Karen's Roller Skates

by Ann M. Martin

  “Good-bye,” I replied. “Thank you.”

  It was time to wait for the bone doctor.

  The Bone Doctor

  The nurse pushed me back to Daddy.

  “Tom took pictures of my bones,” I told him. “Are you finished with those papers?”

  “All finished,” said Daddy.

  Dr. Dellenkamp showed us into a little room nearby. Well, it felt like a room, but it wasn’t really one. The walls were just curtains. There was a long row of those rooms. You could pull the curtains open — or close them up.

  Dr. Dellenkamp closed ours. She and Daddy helped me out of the wheelchair. They sat me on a table that looked like a high bed. Then Dr. Dellenkamp said, “The bone doctor will be here soon. His name is Doctor Humphrey. He’s looking at your X rays now, Karen. I’m going to go look at them, too.”

  Dr. Dellenkamp pushed through the curtains and left.

  As soon as she was gone I said, “I’m bored.”

  Daddy and Kristy laughed.

  Kristy told me three elephant jokes. Daddy began to sing a silly song about marching ants. But then the curtain opened. A man with a mustache came into the room.

  “Are you the bone doctor?” I asked him.

  “Yes,” he replied. He smiled. “I am Doctor Humphrey. You must be Karen Brewer.”

  Daddy introduced himself and Kristy. Then Dr. Humphrey explained what he was going to do. I didn’t like the sound of it. The very first thing was a shot.

  “OW!” I screeched.

  “All over,” said Dr. Humphrey. “Now your wrist won’t hurt for awhile.”

  He and Daddy helped me to lie down. I began to feel very relaxed and a little sleepy. Dr. Humphrey picked up my arm. It was the one with the broken wrist, but it didn’t hurt a bit.

  A tall pole was standing by the bed. There were some metal tubes hanging from it. The doctor put my fingers in them. When he let go, my fingers dropped down a little, but they stayed in the tubes. The tubes held them tight! They were like a magic trick that Andrew used to have. If you stuck your pointer fingers into the ends of this straw tube and then pulled them apart — they got stuck. But if you pushed them together, the tube loosened and you could get your fingers out again.

  “Hey, cool!” cried Kristy. She was watching my arm as it hung from the metal tubes. “I just saw all your bones go back where they belong. Your wrist doesn’t look broken anymore.”

  “That’s right,” said Dr. Humphrey. “Now it’s time to put the cast on.”

  Dr. Humphrey wrapped cotton around and around my hand, my wrist, and right up over my elbow. Then he wrapped my arm with wet white bandages. The bandages dried fast. As they dried, they hardened into a cast. Dr. Humphrey took my fingers out of the tubes and gave me my arm back. It weighed a ton. That cast was heavy.

  “How do you feel, Karen?” asked Daddy.

  “Fine,” I said. “A little sleepy.”

  “Good,” said Dr. Humphrey. “Now Tom just has to take a few more pictures of your wrist. We need to make sure the bones are in the right places. After that, you can go home.”

  So I visited Tom one more time. The nurse pushed me around in my chariot again. When Tom was done taking the pictures, Dr. Dellenkamp talked to Daddy for a few minutes. Then she handed me a white sling. She rested my cast in the bottom part and put the top part around my neck.

  “Now your arm won’t feel so heavy,” she said.

  The nurse wheeled me outside and Daddy drove the car over to us. He and Kristy helped me to lie down in the back.

  I was still sleepy. And I was having bad thoughts — like how would I button buttons or feed Shannon and Boo-Boo or Rocky and Midgie with just one hand?

  I began to feel very, very sorry for myself.

  Tea and TV

  Daddy steered the car into our driveway. Home again. He parked the car. Then he came around to the back.

  “Do you think you can walk inside?” he asked me.

  “No,” I said crossly. “I am too tired. And my arm hurts.”

  Daddy carried me into the house.

  “Karen! Karen!” Andrew cried. He and David Michael opened the front door for us. “How is your wrist? Does it hurt? Did you cry? What did the doctor do?”

  I showed them my cast. I put on the saddest face I could make.

  “Poor Karen,” said Elizabeth.

  She had met us in the hallway. Sam and Charlie were with her. My big brothers had come home while I was at the hospital.

