Chapter 11
I was back in the same kind of room the next morning but it wasn't the same room.
This one had carpet on the floor instead of tile and the lights weren't as buzzing white. There was a couch along one wall with a blanket folded on it and a low table with a box of crayons nobody had opened. The exam table had paper over it but also a pillow. I sat on the edge and let my legs hang. My right leg was wrapped again, not in the blue thing, in white gauze with tape around it.
My name is Mason. That morning they told me I didn't have to be scared of the camera.
The pediatric examiner came in first. She wasn't the lady in blue scrubs from before. She had short gray hair and glasses on a chain and she knelt down so her face was even with mine instead of standing over me.
"Hey, Mason," she said. "I'm Dr. Patel. We're just going to check how that knee is healing, okay? Same as yesterday, but we'll take some pictures so we don't have to keep looking."
She washed her hands where I could see her do it. The caseworker was already in the corner, the same woman from the night before, Ms. Alvarez. She had a notebook but she kept it closed on her lap. She smiled at me and didn't say anything yet.
Dr. Patel unwrapped the gauze slow. The tape pulled a little and I breathed through my nose like they'd showed me. Underneath the shin was still dark purple and yellow at the edges, and the scrape over my knee was crusted over with the red-black scab. It looked smaller than yesterday but it still hurt to look at.
She didn't touch it right away. She just looked, then she measured with a little paper ruler and held it next to the bruise without pressing.
"Can I feel around the edges lightly?" she asked. "Tell me if it's a sharp hurt."
I nodded.
Her fingers were cold at first. She pressed around the yellow part and then near the scab. I flinched but it wasn't the bad hurt from before, just sore.
"Good," she said quietly, more to Ms. Alvarez than to me. "Color change is consistent. This bruising is about thirty-six to forty-eight hours old. That's right on track with what we saw yesterday. The abrasion is drying well, no sign of infection."
Ms. Alvarez wrote that down now, just the words, not asking me anything. Dr. Patel took three pictures with a camera on a stand. Click, click, click. She showed me the screen after so it wasn't a surprise. "See? Just your knee. Nothing else in the picture."
After she wrapped it again with fresh gauze, she stood up and said she'd be right outside and that Ms. Alvarez would sit with me for a little bit. The door didn't latch all the way. I could hear the hallway machine beeping far off.
Ms. Alvarez moved from the corner chair to the one closer to the table. She didn't open the notebook right away.
"You slept okay at Mrs. Jen's house?" she asked.
I shrugged. "The bed was soft."
"She said you ate the toast."
"Yeah."
She nodded. She didn't write that down. Then she said, "Mason, yesterday you told the nurse your dad gave you those colors. The blue splint. Do you remember telling her that?"
I looked down at my wrapped leg. My hands were on my knees.
"Yeah," I said.
"You don't have to tell a big story," she said. "Just whatever you remember about right before he gave it to you. What were you doing?"
I was quiet for a second. The carpet had little dots in it and I counted three before I answered.
"We were at the house," I said. "I was on my bike. In the driveway."
She waited. She didn't say 'and then what happened' to hurry me.
"The wheel caught," I said. "On the crack by the garage. I went forward."
My voice got smaller. I could hear myself breathing.
"Dad was there. He picked me up. He said don't cry, we're gonna make it blue so it doesn't hurt so bad. He had it in the garage. The blue wrap."
Ms. Alvarez wrote exactly what I said. She read it back soft. "The wheel caught on the crack by the garage. You went forward. Dad picked you up. He said we're gonna make it blue so it doesn't hurt so bad. Did I get that right?"
I nodded.
"Thank you for telling me that part," she said. She didn't ask why I fell or if someone pushed me or if Dad was mad. She just capped her pen.
May you like
Dr. Patel came back in with a paper for Ms. Alvarez and one for me - a kid paper with a happy face scale and instructions about keeping the wrap dry. She told me I was doing a good job letting them look.
When they let me stand, I put weight on my left leg first, then the right. It ached but it held. Ms. Alvarez held the door open and didn't touch my arm unless I wanted her to. On the table the gauze wrapper was in the trash, and my old blue splint was still in the clear bag by my shoes where Mrs. Jen had put it. Nobody opened the bag. It just stayed there while we left the room together.
