Chapter 5
We had to go to the big hospital, which I knew about because my mother went there to have babies. (She’s had six, so she’d been there a lot.) On the way, Mom made up a little song, like she always does in tricky situations:
“A baseball player hits the ball,
No matter what the pitch is.
Let’s hope the ball does not hit HIM,
Or he’ll end up with stitches!”
We met a nurse who wore a striped outfit, like the peppermints in Candy Land.
“Well, aren’t you the cutest little thing!” she said. “I just love your nightie!”
The Peppermint Nurse had really thick white shoes that squished when she walked. She was even a faster walker than my dad, who walks twice as fast as me, so I felt like we were sort of racing down the long hallways. Mom’s skirt foofed around the corners as she tried to keep up.
Finally we stopped in a little white room with big lights and a doctor I didn’t know. He smiled at me in a way that made me let go of Dad and smile back.
“Well, what have we here? Hello, Miss Small. I’m Doctor Steve.” He patted the bed. I lay down and the Peppermint Nurse pulled a sheet up under my chin. It was so white, it was like the Winter White crayon in September.
The doctor’s hands felt all warm and heavy when he parted my hair. The nurse sprayed something cold on the cut.
“Okay, here we go. This shouldn’t hurt much, but you just scream if it does,” Dr. Steve said.
I held Mom’s hand tight. I squeezed my eyes shut. The tears were back, waiting to see how much it hurt.
It didn’t. Not a lot, anyway, just a little. Not like getting a shot. I breathed a big breath in and out.
While Dr. Steve stitched, I thought about the sewing kit Aunt Minnie gave me. I sewed a strawberry-shaped pincushion. I remembered the big needle going in and out of the polka-dot fabric.
Mom sang:
“I had a little friend who liked
To ride around with witches,
Till she fell off a broom one day,
And had to go get stitches!”
Dr. Steve laughed.
“I knew a little cowboy once
Who rode a horse, in britches,
Till one day that cute pony bucked!
The cowboy got some stitches!”
The Peppermint Nurse patted my arm. It was over.
“Okay, miss, good as new.” Doctor Steve helped me sit up.
“Will I have a scar?”
“Oh, my, my, yes! Nine stitches? You’ll have a beauty! But your hair will cover it: it’ll be your little secret.”
I was now officially a person with stitches! Nine of them! I was going to have a scar, like a pirate has, or Michael. (Well, he has about four of them.) I felt my tears go way away.
“Okay, princess, your carriage awaits.” Dad opened his arms to carry me back to the car.
“Ummmmmm, that’s okay, Dad, I’ll walk,” I said. For once, he walked only medium-fast, so I kept up.
“When you go biking, wear a helmet,
Even if it itches!
Or else, if you fall off your bike,
Well, yikes! You might need stitches!”
Chapter 6
Coming home felt like when we come back from our summer vacation in the mountains. Everything seemed really familiar but kind of new at the same time.
I went upstairs right away to check on poor Anne and Rapunzel and the Appalachian. There they were, all confused, lying in a pile where I’d left them, next to the lamb washcloth.
“Awww, you’ve had a rough day. You need a little rest,” I told the dolls. First I folded over the washcloth so we wouldn’t have to see the bloody spot. Then I put them in my bed and pulled the sheet up under their chins, like the Peppermint Nurse would do.
The mess in my room looked smaller than I remembered, but it was still pretty big.
“Don’t you worry, honey,” Dad said. “Your brother and I will handle this.”
Jack helped Dad put the Toy House back up. Nobody had ever really gotten mad at Jack for tipping it over because they were too busy taking me to get stitches. But he was quiet and did what he was told, which was not the usual Jack, trust me.
Jenna sorted the Monopoly pieces and then moved on to Candy Land. I picked up crayons. The Wild Blue Yonder was under the bed and I found Electric Lime in the hall. But Dad told me I should take it easy, so I got in bed with the dolls and just watched the mess disappear.
“I think we should have a party to celebrate Stitches Saturday,” Mom said. “Cleo can wear the Princess Dress.” That was my costume from last Halloween. I put on my tiara, too, but very carefully.
Mom put a cloth on the kitchen table and mixed up some lemonade. She made pink frosting and spread it on graham crackers.
Jenna gave me a fan she’d gotten at our neighbor Emma’s tenth birthday party. It was red with a Japanese house and some birds painted on it. “You can borrow this for today, since you got stitches. Just be gentle because it’s made out of paper.” (Jenna could be nice sometimes.)
Right about then Jack burst in the door. “Did you miss me?” He’d gone to Charles Variety to get me some lemon drops. (Plus a Mars bar that I could see peeking out of his pocket.)
Things were back to normal. The twins were in their high chairs. Ray was exploring the pink frosting and Quinn was banging. “Yah, yah, yah!”
Lily sang a new little song while she licked her cracker.
“The cuckoo bird is cuckoo,
And I am cuckoo, too. Are youuuu…?”
Mom made more frosting, blue this time, and Dad read the newspaper.
Me and Jack did the cannibal dance:
“WE are the CANnibals, bump bump,
WE are the CANnibals, bump bump…”
“Hey, come on, Jen,” Jack called. It was definitely NOT normal for him to invite Jenna to join us, but it made her happy.
“Yeeeeaaaah, okay,” she said and bumped Jack’s butt with hers. “You should be careful bumping so you don’t pop your stitches,” she told me.
• • •
That night, I let the dolls stay in bed with me.
“You were brave today, Cleo. Yes, you were,” Dad said when he and Mom came in to say good night. “Just another Small disaster, hah!” Dad always says this when something bad happens in our family, after things are back to normal.
Dad lightly, so lightly, kissed the bandage on my head. “G’night and good dreams.”
Mom hugged me for a long time, until I felt all warm and droopy.
She whispered:
“Your story’s kinda gory,
But it has a moral, which is:
Beware a day that starts out normal.
It might end in stitches!”
Me and the dolls laughed.
After Mom and Dad went to bed, we talked for a while. I told them the whole story of the day, about the Peppermint Nurse and Dr. Eisenberg’s thick glasses and everything.
“Whoa, what a day!” said Rapunzel. “What do you think will happen tomorrow?”
“Hmmmm…” I thought for a minute. “Maybe I’ll get a letter from the President of the United States!”
“Maybe you’ll find a skunk in the backyard,” the Appalachian said. “Or a moose!”
“Or you’ll get a new dress, a lacy pink one!” Anne whispered, all excited.
“Or maybe it’ll just be a regular old day,” I said, yawning.
“Probably,” the dolls agreed. Then they were quiet and, one by one, they went to sleep.
Probably tomorrow will be just a normal day, I was thinking when my eyes closed. But after Stitches Saturday, I went to sleep not so sure.
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Uh-oh, Cleo Page 2