Placing my ear next to his lips I could now hear a shallow breath. This gave me a new surge of energy. “Get him dry… get him warm!” became my mantra that Alexi then picked up. She continuously repeated the phrase and I used it to fight off my own fog. It was as if I needed to hear the words so I wouldn’t forget my mission.
Slapping my hands together, I tried to make my fingers work again. Everything on me had started freezing up. So I quickly peeled off my wet gloves, then my jacket and tucked them above me in the seat belts out of the way. I needed to be able to maneuver and my wet jacket wasn’t helping me.
“Help me!” I shouted at Alexi.
She quickly unzipped Alex’s jacket and pulled off his gloves, next I unbuttoned his flannel shirt and pulled his thermal shirt up over his unconscious head. While barely breathing, Alex was far from being alright. His body still had a greyish blue hue about it. That couldn’t be good.
Grabbing the first large wool blanket in our survival bag, I moved him to his side and began rubbing him down with it, first on his back. Starting low and quickly moving upward to his broad shoulders. Reaching around him I repeated the process, rubbing his arms and then his bare hairless chest.
Alex had started shaving his body hair to make it harder for an opponent to get a good grip on him, it apparently worked because my hands moved smoothly through the wool blanket quickly vibrated up and down his chest. The friction massage seemed to help some and actually began to bring color back to his skin and his face became flush. Encouraged that I was on the right track, I told Alexi to focus on removing his shoes, socks and blue jeans. Alexi did this with ease and experience. Curious. It looked like I wasn’t the only one who might have admired how my son had recently grown to fill out the jeans so well. Alexi cursed Alex by how tight his jeans were as if he was awake. Shooting pain shot through my fingers and hands as I helped her roll the last of his jeans over his ass and down his legs. This left Alex naked but his wet under briefs. Not remembering if the underwear could stay on or not, I decided not to take a chance and instead peeled off the wet cloth.
“What are you doing?” Alexi demanded protectively.
“Saving his life! We got to get these clothes off of him.”
“Well then you better take your own advice before I have to take care of two of you!” Alexi shot back.
I realized then that I had started shivering uncontrollably. Without thinking I then peeled off my frozen down jacket, soaked flannel shirt and silky white bra. Alexi pulled my shoes and socks off, while my wet jeans had already started freezing and crackled stiffly as I peeled them off. Like Alex, I needed to also get dry and warm. Unlike Alex’s jacket my jacket seemed to have shed most of the water, so I laid it down like a sleeping bag.
Alexi then opened up both Alex and her suitcase and started pulling out their carefully folded clothes. Every sweater or flannel came out and was laid on the roof top floor. Soon she had created a cramped clothes nest for Alex and me to crawl into.