everything.”
    “Yeah, I got that.”
    “OK, let’s go.”
    He helped her to her feet again and almost carried her in to the barn. They stopped and peered in to the darkness, Adam shining the flashlight around.
    Katie blinked when she saw slides, rope ladders, swings and brightly-colored posters. “What is this place? Some kind of… playground?”
    Puzzled, Adam picked up a pamphlet from a table by the door. “Yeah. You can rent it out for kids’ parties and stuff.”
    “Wow.” Katie looked around again. “Is there electricity?”
    “OK, sit tight.” Adam lowered her to a chair. “I’ll go see. We may get lucky and have heat too.”
    He walked around the whole barn looking for a light switch and cursed under his breath when none was to be found. It was surprisingly warm inside, though, and he touched the wall. It had some kind of insulation and he felt better about being there.
    “No lights,” he said to Katie. “But we won’t freeze.”
    “OK,” she said. “But we won’t be here long, right? We’ll call for help?”
    “You bet.” Adam reached in to his jacket pocket for his cell. Despair seeped through his chest as he looked at the screen. “No signal.”
    “Oh, God,” Katie said. “Really?”
    “Yeah.” He walked around the barn again, trying to find a place where his phone had reception, but no luck. He went outside and came back in shaking his head. “Shit.”
    “Is there a land line?” Katie asked. “Maybe behind the counter?”
    He knelt down and looked. “No.” He stood up again. “OK, well. We’ll think about that in a few minutes. Right now, I need to take a look at your leg.”
    “OK.” She took off her coat and started to roll up the bottom of her jeans. She grimaced as she realized that the jeans went no farther than mid-calf and the cut extended beyond that.
    Oh, no. Oh, God. I can’t take my jeans off. I won’t.
    She struggled with the material, trying to lift it higher.
    Adam watched all of this, confused. “Ummm. What are you doing?”
    “Rolling up my jeans.”
    “No,” he said. “Take them off, OK?”
    He turned his back on her and started to rummage through the first-aid kit. He set surgical gloves, antibiotic cream, bandages, tweezers, a syringe, lidocaine hydrochloride, and a suture kit on a small table. He looked back at Katie, expecting her to be out of her clothes.
    She was sitting there, still trying to roll the damn jeans up her leg.
    “What are you doing?” Adam asked. “You’re going to hurt yourself more if you keep dragging the clothes on the gash. Just take the things off.”
    She sat still now.
    “No.” Her voice was so low, he barely heard it.
    “What? What do you mean ‘no’?”
    “I mean, no. I’m not taking my jeans off in front of you.”
    “Are you serious? Look, I’m all for modesty, but now’s not the time. Get undressed. I promise not to look at your underwear, OK?”
    Katie was sitting and staring at the ground, totally silent.
    Adam stood there, almost crazed with impatience and annoyance. “Katie, Jesus Christ! I need to take a look at your leg… what’s the problem here?”
    He stopped when he saw the tears shining on her cheeks.
    “Katie?” He knelt down in front of her and looked at her closely. “Why are you crying? Are you in that much pain?”
    She shook her head and a sob shook her. Her distress made Adam soften.
    “Look, I don’t understand what’s going on.” His voice was gentle. “But I need to fix you up. OK? I’m not going to hurt you and I promise I won’t touch you in some way that’s – inappropriate.”
    “That’s not it.”
    “So what is it? Katie?”
    She closed her eyes. “OK. But – you