Chapter 5 - Morning Checks and Cold Water
I woke up because Dad was already awake. That was new. He was on the floor next to my little bed with his shirt all wrinkled from last night and his watch still on. For a second I did not move because my arm felt tight and sore under the white stuff.
Dad sat up fast when I made a noise. He put his hand soft on my forehead first, like he was checking if I was warm. Then he looked at my arm.
"Can I look, bug?" he said. His voice was low and scratchy from sleeping.
I nodded. He lifted my arm just a little and bent down close. He did not pull at the gauze. He just looked around the edges where it was taped. He breathed out through his nose.
"Still dry," he said, more to himself. "That's good. We leave it alone, just like they said."
The paper from the clinic was on my dresser next to my bear. Dad picked it up and read it again while he rubbed his eyes. I held my bear against my chest with my good arm. The sore arm I kept still because moving it pulled.
Vanessa was in the kitchen. I could hear a mug set down. Dad carried me to the bathroom instead of letting me walk, one arm under my knees. The light in there felt too bright after nighttime.
He sat me on the closed toilet lid with a towel under me. "Quick check, then teeth, okay?" he said.
He turned on the bathroom tap. Just a little at first. Cold came out. He let it run and then moved it toward hot. I watched the water. It steamed a little right away.
Dad frowned. He put his wrist under it and pulled back quick.
"Whoa," he said. He shook his hand. "That's fast."
He looked at me. "Was it like that last night? Hot that fast?"
I did not remember turning it. I just remembered stepping in and it hurt. I shrugged with one shoulder and held my bear tighter.
He let the water run a bit more into the sink and tested it again with the inside of his wrist. His face got tight. He turned it off and then on again, cold all the way, then hot all the way. The hot came fast again.
Vanessa came to the doorway with her mug. Her hair was pulled back again. She did not come all the way in.
"You've been running it a while," she said.
Dad did not look at her right away. He was looking at the faucet. "Hot comes on almost instant. And it's very hot."
"The apartment heater was fixed last week," Vanessa said. "The guy was here Tuesday. He said it would run hotter now."
Dad looked up then. He paused. "Did he change the setting?"
"I don't know. He was only in the closet a few minutes," she said. She took a sip. "I didn't think about the bath."
Dad nodded once, but his jaw moved. He reached for his phone on the sink edge. He took a picture of the faucet handles, then a closer one of the little red dot on the hot side. The click sounded loud in the small room.
He helped me brush my teeth with my good hand. He was careful to keep water off the gauze. When I spit, he wiped my mouth and kissed the top of my head where my hair was dry now.
In the kitchen he laid the aftercare paper flat on the table and smoothed it. Do not remove dressing. Keep dry. Watch for swelling. I could read some words but not all. Dad read them with his finger under each line.
He folded it and put it in his work bag by the door. Then he got out his phone again.
"I'm going to call the clinic nurse when they open," he said. "And the landlord about the water heater."
Vanessa stood by the counter. "This morning?"
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"Yeah," Dad said. "Before work." He zipped his bag. "I need to know what temp it's supposed to be."
He came back and lifted me onto a kitchen chair and gave me cold apple juice. The cold felt good on my throat. He sat close so his shoulder touched mine, and he kept glancing at my arm and then at the bathroom hall, like he was thinking about the water and not done thinking yet.