  “Hey, Karen, we fixed you a place in the den,” said Sam.

  “You can spend the rest of the afternoon there,” added Charlie.

  “Yeah,” said Andrew. “We put pillows there, and a blanket, and your books. We’ll take care of you.”

  “I’ll let Shannon stay with you,” David Michael offered.

  “Okay,” I said in a teeny-tiny voice.

  Daddy carried me into the den and laid me on the couch. Kristy fluffed my pillows. Elizabeth covered me with the blanket. Andrew handed me my favorite book, The Witch Next Door.

  “Thank you,” I said in my very small voice, ”but I can’t read this now. I don’t feel well.”

  “How about calling Mommy?” Daddy suggested. “That might make you feel better. We have to tell her about your accident, anyway.”

  So we called Mommy in the state of Maine. I talked to her for a long time. I told her about the hospital. Then I talked to Seth. When I hung up, I did feel better.

  Sam and Charlie and Daddy and Elizabeth had left the room, but everyone else was still there. “What’s on TV?” I asked.

  David Michael jumped up. “I’ll check,” he said importantly. He found the remote control and switched the channels for me. We found some good cartoons.

  “I’m hungry,” I said after awhile.

  Kristy told Elizabeth, and Elizabeth fixed me a special lunch. She even made tea. For dessert, Charlie gave me a candy bar.

  “Wow!” I said. “Thanks.”

  All afternoon I played on the couch. I didn’t feel sleepy anymore, and my wrist didn’t hurt — much. I leaned against my pillows. I felt like a princess. I asked for hundreds of things.

  But near dinnertime when I said, “Hey, Andrew, get me my coloring book,” Andrew replied, “No. I’m busy.”

  “David Michael, you get my coloring book,” I ordered.

  “Get it yourself,” he replied. “You can walk.”

  “Hmphh,” I said. But I did get it myself. Only it wasn’t any fun coloring with my left hand.

  When dinner was ready, Elizabeth said, “Come sit with us at the table, Karen. It’s time to eat.”

  “Can’t I eat on the couch?” I asked.

  “Do you need to?”

  “No.” I was feeling fine.

  Everyone must have known I was fine. After dinner, David Michael got to watch his favorite program on TV and Charlie didn’t even give me another candy bar.

  By bedtime I was cross again. “I’m not sleepy,” I complained to Daddy and Elizabeth.

  “Well, try going to sleep anyway,” they replied.

  So I did, even though I could only hold Tickly. Moosie had to rest beside me.

  Back to the Hospital

  When I woke up the next morning, I didn’t feel cross anymore. I didn’t feel sleepy and my wrist only hurt a little. Outside, the sun was shining.

  “Well,” I said to Moosie, “I am not going to waste this day lying around on the couch. I am going to play outside. There’s nothing wrong with my legs. Maybe I could even go skating later.”

  I got out of bed. I took off my nightgown. It wasn’t easy, with only one hand. Last night, Kristy had helped me to get undressed and put my nightgown on.

  “But today,” I told Moosie, “I am going to do everything by myself. I don’t need any help.”

  I decided to wear my blue jeans, my moccasins, and my pink shirt with the unicorn on front. It took a long, long time, but I pulled on the jeans and the shirt.

  “I did it!” I told Moosie.
I felt like I was two years old and just learning to get dressed. Of course, when I was two, I wasn’t wearing a cast that weighed a ton. And I could use both hands. Today was different.

  I slipped my feet into my moccasins. That was easy. Then I brushed my hair using my left hand. That was pretty easy. Then I went downstairs.

  “Why, Karen,” Elizabeth exclaimed. “Who helped you get dressed? I thought Kristy was still asleep.”

  “She is,” I replied. I sat down at the table. “I did it myself. I can do anything.”

  Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. She looked at Daddy.

  “You cannot do anything,” said David Michael. He and Andrew were sitting at the table with Daddy and Elizabeth.

  “I can too.” To prove it, I put a piece of bread in the toaster, left-handed. When it popped up, I buttered it, left-handed. The buttering took longer than usual — but I did it.

  “See?” I said to David Michael.

  David Michael stuck his tongue out at me.

  I stuck mine out at him.

  “Okay, okay,” said Daddy. “Karen, you must be feeling better.”

