Chapter 3: A Helping Hand

            That night was a busy one for the girls. Camie had stayed by the man’s side as Trina took her shower. A bowl of water and peroxide sat beside her on the end table along with what used to be a clean white towel. It was now caked in blood. ‘At least his cut is clean,’ Camie thought as she finished cleaning out the gash in the man’s forehead.

            Reaching down towards the floor, she found the first aid kit and pulled out the gauze. After wrapping it around his head, she examined the job, and satisfied, stood up to see if Trina was done yet.

            “Cam! Shower’s yours!” Trina yelled as she walked out of the bathroom with a towel around her head and body.

            “Put something on then look after him,” Camie ordered as she strode inside and slipped out of her clothes.

            Trina hopped into her pink cotton pajamas and walked out of her room, her dark brown hair a messy tangle. With a brush in one hand and a new clean white towel in the other, she walked into the kitchen to fill another bowl with warm water. She made her way into the living room holding the water bowl and towel in one hand and her brush in the other. Sitting down beside the guy on the couch, she put the bowl down on the floor and stuck the towel in it as she started to brush the tangles out of her hair.

            Soon after she was done struggling with it, Trina threw her brush to her side and picked up the warm towel from the water. She draped it over the man’s exposed neck in hopes of warming him up a little. Gently removing the blankets to expose a little more of his body, she discovered the black silk pajamas he wore with a name embroidered on the left pocket. She pulled the blankets a little further back to expose the name “Daniel.”

            “So that’s you name,” Trina said as she put the blankets back over his body. “What a cute name.” Her hand gently pushed back a few strands of his sandy brown hair away from the bandage just as Camie walked into the room, her body wrapped in a bathrobe.

            “Guess what?” Trina asked as she sat down beside her.

            “What?” Camie replied.

            “His name is Daniel,” Trina answered.

            “He woke up?” Camie gasped, her heart nearly skipping a beat.

            “No, it’s on his shirt.”

            “Oh…”

            “Yeah… So, now what?”

            “We wait.”

            “Wait?” Trina whined. “How long?”

            “As long as it takes from him to wake up,” Camie said as she reached over to the coffee table and grabbed the remote control for the TV. She switched it on and started flipping through the channels until she found someone playing the news.

            “It’s another cold winter day here in Australia. The snow seems to be getting worse. It is expected for towns such as Broken Hill and Menindee to receive as much as 25 centimeters over night with more in the morning,” the anchor rambled as he pointed to various areas on a large map.

            “Shit,” Camie said. “That totally destroys all our chances to get this guy to a hospital tomorrow.”

            “What if he… What if he di…” Trina stuttered.

            “Dies?” Camie finished. “I don’t know what we’re gonna do. We gotta think positive though. He’ll be okay. We just have to keep him warm.”

            “Easy for you to say,” Trina mumbled before the anchor cut her off with an important story.

            “This just in,” he said urgently. “Sources have told us that ex Savage Garden guitarist and Aneiki producer Daniel Jones has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. Sources also say that two men were seen in his posh neighborhood last night driving a light blue van with Queensland license plates. Authorities have yet to disclose any information, but it appears as if they have received the ransom request. We will be monitoring this story as more information becomes available.”

            Camie and Trina glanced at each other, then at the man lying on the couch. “Could this be…?” Trina started.

            “No way!” Camie quickly dismissed the thought from both their minds. “Just because his name is Daniel doesn’t mean that he’s the same guy they’re talking about on TV.”

            “You’re right,” Trina replied. “There’s no way. He must live all the way out in Brisbane or Sydney. He’s probably tied up somewhere with the people who kidnapped him.”

            “Yeah, exactly. This guy has to be one of the wealthy ranch owners around here. Maybe it was his wife who tried to kill him,” Camie said as she started to calm down once again.

            “Gotta be,” Trina agreed. “But we won’t know for sure until he wakes up, which will hopefully be soon. I hate waiting.”

            “Why don’t you keep yourself occupied and get me a thermometer?” Camie slyly asked.

            Trina glared at her and rolled her eyes. She stood up and started for the bathroom again to see if she could find it. Camie, on the other hand, took the towel away from Daniel’s neck and soaked it in the warm water once more. She took his much warmer hand and checked his pulse again. His heart was beating almost normally again.

            “You’ve got a strong will to live, don’t cha?” Camie said as she brushed the back of her hand down his cheek. “Poor thing. How could anyone do this to you? If you were my husband or boyfriend, I would be so in love with you, but that’s not a possibility.”

            “Found it!” Trina yelled as she came running back into the living room with the thermometer in her hand.

            “Thank you,” Camie replied as she snatched it out of her hand and shook it. Taking a look, she added, “It’s cold in here. I’ll start a fire in the fireplace.” She stood up and grabbed a couple of logs from the rack. Throwing them into the ashes of the last fire, she took a set of matches off the mantle and lit the logs. The fire came to life within minutes and the temperature in the room slowly began to rise.

            “That feels so much better,” Trina yawned. “Good enough to put me to sleep.”

            “Yeah, me too,” Camie agreed. She reached for the remote and turned off the TV. “You wanna go to bed? I’ll stay up with him for the rest of the night and you can take the morning shift.”

            “Sure. Night Camie. See ya in the morning,” Trina said as she stood up and headed for her room.