by Giger, S. L.
“We need to see to your arm also, Miss.” One of the paramedics took a step closer.
“No, it’s okay. I already wiped everything off.” I took a step back.
He looked at me in disbelief for a moment. Then he took a deep breath and tried a different tactic. “Don’t worry; I won’t hurt you. It will make you feel better. Wiping it off won’t save you from any diseases.”
Feeling better would be nice. My arm felt as if it were on fire. But I had to come up with an excuse quickly if I wanted to get out of here without revealing my true nature.
“My family and I are here for a vacation from Sweden.” I tried to work in an accent. “It would be too expensive to get treated here. But my dad actually is a doctor. He will know what to do.” I backed away and started a slow jog.
“Hey!”, he called after me. “You’d better not be lying if you’re concerned about your future at all!”
I turned into another street and then raced as quickly as possible. Even though that meant that I was running away from this guy yet again. I couldn’t wait to tell Sam that our paths crossed again even though I would have to make up a lie about the location.
My arm actually hurt. I wished I could have gone to a hospital, but that wouldn’t have been an intelligent idea. So, I went home, very much humbled with the knowledge that evidently, I wasn’t indestructible.
Before I went inside, I examined my arm under the porch light. I could poke and wiggle around in the wounds under my flesh, but there were no liquids. It was disgusting. Like a dead arm that still felt pain and was attached to my body. I had no other choice but to ask Melissa and Luke for help.
Luke was home watching TV.
“Hello, Luke,” I walked in.
“Hey, hon,” he said, not taking his eyes off the screen. “How was work?”
“Good. It only took me half an hour to get Steve to leave tonight.” Steve was a divorced middle-aged guy who spent a little too much time of his life sitting at the bar of the Irish pub. “The problem is what happened after work.”
Luke turned his head toward me, concern written all over his face. “Why, what happened?” His gaze wandered to my battered arm, which I was holding with my healthy arm as if it was a paralyzed limb. “Christ, how did you manage that?” He was next to me in a second and had a closer look. “Fascinating.” He also started to lift the flesh and had a look at the wounds. “Fascinating.” He repeated.
“Ouch, that hurts, you know?” I complained.
“Oh, sorry. It hurts, hm?” He was thinking hard, and his eyes narrowed. “I’ve never actually seen this happen. There really is no blood!” He said excitedly.
“Bravo, well observed.” I mocked him.
He ignored that. “I’ve only read about this. I can see ligaments, and vessels, it’s like a dummy that doctors use to train for surgeries.”
“Except that I’m not made out of plastic.”
“This is not good, Nathalie,” he said now being earnest, “I’ve never seen a Siren with an injury before. You know why?” He didn’t wait for my reply. “Because we are very precise people. We would never accidentally cut our finger while preparing food. Any uncontrolled movement could be deadly. So, the only time someone really gets hurt is when they do it on purpose. With a suicidal aim,” he shook his head. “So how did you manage to do that?”
I told him the story. First one corner of his mouth went up then the other and then he exploded with laughter.
“You got yourself stuck? That’s hilarious,” he tried to regain his composure “or it would be if it weren’t so serious.”
“And why is that?” I asked. “Since you have an answer to everything, I’m sure one of you will find an easy fix for this.”
“I’m afraid we won’t,” he said earnestly. “Since your body is pretty much unchanging, it will literally take forever until that heals. At least that’s what I read in one case where a woman broke her hip in a car accident in India. It would have been better for her if she had died. She couldn’t go to a normal hospital, and none of our kind was able to perform such a surgery. She was in a wheelchair the rest of her long life.”
“Oh, my God, I can’t have a sliced open arm for the rest of my life! Or my future will be limited to horror movies!” I exclaimed and then wiggled my fingers. At least I still had all my movement.
Luke continued, “That was eighty years ago. There must be similar stories with broken arms and legs. I’ll have a look at that in The Library. I’m sure technology is more advanced now, that perhaps whole bones could be replaced if it was broken. The only problem is how to get the wound to heal.”
“I don’t think anything is broken. My arm only got squished hard.”
“We will let Melissa have a look at it. She is a nurse; she should know what to do.” He checked his watch, “another hour until her night shift is over. Let’s put some ice on that in the meantime.” He went to the kitchen to get a bag and ice cubes.
And all that because I wanted to help somebody, I thought. What kind of karma is that?
When Melissa got home, I explained the whole thing to her again.
“Oh no! That doesn’t look good.” Thankfully, she didn’t laugh at me. She was very compassionate. “Unfortunately, I don’t know what to do in that case either. I only deal with human children and most of them heal quite quickly, once they get the right treatment.” She dropped one corner of her mouth into a frown. “Can you wiggle your hand like that?” She moved her hand up and down. I repeated what she did and gritted my teeth in pain.
“I’m pretty sure it is a ligament, but it’s probably better if I get a second opinion from Cathy.”
Great, this day kept getting better and better.
“No, why Cathy? She already doesn’t like me, and now she’ll get confirmation that I am a failure,” I frowned.