  “I’m fine!” I replied. I smiled. If I wanted to go roller-skating, I better look fine.

  “I know one thing you can’t do,” David Michael spoke up. “I bet you can’t use the can opener. I bet you can’t feed Boo-Boo.”

  “We’ll just see,” I said, jumping up.

  But David Michael was right. I couldn’t use the can opener. I needed two hands for that.

  “Well, that’s the only thing I can’t do,” I said as I sat down again. “I can dress myself, I can brush my hair, I can eat.” I paused. Then I added carefully, “I’m sure I can go roller-skating.”

  “Oh, no you can’t!” said Daddy.

  “But I didn’t break my legs,” I pointed out. “Just my wrist.”

  Daddy shook his head. “No roller-skating. Not for a long time,” he said. “If you fell now, you could really hurt your wrist. Besides, your cast is heavy. You might not realize it, but you’re off balance. Or you would be if you were on skates.”

  “Aw, Daddy,” I said.

  “Anyway,” he went on, “you have to go back to the hospital this morning. Doctor Humphrey wants to check your cast. Tom might even take another X ray.”

  “Back to the hospital?” I cried. “I don’t want to go!”

  Waiting

  I had to go anyway. Back to the hospital. What a pain.

  And Daddy wanted to go very soon. “We don’t have an appointment,” he said. “We’re just supposed to go to the emergency room this morning and wait until Doctor Humphrey can see you. If we go early, maybe we won’t have to wait too long.”

  We left so early that Kristy was still asleep. Darn it. I wanted her to come with us. She thinks up good games when you have to do a lot of waiting.

  “Can I come?” asked Andrew.

  “Well,” said Daddy, “I guess so. It’s not going to be much fun, though. We’ll just be sitting and waiting.”

  “I want to see the hospital,” Andrew said. “Hospitals are instristing.”

  “Interesting,” I corrected him.

  “Can I go?” Andrew asked again.

  “Sure,” replied Daddy.

  So Andrew came with us. Daddy drove to the hospital. This time he didn’t have to park in the emergency lot, and I could walk into the hospital by myself.

  “How come we’re going to the emergency room?” I asked Daddy. “I’m not an emergency now.”

  “Because Doctor Humphrey doesn’t have an office like Doctor Dellenkamp does. He just fixes bones, and he does it here in the hospital.”

  I nodded. Andrew and I sat down in hard plastic chairs in the waiting room. Daddy told the nurse we were there.

  “WAHHH!”

  Andrew and I turned around fast. Who was crying?

  We saw a woman carrying a little girl through the doors under the EMERGENCY sign. The woman was running and the girl was screeching.

  “She burned her hand!” the woman told a nurse.

  The nurse grabbed a bunch of papers for the woman to sign. Then she took the lady and the little girl into one of those rooms with curtains for walls.

  OOOO-EEEE-OOOO. An ambulance came speeding into the emergency parking lot. It pulled right up to the doors of the hospital.

  “Andrew! Look!” I cried.

  Andrew and I ran to a window. We watched the back of the ambulance open up. Then three men and a woman lifted a stretcher out. They wheeled it inside in a hurry. It flew by us so fast we couldn’t even see who was on the stretcher.

  “Hey,” I said. “Let’s play hospital, Andrew. It will be a good waiting game.”

  “Okay. How do we play?”

  “You be the sick person and I’ll be the doctor,” I told my brother. “You come to my hospital and I’ll fix you up.”

  “What’s the matter with me?” asked Andrew.

  “Whatever you want.”

  First Andrew had a broken leg.

  “Hmm, I think you need a cast.”

  Andrew put his leg in my lap and I pretended to make a cast for it.

  “Now I have a very very very very sore throat,” said Andrew.

  I looked down his throat. “You need this medicine,” I told him. “It tastes yucky, but you have to take it seventeen times a day. Then your throat will get better.”

  “Thank you,” said Andrew. “Now … now I have a big cut on my hand. It’s bleeding.”

  “Ew,” I replied. “Okay. First we put this goop on it. Then this Band-Aid. Then — ”

  “Karen Brewer?” said a nurse.

  “She’s right here,” Daddy answered. He and Andrew and I stood up. Daddy held my unbroken hand.

