We were supposed to leave in the middle of VBS Friday to head north to Tupelo. We’d been gone on Addison’s birthday to the beach and Bev’s parents wanted to have something for her. I’m not sure why it mattered that we were at the beach because otherwise we’d have been at home instead of up in Tupelo. But oh well. I think part of it had to do with the fact that we didn’t stay in Tupelo any the last time we visited up there. We stayed at my grandmother’s instead…for good reason. More on that later.
Anyhow, Friday was the last day of VBS and Addison had been having the best time, so we didn’t want her to miss the last day. I took her up there and Bev was supposed to come up later and we’d leave together. Around 10 or so I’m up in my office and hear Bev and Jenny running in the gym calling for my name, kinda frantic. I poke my head out and look down in the gym. Bev yells up that Addie fell and hurt her head, and then I see her teacher carrying her and she’s crying loud. I can tell there’s blood, but nothing much else.
I run down there and then see her entire left side of her face awash in blood. Looks like it could be nasty. I wonder if it’s a cut, where is it, did she smash in her eye bone (orbital?) or what? But then they pull back a towel and I see it’s a gash above her left eye. With some blotting and wiping I see it’s not that big but will probably need some stitches or butterfly. Turns out she’d been running to snack time, tripped over something and headbutted the concrete sidewalk. Hard!
I pick her up and we walk to a clinic that’s just across the street. Despite the half full waiting room they take us on back because she’s covered in blood. She’s stopped crying on the walk over and now was being a tough girl. I was quite impressed. She can be a whiner sometimes, but this really wasn’t one of them. Her main concern was that she had gotten blood on her new VBS shirt. After waiting a while for the cut to deaden the pain, the doc came in and poked it a few times w/ the syringe and then sewed it up. Two stiches. And a bright band-aid for good measure.
Then on to Tupelo. We get there and then family finally starts arriving. Loads and loads. I try to stay out of the way. After the dust settles and the smoke from too many cigarettes disperce we start to wind down. The baby finally goes to sleep, then after looking at my wife’s aunt’s new home, we go to bed. But it’s not good sleep. The baby doesn’t sleep well, we don’t sleep well. And there an invisible haze of her dad’s cigarettee smoke in the house, even though he only smokes in his office which is connected to the laundry room. I think our bedding sat in there for a few weeks before it got on our bed. Horrible.
After what seemed like forever, we leave the next afternoon and make it back home to the final week in our rental house. Some youth came over to play some cards, then it was time to hit the sack after they left.
