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"Had to threaten him with bodily harm," the lawman chuckles

"That’s not quite the whole story," ather up his doctor stuff and get in the squad car"

"That’s not quite it," Bluain "I told you I would coloved hand as if I will knohat he wants I take a guess and hand over the scalpel "The part about the gun is true, though, and you enjoyed it, Hardman"

This is more than Bluular Joe, but the banter doesn’t last Two trucks pull up, horns blaring, and Daniel Hester slah the door

"Head trauma and burns," he announces "One of the CCC fellows found a colored boy under a fallen pine It was so dark, he al to ical field "Where’s Boodean?" The h the door, tears in his eyes and I fear he is about to unravel "Boodean, help the vet Get the patient’s vitals Try so salts on yourself"

"I’ll be with you in a minute, Daniel," Blu hereSuture and needle holder, Nurse"

When I look down, Rusty’s foot is not part of his body

42

Afterburn

"In the end we savedwith Patience, the day after the fire, in the ca down at the dead "We’ve already transferred ten ton," I tell her "One of the first was Captain Wolfe; but he died in transport"

"Oh, Becky I’ me to cry, but I am done with tears and am only numb When I touch my own skin I am numb Even my bones are numb

"Thirty-five were treated in the ca from heat exhaustion to burns to broken bones Three of those required surgery It was a to watch Dr Blu the wounded and the burned in the kerosene light like a Civil War surgeon You heard one of the boys, Rusty, lost his foot? It was too led and Blum had to amputate I’ve never seen soat the row of corpses lined up on the concrete floor wrapped in white sheets like babies Patience has cared for theo back to the clinic and take care of the living

Gently she washed each body, changing the water in her white basin over and over, leaving the gauze over the burns or wounds She closed the dead men’s eyes, put a rolled-up washcloth under their chin to keep their ht in a white sheet with only their feet sticking out; four bodies hite feet and tith brown Little paper tags are tied on the toes and labeled with their na

"Where’s Daniel?" she asks me

"He went into Liberty for auze,that’s supposed to prevent infection Dr Blum had used it at the hospital in Charlottesville"

I lean over and read aloud the na with one of the coloreds

"John Doe Who’s this?"