Free Women & Other Animals by Bonnie Jo. Campbell Page B

if to flag down a passing motorist but then laid it to rest on the porch boards. Before she could work her second arm out, an ambulance screeched into the driveway, and two E M T s, a man and a woman, were climbing onto the porch.
    "Ma'am, just remain calm. We'll get you out of there." The man spoke to Victoria in a gentle way that made Bess feel ashamed.
    Bess and Hal stepped onto the porch. Victoria's face had grown as purple as a beet root. She hissed a few quiet obscenities. "Sonfa . . . " and "Ssss . . . "
    "Can we talk to you?" asked the woman, calling Bess and Hal out to the ambulance. "Is this your room?"
    "No," said Bess, glancing at Hal. "It's our aunt."
    "How much does she weigh?"
    "Five hundred, maybe fivefifty," suggested Hal, "no more than your average beef cow." Bess elbowed Hal in the ribs.
    "This is a complicated situation," said the woman. She stood taller than Hal and wore a white uniform shirt.
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    "We tried to pull her out," said Bess. "We didn't know what to do."
    "We'll wait for the fire department. We can get a sort of harness. It should fit . . . They'll saw away some of the wood around her, then we'll lift her out." The woman looked at her watch.
    "What's the hurry," asked Hal.
    "She can't move," said the woman. "A person that big, it's hard standing on her feet in one place like that. Her ankles are probably swelling. My partner's taking her vitals now. Do we have your cooperation?"
    "Sure," said Hal. "Haul away."
    "What medications is she on?"
    Hal named three medications, and Bess wondered how in the world he knew what drugs Victoria took. Back in the kitchen Bess grabbed a box out of the cupboard and stood over the sink devouring handfuls of candycoated popcorn with peanuts. Before now, Bess had tried not to know anything about Victoria, about what she took or ate or thought; but now she wished she knew everything, including why her mother had loved this woman. Hal appeared with some menthol cigarettes he must've taken from Victoria's purse. They each smoked one, tapping their ashes into the drain. A new siren wailed.
    "Let's go," said Hal.
    "Should we leave Victoria?" Bess asked.
    "We'll be right back."
    Bess kept her gaze away from Victoria who was now rumbling at the EMT man taking the blood pressure on her free arm. Bess recalled that her mother used to plant impatiens along the edge of the porch stairs, the only colorful thing that would grow in such dense shade, she'd said. Hal was already running, so Bess jumped off the side of the porch to catch him, holding her hat to her head. She was jumping out of a Navy plane, running behind enemy lines. They could train her to fight and swim in the Navy, and to operate radar.
    She and Hal didn't need to go far before seeing the wreck and smelling it. The fourcar Amtrak had ground to a halt and the front was covered with mud, or what looked like mud. Across the tracks
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    lay a Stalwart's Septic pumping truck. The crushed chassis sprawled on its side like a smashed pop can, and septic waste continued to dribble out. The fluid had already coated everything—the stones, the rails, the engine, and part of the Amtrak club car. Translucent wads of toilet paper smudged the train and the ground, and flies buzzed over the whole sticky mess. Intercity travelers stared out through the brownstreaked windows of the club car like unredeemed spirits. Bess and Hal sidled alongside a darkeyed man who was leaning against an ambulance. He wore a name tag which read ''Robert" and "Kalamazoo Life Care."
    "Was anybody hurt?" asked Bess.
    "Truck stalled on the tracks," he said in a surprising Southern drawl. "Driver got out and ran. He's okay. Passengers are fine. The engineer refuses to go to the hospital.
    That's him with the fire chief, with the bandage on his head." The driver had glanced at Bess but addressed his comments to Hal. Hal raised his eyebrows at him. Bess stubbed the ground with her toe. "Hal, we'd better go back and check on Victoria."
    "I'll