RUBY Chapter 1 Part 3 "Unforgettable"

Ruby quickly headed down the hall way toward the commotion in the lobby. Dr. Johns elbowed past her and in his innate way had already assessed the situation and began yelling out orders, “Bring some towels! Call the hospital and tell them we’re walking someone over!” Dottie and Darlene ran together to their office and the phone. Ruby grabbed some towels from the supply closet and ran out the front door to assist Dr. Johns. Immediately over the threshold, a wave of putrid smell hit Ruby and an involuntary “uhhhh” escaped her throat. On the ground was a small colored child. Dr. Johns had already begun compressions and emergency breathing. Ruby could hardly think – the smell overpowered her so. She recognized Sadie, who was on her knees wailing. Sadie and her son, John, and his family lived two streets up. John was trying to talk to Dr. Johns over the noise, “I don’t know how she fell through. Mama found her and yelled for me. I don’t think she was down there long.” Dr. Johns heaved but kept on compressing.
Ruby’s deadened mind struggled to put everything together. John’s overalls were smeared with the same muck that covered the girl. Dr. John was pinching the girl’s nose, his hand under her neck; his breathe puffing out the girl’s cheeks. Suddenly, there was a gurgling sound and Dr. Johns leaned over and threw up next to the little girls head. He immediately breathed again into the tiny cheeks. This snapped Ruby out of her trance and pushing John Brown out of the way, she fell to her knees and began compressions. The slick covering of slime on the girl made it difficult to do them properly and up close the smell even more horrific.

Dr. Johns threw up again and Ruby choked down her own rising vomit. Before beginning breathing again, he put his fingers to her tiny wrist, feeling for a pulse and dropped his ear to her mouth to listen. “Mama, hush… Mama hush. It’s gonna be okay Mama. Dr. Johns. Dr. Johns is she okay? My Augusta! Please…” and John Brown, his wide shoulders shaking, began to sob. Ruby averted her eyes from his face and back to the girl, who couldn’t have been more than three years old, her hair in beads. What type of pit did she fall into? Stuck in her hair was small pieces of paper and more of the putrid slime. It smelled like toilet, not any mud she had ever smelled. Dr. Johns threw up again spattering the ground and Ruby wondered how he had any lunch left in him. He was breathing hard and Ruby could feel Augusta’s chest rise under her fists, could feel the tiny ribs and she prayed that they wouldn’t shatter under her. She counted intently while he breathed, noting the muck now covering the doctor's hands and face. Then it hit her that the girl wasn’t covered in slime, it was feces. At this revelation she lost the battle to hold her lunch down and hardly had her head turned in time to keep from hurling on Dr. Johns.

“It wasn’t a mud pit she fell into,” Ruby thought, “It was a septic tank.” Dr. Johns leaned over again, listening for breathe and checking for pulse again. “Here.” Dr. Johns barked. “She may be breathing. Hold her like this and let’s go.” He lifted her up into Ruby’s arms and for every few steps that they would take to the nearby hospital, he would breathe into the child, his body involuntarily dry heaving between his breaths. Sadie was speaking some incoherent language, only occasionally would Ruby catch the words, “Augusta and Dear Lord” John was helping her to walk, her knees to weak to stand.

Ruby noticed a huge smear of feces on Sadie’s face and again lost the battle with her body and threw up, jerking Augusta out the way and spattering her pants, its warmth spreading into her shoes. Dr. Johns yelled at Ruby, “Compressions. It’s time to compress!” Ruby shifted the girl a bit to free her right hand and then… she couldn’t at first tell if it was her imagination. It wasn’t. The little girl had moved. “Turn her over!” The doctor yelled. At this, they were walking into the emergency room entry way and were converged upon by its nurses and doctors and Augusta’s body was passed from one to another, with Dr. Johns in the fray. Ruby, empty handed and passed by, made it to the bushes and threw up the last of her crackers.