  Boo, I thought. Doctor-time again.

  The Bone Doctor Again

  The nurse showed Daddy and Andrew and me into one of the curtain rooms. I could hear the little girl with the burned hand crying. She was not far away.

  “Okay,” said the nurse. “Sit right up here on the table.” She boosted me up.

  “Do I have to get another shot?” I asked her nervously.

  The nurse smiled. “Nope. Not this time. Now just wait a few minutes and Doctor Humphrey will be in.”

  Daddy and Andrew sat in chairs by the table. Andrew looked all around. “This is like a real doctor’s office,” he said. “I see bandages and those funny scissors and medicine for cuts.”

  “That medicine is called Merthiolate,” I said importantly. I knew that from the time the school nurse had come to our classroom to tell us about first aid.

  “Very good! Maybe you’ll grow up to be a doctor, Karen Brewer.” Dr. Humphrey was pushing aside the curtain. He and Daddy said good-morning to each other. Then Dr. Humphrey looked at my cast. He turned it over and around. “Does this hurt?” he kept asking.

  “No … no … no … YES! OW!” Darn that old doctor for hurting me.

  “Sorry,” he said. “Karen, tell me how you broke your wrist.”

  “Okay,” I replied. “I was roller-skating on our sidewalk. I set up four coffee cans and I jumped over all of them. I landed perfectly.” I paused. I knew that wasn’t what had really happened, but I was too embarrassed to say that I fell when I was just trying to turn around. After all, I was supposed to be a good skater. I didn’t want people to think I couldn’t even turn around without falling. I decided to add something else to my story. “It was my best trick ever. I even twirled around in the air,” I said.

  “Karen — ” Andrew began.

  “But,” I went on, “just after I landed I saw this big caterpillar on the sidewalk.”

  “Caterpillar?” repeated Daddy. He frowned.

  “I didn’t want to squish it,” I said, “so I tried to leap around it. But I lost my balance. My feet went out from under me, and I put my hands out like this — ” (I showed Dr. Humphrey with my good hand) “ — and I landed on them. And crunch, my right wrist broke.”

  “There weren’t four cans, ” Andrew said,
but no one heard him.

  “Hmm,” said Dr. Humphrey. “Best way I can think of to break a wrist. Well, it’s time for Tom to take some more pictures. We need to see if your bones are doing what they’re supposed to be doing.”

  “More X rays,” I said. I sighed.

  This time, Andrew came with me to visit Tom. Daddy stayed behind to talk to Dr. Humphrey. When I was done, a nurse took Andrew and me back to Daddy. She handed my X rays to the doctor.

  Dr. Humphrey clipped them to a lighted board. He looked at them for a long time. So did I. Funny black-and-white pictures. I could see my arm bones and all my finger bones. (There were lots of them.)

  “Well,” said Dr. Humphrey. “Hmm. Here’s what I think is going to happen. For a couple of weeks, you’ll come to the emergency room every Wednesday afternoon. Tom will take X rays. After two weeks, we’ll remove this big cast. We’ll put a smaller one on. It will be lighter and more comfortable. Then you will only have to have X rays once every two weeks. And eight weeks from now, we’ll take your cast off for good.” Dr. Humphrey smiled.

  But I burst into tears. “Eight weeks!” I cried. “That’s a long time.”

  “Well, yes it is,” Daddy said. “It’s two months.”

  I cried even harder. Dr. Humphrey gave me a Kleenex.

  “I don’t want to wear this for two months. I want to go roller-skating.”

  “Not until your wrist has healed,” the doctor told me.

  “Boo,” I said. I blew my nose. Then I thought of something. “Will I be able to go to school?” I asked.

  “Oh, yes. In a few days, your wrist won’t hurt at all. You’ll be able to hold a pencil and write, even with the cast on.”

  Darn. I’d been hoping for a vacation.

  Yesterday, I thought, had been a bad day. But today was even worse. No roller-skating for two months — and I had to go to school anyway.

  Ricky’s Cast

  “Good-bye, Karen!” Dr. Humphrey called as Daddy and Andrew and I left.

  “ ’Bye,” I replied glumly.

  We walked back to the waiting room.

  “Look, Karen. There’s a boy with a cast just like yours,” said Andrew. “Only his is on his foot.”