Days of Love and Blood

hand on my back. I smiled nervously but when she cupped her hand around my cheek I felt the tenderness of a proud mother.
    “She is,” Ritchie nodded.
    “You finally did something right, dude ,” Samuel said as he lightly punched his brother in the shoulder.
    As I lifted my champagne glass in my husband’s direction, I could see his mother move towards my own and grab her hand with a look of jubilant gleefulness. My father had his hand on my new father-in-law’s shoulder. It felt like I was the one who finally did something right. And then I felt my husband’s arms around my waist.
    “It couldn’t be more perfect,” he whispered and I melted into his arms.

    An olive— skinned woman with greasy brown curls knelt down beside my bed in the camper. I had seen her before at the Fielding’s but was never introduced.
    “I’m Gretchen. I’m a nurse. Do you mind if I…” She motioned to my shirt and I nodded my head. Cooper stood overhead and watched with evident curiosity. Voices turned his attention to the camper door and I heard him shuffle back to block the entrance while Gretchen lifted my shirt.
    “Oh, wow. This was from a bat?” Again, I nodded my head. “Were you hit anywhere else?”
    “No,” I uttered with difficulty.
    Her hands moved to the darkening bruise which covered most of the area just below my rib cage. She gently pushed around and then used her fingertips to delicately trace the outline of the bottom ribs.
    “Does this hurt?” she asked while pushing on the bone. I shook my head. “How about this?” she asked while testing another rib. Again, the answer was no. Her hands were soft and knowing and she continued to glance at my reaction with every touch, every prod - as if she was mindful of each grimace from the placement of her fingers. She was a true nurse, someone who instinctively cared for people.
    “The good news is that I don’t think any of your ribs are broken. But without an MRI, there’s no way to tell if you have internal bleeding. With a bruise this size and this dark, there’s a good chance that you could have a slow hemorrhage. I wish I could do more, but there’s nothing I can re ally do. How’s your pain level on a scale of one to ten?” I held up seven fingers.
    “It hurts to talk. It feels like I had the wind knocked out of me.”
    “That’s the damage to the muscle overlaying the abdomen. You use those muscles for almost everything - breathing, speaking…” Cooper moved back behind Gretchen while Solomon peaked over his shoulder. “Your core muscles are pretty solid, though. You have more muscle there than fat; I can tell. Chances are, that muscle protected your internal organs fairly well. Pays to be in shape,” she said with a wink.
    “Your son knows you’re here, ” Cooper said. “He’s worried ‘cause you haven’t come out yet.”
    “He can come in. Got to get home, anyhow.”
    “You’re not going anywhere ,” ordered Solomon. “Ivy will let you have a bed in the house, that way someone will be there to watch over you for the night.”
    “No, I want to go home.”
    “I’ll take her,” said Cooper. “Maybe Gretchen can come with us and help get her into her bed and stuff.”
    I saw wrinkles form between Solomon’s eyes. “I’ll be fine,” I said, trying to reassure him by relaxing my face and forcing a smile.
    “ Solomon’s right. You shouldn’t be alone,” Gretchen offered. “Someone should be with you all night, just in case.”
    “I’ll stay with her. At her place.” I looked up at Cooper, astonished at his offer. “Why don’t you and Gretchen - or even Ivy and Gretchen - follow us up there so Gretchen can help get her into bed and check on her one last time. Then one of y’all can pick me up in the mornin’.” Solomon shrugged his shoulders at the suggestion.
    “Well, alright. But you, Carson…” His voice was exasperated. “You need to tell someone if you’re going out. You shouldn’t have done that on your own. I mean, why on earth would you go out there by yourself like that?”
    I shrugged my shoulders. “I had to.” It was the best reason I had. The only reason. Cooper put his hand on Solomon’s shoulder as if on cue and led him to the doorway.
    “I guess I’ll be seeing you in just a few minutes,” said Gretchen. “I’ll be right behind you.”
    “Thank you.”
    “You’re welcome. I wish I could do more. In fact, I’m going to talk to Cooper. I should be the one staying with you