“First of all, you are not a failure at all. You tried to help somebody.” Luke tried to comfort me. “And second, she does not dislike you. In fact, the two of you should spend more time together.”
More time with Cathy? Um, no thank you.
“So far, Cathy has always been there when she was needed, and I know she will help us here too,” Melissa said.
Then, they made me place my arm on the table. Once they finally got the cell phone to focus on the right place, Luke took a picture of the wound and sent it to Cathy.
“So, what does a torn ligament mean?” I asked.
“Usually, that wouldn’t be too dramatic. Your hand needs to be rested. Therefore, you have to wear a splint for five to six weeks until they grow back together. However, since you are a bit special, I assume it will take at least five times as long until it heals. In the future, you will always have to be especially careful, and you might feel a slight pain,” she said.
“And all that because I wanted to help somebody,” I mumbled again.
“In addition to the pain, you’ll now have to live with it that you are the first clumsy person in our family.” Luke gave me a friendly punch. It was meant to cheer me up, but I muttered something under my breath.
“See it this way; you are one of a kind. Something unique in a family that otherwise has pretty much the same abilities,” he laughed.
“Yay, to me!” I shook my healthy hand in the air.
At that moment, Melissa’s phone beeped with a response from Cathy.
“Yes, looks like the ligaments are partially torn. I’ll come over to have another look. See you in a bit!” Melissa threw a glance at Luke.
“She is coming over,” Luke said in surprise.
“That’s the first time she’s visited us in our home,” Melissa turned to me, “maybe, you’ll start to realize now how special this all is.”
“How come over all these centuries you seem to have no idea what’s actually inside of us?”
“Like I said, I’ve read a few things. But these texts are rare because once we chose to live, our survival instinct is very strong. I guess not many people had the idea yet to
cut into themselves to check out what they find.”
“One time, I took an x-ray of myself out of curiosity, but that didn’t look any different from any normal x-ray.” Melissa shrugged her shoulders.
There was a knock at the door, and Melissa went to greet Cathy.
“Hello Cathy, it has been a long time.” Luke nodded at her when they entered the living room.
“Hello, Luke,” Cathy said emotionlessly, already having her eyes on me.
“Nathalie, I heard you settled here ok?” She addressed me.
“So far, yes. Only, this probably would have better been avoided.” I pointed to my arm.
She rushed toward me. “Can I have a look?”
Not daring otherwise, I held out my wrist toward her.
“It’s amazing. As if we consist of marshmallow. There is no liquid, but despite that, all the vessels are there.” She looked up. “Yes, definitely the ligaments. You should get that stitched up, though, so that no dirt gets inside.”
“I’ll do that. I’ll get some things from the hospital and see that I can find a splint for you, too,” Melissa said.
Cathy shook her head. “A clumsy Siren. There’s nothing that doesn’t exist.” There could have been the briefest smile on her face but when I looked closer it was the same, plastic beauty like face as usual. “Or maybe, you got the wrong one.” She quickly said to Melissa, who responded with an evil glance.
“What is the wrong one?” I guided the question at Melissa.
“Cathy, you better leave now,” Melissa hissed through gritted teeth. I had never seen her so angry. Luke built himself up next to Melissa to mark his presence.
Cathy shrugged and with a ‘good luck’ addressed to me, disappeared.
“What was that all about?” I asked them gripping my hurt wrist tightly as if the skin would be patched back together this way.
Melissa snorted and then continued in a calmer voice. “She was saying that perhaps you didn’t have the right aura and don’t deserve to be a Siren. This is humbug of course!” They both nodded at me encouragingly.
“Now, let’s get your arm stitched up”, Melissa said.
She returned to the hospital and ‘accidentally’ packed a few needles, thread and sanitizing utensils in her bag. She even brought three splints that I should try on. One of them should fit the purpose, she thought. Once my skin was patched up again, she handed me one of the splints. It looked like the hand protection you wear when inline skating.
I slipped into it, closed the Velcro straps and then tried to open and close my fingers.
“Feels ok. What do you think?” I looked at my hand.
Melissa cast a more detailed eye on it. “Yes, looks fine. Now, you’ll have to be patient.”
“I do feel like the worst Siren ever,” I said.
“No, you are not,” Melissa said firmly. “It’s something rather special.” She smiled. “You care so much about people that you get too close to them. Naturally, Sirens are somewhat cold and distant, except with the person we fall in love. But you found friends the first day you went to school and not the popular ones, where you need to be cool. No, you picked a group with real kids, who are themselves.”
Luke stepped in as well. “And now, instead of accepting that you are not a medical worker, you tried to get this guy out of the car yourself. Just because you thought he couldn’t wait for help to arrive.”
“He was bleeding so much,” I said quietly.
“That’s another thing; blood shouldn’t gross us out,” Melissa said. “Perhaps it would help if you had a less human judgment in certain situations.”
I groaned.
“If you compare me and you, though,” Luke said, “it’s obvious that being a Siren is much easier for you.”
