Grandma and Grandpa said their house was much too big for them now that all their children had grown up and moved away. They found a two-bedroom cottage around the street from the big house. Cathy didn’t like it that they were moving. All she had to do to see Grandma was cross the field. Now she would have to go up to the corner and down a block, turn and then walk another 2 blocks down. Mama said she couldn’t go by herself.
Cathy was disappointed about that but she was upset to see Grandma crying. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m just going to miss my piano,” Grandma answered.
“Why can’t you take it?” Cathy would miss the piano too. She loved to hide underneath it to the deep embarrassment of her parents. When she didn’t want to go home from Grandma’s, she’d crawl under the piano and scoot all the way to the wall where Mama couldn’t reach.
“The new house is too small,” Grandma said. She has a lost look on her face, like she was wondering where something went.
Cathy wondered why Grandma was moving then. First Grandma said the house was too big but now she was sad because her new house was too small.
Actually, the new house was just the right size even if it wasn’t in the right place. It had a big sunny kitchen with big windows. There was an enclosed porch in the front and a nice backyard to play in. The living room was long, with two bedrooms alongside. There was no dining room but Grandma and Grandpa brought their big dining room table anyway. They put lamps and books and things on top of it. When there was a holiday, though, they would move the chairs and the sofa so they could open the table to its full length. Then everyone could sit around it.
One day, Cathy was playing at Grandma’s. They were having a make-believe tea party outside when suddenly they heard Mama screaming. It was a very scary sound; a scream Cathy had never heard before. She and Grandma jumped up and ran from the backyard to the front. Mama was running toward them carrying Mikey. He was crying and one of his arms was dangling.
Grandma couldn’t understand what Mama was saying. Mama was so upset she could barely speak. Most times Mama would sit and watch Grandma’s face carefully to try and catch the words. Grandma knew how to fingerspell a little but she had a lot of difficulty forming the letters. If Mama couldn’t get it though, Grandma would spell the word slowly. Neither would use paper and pencil because you just didn’t talk to family that way.
Something was wrong with Mikey, that much was clear. Cathy heard Mama say something about his hand caught in the washing machine and so she helpfully told Grandma. Grandma began pushing them toward the car.
Mama cried out, “What about Pop?”
Grandma shook her head and waved her hand as if to say forget about it. They all got into the car. Mama got into the back seat with Mikey. Cathy was really scared. She was afraid to look at Mikey’s dangling arm. She got into the front seat with Grandma and didn’t say a single word during the short trip to the hospital.
This was the first time Cathy could remember being in a hospital. When Mikey was born, Grandma and Grandpa brought her to the hospital lawn to show her Mama, Daddy and the new baby. They stood on the grass looking up as Daddy opened a window. Mama and Daddy leaned out and waved. Cathy cried. She wanted to go to them but children weren’t allowed.
She was relieved to be allowed into the emergency room. She didn’t want to wait out on the lawn all by herself. She sat down on a wooden chair while Mama and Grandma tried to tell the nurse what happened. They were having trouble so Mama turned to Cathy and waved her forward.
“Mikey caught his hand in the washing machine,” she told the nurse nervously. Now that she’d been noticed, would she have to go out on the lawn?
Instead, they all went into a big room with a steel bed. There was a monstrous machine with a big glass window close to the bed. The nurse wanted Mama to put Mikey on the bed. Mama tried, but Mikey began to scream in terror. He tried to roll off the bed but the nurse grabbed him.
“Don’t hurt him!” Cathy warned. She knew that was what Mama wanted to say. Grandma stepped back and grabbed her hand.
“Sssh,” the nurse soothed Mikey but he kept crying. Mama was crying too.
A man in a white coat came in and tried to talk to Mikey. He moved the big glass window until it was right over Mikey’s head and shoulders. He pushed something into a drawer in the bed and said, “Hey, there, kiddo, do you like Lassie? Look right up in here. You can see Lassie. Look here, kid, look.”
But Mikey didn’t want to look. He screamed again.
“No!” Cathy exclaimed. “Leave my brother alone!”
The man looked over and snapped gruffly, “You all should go into the waiting room.”
“Go, Mrs. Baker. We’ll be just fine,” the nurse said to Grandma.
Grandma touched Mama’s shoulder and the three of them left the room. Cathy covered her ears with her hands so she wouldn’t hear Mikey scream any more. She leaned against Grandma when they sat down. Grandma patted her absently but she turned to Mama to try and find out what happened.
Cathy had to help a little bit because Mama’s voice was still hoarse and shaky. Mama was doing laundry while Mikey napped. She took a load of wet clothes outside to hang them up on the clothesline. When she came back into the kitchen, she saw the Mikey’s arm was in the rollers of the washing machine – all the way up to his shoulder. She turned the machine off but had a lot of trouble freeing Mikey’s arm without yanking on it. She tried to pry the rollers apart with her bare hands and finally Mikey was able to pull his arm free.
It sounded horrible. Maybe Mikey would have to have his arm chopped off at the shoulder! Cathy wondered how he could play outside with just one arm. How could he get dressed?
After a while, another man – a doctor, he said – came out to talk to Grandma. He said, “We were very lucky. His arm isn’t broken. His shoulder was dislocated but it’s fine now.” He talked about medicine for Mikey’s pain and what to do for the next few days. Mama stood by tensely, watching the doctor’s lips as he talked to Grandma.
After the doctor left, they went in to see Mikey. He was sucking on a lollipop with his other hand, his pale face still streaked with tears. His shirt was off and Cathy began to avert her eyes, afraid to look at his arm. All she saw, though, was a very red mark on Mikey’s shoulder. When he saw them, he began to cry again.
Mama saw the mark too and asked, “What is this?”
The nurse said Mikey’s skin was stretched in the roller and that it would probably bruise. It would be fine again in a couple of weeks. Grandma turned to Mama, moving her lips slowly and in an exaggerated way tried to repeat what the nurse had just said. Mama nodded, looking relieved.
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