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.
