A few more orders from Jean-Pierre brought a huge dose of pain to Debby, and she couldn’t move with exhaustion. The fingers on her hands were moving, though her hands themselves were bruised and bruised. Her right leg did not move; Jean-Pierre asked Debby not to look down for the moment. This startled her, but he immediately turned her attention to the pain in her left leg. It was normal, though it hurt as much as anything else. Debby’s consciousness wandered around the small room, and she had no clue how she fit, lying on the floor, in an airplane lavatory.
“Okay,” Jean-Pierre concluded, “I’m going out to get someone to help us.”
Jean-Pierre disappeared from sight. A coldness entered the room. A second later, Jean-Pierre returned with a strange – either surprised or frightened – expression on his face.
“Debby,” he paused for a long moment before he continued speaking. “Debby, we survived the plane crash. We’re in the mountains,” Jean-Pierre swallowed his saliva to continue. “You need help. I’ll have to go away for a while, look for people. A village or perhaps climbers. I know…”
Jean-Pierre couldn’t finish his difficult reasoning. Debby took his hand and cried. Jean-Pierre lowered his head and imagined for a moment what his wounded companion was feeling right now. What pain she was feeling, knowing that they might not be able to survive. Jean-Pierre made a mental effort and decided inside, “I’ll do everything I can to save this American woman. Even if it means sacrificing my life.”
“I’m sorry,” Debby said through her tears.
Jean-Pierre looked up at her and asked stunned:
“What? What are you talking about?”
“You’re here because of me, God, it’s all my fault,” she began to squeeze his hand in despair. “Where are we? I don’t understand why I’m always hurting everyone.”
“Look at me,” Jean-Pierre said, trying to get in Debby’s field of vision. “It’s going to be okay. Do you know why?”
Debby looked at him with surprise, the tears stopped.
“We’re still alive, so we can do something.”
Jean-Pierre pulled out all the paper towels from the box above the sink and put them under Debby’s head. He ran his fingernail across the bottom of her right leg, but Debby felt nothing.
“We must hurry,” Jean-Pierre said to himself as he walked out of the small room.