Kaia sprang to her feet and looked around for a weapon. The man’s bare feet were about to disappear onto the deck above her head. Nani chattered in obvious agitation. Kaia grabbed an iron skillet hanging from a hook and charged up the ladder. Shrieking like a myna, she jumped up the last rung and onto the deck.
The man was at the railing. She raised the skillet over her head and charged again, bringing the skillet down with a loud clang onto the man’s head.
He uttered a small sigh then toppled overboard with Heidi. “Heidi!” Kaia dove over the side. She came up, flinging water from her eyes. Where was Heidi? Then she saw the little girl floating face-down in the water.
The dolphin surfaced beside her and got to Heidi before Kaia could. She came up under the little girl and bore her on her back to Kaia. Kaia reached out and pulled Heidi to her, flipping her over as she did. Was she breathing?
She couldn’t tell, and she couldn’t tend to her in the water. Pulling the little girl behind her in a lifesaver’s hold, she got to the ladder. Holding Heidi against her, she tried to climb the ladder, but the weight was too much for her.
“Help me, God!” she cried out. Panting and sobbing, she tried again, this time balancing Heidi on one shoulder. She got her foot in the first rung of the ladder and heaved straight up.
Heidi began to slip, but Kaia grabbed her with her right hand while using her left to continue pulling them up the ladder. She finally lay gasping next to Heidi on the deck.
She glanced toward the radio. There was no time to call for help. She rolled Heidi to her stomach and grabbed a coil of rope to put under her stomach for pressure. Pressing on the little girl’s back, she forced water out of her mouth then laid her on her back. What was the protocol for CPR for a child? For a moment she couldn’t think. Then her training came flooding back. One full breath, five compressions. She leaned over Heidi and breathed into her mouth then began the compressions. She prayed while she went through the routine. Please, Lord, let her live.
It seemed an eternity before the little girl sputtered and coughed. She vomited seawater onto the deck, but she was breathing.
Kaia ran her hand over the water beading Heidi’s forehead. “Heidi, can you open your eyes?”
Moonlight and dim decking light illuminated Heidi’s face. Her lashes fluttered, then she opened her eyes. “Kaia?” she asked in a weak voice. “What happened?”
“I’m not quite sure,” she said. “You fell overboard.” Heidi didn’t need to know the whole story unless Jesse okayed it. The little girl might suffer nightmares from the ordeal. Kaia prayed Heidi wouldn’t remember it.
“Oh.”
She managed a smile and pressed her palms against Heidi’s cheeks. “Nani brought you to me on her back. It was something to see.” She helped Heidi sit up.
Heidi coughed. “I don’t feel so good.”
“I’m not surprised. Why don’t you just lie down here for a minute?” Kaia snatched a dry towel from the chair and snugged it around Heidi. “Better?”
Heidi nodded, her small face pinched and white. “I’ll be warm in a minute.” Her eyes closed.
Kaia left her there and went to check on Jesse. Along the way, she glanced overboard but didn’t see the man she’d hit with the skillet. In the distance, she heard a motor and saw a small craft speeding away from her boat. The guy must have survived the incident.
She hurried to the helm and found Jesse on the floor in the dim light in the room. She choked back a shriek when she saw the blood pooled around his head. Sinking to her knees, she rolled him over. His eyes were closed, and blood matted his hair.
She touched his face. “Jesse, can you hear me?” There was a first-aid kit in the compartment to the right of where she crouched, but she didn’t want to leave him to get it.
He didn’t respond. Panic flared in her chest. She had to leave him for a minute. She crawled to the compartment and pulled out the first-aid kit. Opening it, she found an ampule of smelling salts. With the kit in her hand, she went back to Jesse, broke the ampule, and waved it under his nose. The acrid smell stung her nose and made her eyes water.
Jesse gasped and his head lolled from side to side trying to escape the odor. “Smells like your cat,” he muttered weakly. His eyes opened more fully then watered from the stinging fumes of the smelling salts. He struggled to sit up.
“Lie still; you’re hurt,” she ordered. She dug in the kit again and pulled out a pad and alcohol.
“Ouch!” He pushed her hand away. “That hurts.”
“Don’t be such a baby,” she told him. She dabbed at the cut. It wasn’t as nasty as she’d feared. Head wounds bled so badly. She put a butterfly bandage on the cut. That would have to do until she could get him below deck and get the blood washed out of his hair.
His eyes snapped open in a more alert way. “Heidi!” He pulled out of Kaia’s arms and sat up.
“She’s okay. Some guy was hauling her off though.” She told him about the chloroform and how she’d beaned the man with the frying pan.