“What can I say, you are a guy.” I smiled.
At school, Phe, Sam, and Joe, of course, demanded to know what happened.
“I tell you what happened, but you have to promise not to laugh. It’s slightly embarrassing.” I said. My friends looked at me expectantly and nodded.
“Okay, so we went to a family gathering near Boston. At some point, I felt so full because I had eaten too much that I had to go for a walk.” They nodded in agreement as they could all empathize with the feeling of being stuffed. “I wandered around aimlessly, and suddenly, I heard a loud bang. I walked around a corner to see where it had come from and then I saw that a car had crashed into a lantern. Fumes were coming out of the hood, which was completely folded up against the lantern, like an accordion.” I’m not entirely sure whether there had been fumes, but that’s how I picture the scene when I play it over in my mind. And it has been on my mind a lot but more because of the person that was sitting in the car. “Nobody else was around, and so I called an ambulance and went to see whether anybody had been hurt. There was a guy sitting in the car not moving at all. Just sitting there, waiting for whatever. His leg was bleeding badly because part of the car was cutting into it, and therefore I kneeled down to try to free him. That’s when my arm got caught too and I had to wait for the ambulance to help me out of that place as well.” I gave a short laugh.
“It does sound a bit like a comic picture,” Sam grinned.
“And what’s wrong with your arm now?” Phe tried to sound empathetic.
“Torn ligaments. It’s annoying because it will take a long time to heal but it doesn’t really hurt anymore.”
“See, that’s why we should stick to our own crap and not bother about other people,” Joe said. “Good karma was yesterday.”
“I knew you’d say that,” Phe exclaimed.
“Have you heard from this guy since then?” Sam interrupted her.
“No, I don’t know how he could have contacted me. I didn’t leave my address. I was too embarrassed and wanted to get away from that place as quick as possible.” Which was true.
“Yes, but who knows how long he’d otherwise have been sitting there. He was lucky you came by,” Phe said.
“I guess he was. There is something I haven’t told you, though.” Finally, I could talk to somebody about this.
“What else is there to come?” Phe raised an eyebrow.
“The guy who crashed the car was the same who interviewed me at the college in Boston.”
“That’s an odd coincidence.” She stated.
“Are you sure?” Sam asked. “That was months ago.”
“Believe me; it was him.” I sighed. How could you forget somebody as attractive as him?
“That was a clear sign then, that you were supposed to meet him again,” Phe said excitedly.
“I wished it had been under different circumstances. How could we ever look into each other’s eyes again after that encounter? Plus, I left. Even if he wanted to contact me or I wanted to contact him there is no possible lead.”
“It would have been so easy, too. He having to thank you for coming to his rescue and being sorry about your arm, you accepting his offer and whoops, you have a college boyfriend. But no, you walked away without thinking about your future for one second.” Phe scolded.
“It happened so quickly; I wasn’t thinking at all,” I said to my defense.
At the pub, there was the same procedure again. Everybody wanted to hear why I had the splint around my wrist. I left out the part that I had already met this guy before, though.
Only having one healthy hand to carry plates and glasses around was quite annoying. Just as I had picked up speed with my tasks, I was having this setback. Honestly, I didn’t really foresee that, since everything else had been coming my way so easily. Maybe it was good to be brought back down to earth a little.
Chapter 15
Little flowers popping up in the grass was a sign that spring was arriving. Sam and Joe had a competition running. They pretended that it was summer and dressed in short clothes although it was still freezing. They only lasted about three days until Joe had a cold and Sam’s mom stopped him as well.
At least the ice was gone, which meant
that I could ride my bicycle again.
So, on one fine spring day, as I was riding home from school, I saw Mr. Thompson standing at the letter box at the beginning of the driveway. He waved at me.
“Hey, girl!” He called out.
In my irritation, I just waved back. I didn’t expect him to be the waving kind of person. He was still waving, beckoning me to come closer. So, I slowed down and came to a halt next to him.
“I believe the last time we met, I didn’t properly introduce myself to you. You caught me at a bad time,” he scratched behind his left ear. “I’m sorry, I was so harsh to you; I know you were only trying to help.”
“Oh, um, it’s ok.” This kindness threw me off guard. With the burned skin, he rather seemed like the evil character out of a movie.
“I’m Rey by the way.” He held out his hand.
I shook his hand. “I’m Nathalie.”
“Nice to properly meet you, Nathalie. I don’t really know what young people like to drink these days, but would you like to come in for a cup of coffee? Or a soda?” He asked.
I hesitated for a moment and then thought that I could move faster anyway if he tried to lock me in or attack me in any way.
“A soda would be nice.”
We disappeared into Mr. Thompson’s house again. It actually looked a lot cleaner and brighter this time. The door to the living room was closed, though. He moved into the kitchen and started rummaging in the fridge. “Is 7up ok?”
“That’s perfect.” I was still wondering why he was so nice now.
Then, he came back with two glasses filled with the bubbly beverage and placed them on the small table. We sat down on the wooden chairs at the small kitchen table.
