Little Wilder

V

I woke up at 4 a.m. because of a nightmare, which wasn't actually a nightmare, it was a memory, a pretty terrible memory that I had been wanting to repress since long, long ago, but for some reason I couldn't, so it just kept showing almost every night. I went to the therapist because of it, he told me I needed to make peace with it, but how am I supposed to make peace with a memory? Of course he told me how, I just decided not to do it, so I guessed I would just have to deal with the consequences, and not complain about it, since it was sort of my fault not to deal with it.

As there seemed not to be anyone awake, I went, half zombie, to the kitchen. Darkness was pretty much all that I could see, but I had learned the path from the room to the kitchen, which wasn't a real hard one, but not being able to see a thing kind of makes it way harder than it should. When I arrived, distinguished a silhouette.

"Hello" I asked quietly. Bad move.

I heard a glass breaking and a girl screaming shortly.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" I said approaching to her. Bad move. I was barefoot, and stepped on many of the little, yet sharp broken glasses, and it hurt more than I can describe.

A little after I started yelling and cursing, she turned on the lights.

"Are you okay?" Alice asked worried.

"What do you think?" I reply angry.

"Right, of course. You are bleeding" she stated my current situation, I did that when I was trying to figure out what to do "Okay. Sit hire and try not to move your foot much. I'll be right back" she said nervous and so quick I could barely understood her.

"Alice!" I shout, but she was already gone.

I did as she told me and sat on the chair, trying hard not to step on any other glass, which I did successfully. I looked at my foot, it looked awful. It was almost entirely covered with small, and occasionally medium sized glasses, and they were all covered in blood. Blood, blood, blood everywhere. In the floor, in my pyjama, in the glasses. Discoursing, and incredibly painful.

Whiten 3 minutes, Alicia was back with a big first aid bag. One of those huge bags only paramedics use for incredibly critical emergencies in which they don't think the patient is going to make it to the hospital if they don't do something soon.

"Are you going to operate?" I asked, trying to make fun of the situation, no matter how much the situation hurt. She looked at me and tried to smile, but I could tell she was sick worried.

"My dad is a doctor and my mom is a paediatrician, what did you expect?" she asked trying hard to laugh, but I did naturally.

She took a chair and she dragged until this was right beside me. Alicia sat down, put a sort of red plastic in her legs, and tied her long blonde hair in a ponytail. Quite amazingly good for the time and situation being.

"Give me your foot" she demanded once her whole routine was over.

I extended my aid foot and rest it on her lap. Alicia grabbed it from the ankle and lift it to her face so she could have a closer look.

"You need to clean it. I can't see. Hire" Alicia said giving me her funny bunny slippers.

"I only need one" I grabbed one by the ear and put it on.

With difficulty, I jumped towards the sink and let my leg rest until my foot was "clean" but it actually didn't stopped bleeding, but I guess it looked better, since she didn't struggle after I gave my foot to her again.

While after she exanimated how bad it was, carefully, she started touching my foot in the areas that hurt the most.

"Can you explain me what are you doing?" I commanded when I realised I couldn't go on with that pain, unless I knew and was sure it would help. I also wanted to know what was going on, and what she was doing to my foot.

"I'm adding pressure to the areas you have the glasses, which is pretty much everywhere. This will help to slowly move the glass towards the surface of your foot, making it easier to extract" she explained as she continued.

Later, she took her slippers and walk to fill a bowl with what I guessed was hot water because freezing water does not make vapor. Then she added salt, and asked me to place my foot in pain there, which made me feel worse, but any pain was tolerable in comparison the one I had before. Quickly, the water turned absolutely red, and she had to change the water, about 5 times in a course of 30 minutes. In that time, the pain just sort of disappeared.

"You can take it out now" Alicia said gently.

When I did, she looked for something in that enormous red bag, but she didn't seem to find it.

"What are you looking for?" I asked curious.

"Castor oil. And no, I'm not using it for hair growth" she shushed me after I could even make a joke out of it. Not that I actually knew what castor oil was.

"What is it for, then?"

"It is a remedy to take out the small pieces of glass that are left" she clarified as she kept looking "Find it" she sang victoriously.

The green brownish bottle had within it a brush, which she used to spread the castor oil all over my foot. It ticked, and that certainly made me feel better.

We waited 15 minutes, and she asked me to go wash it in the sink. When I got back, Alicia had in her hands white school glue, I didn't had to ask, it seemed pretty obvious what she intended to do with it, though it didn't stop being wired.

"This should take them all, or at least bring them to the surface. We just need to wait until it's dry"

5 minutes later, I was washing it carefully.

"Are we done now?" I asked before yawning.

"What? That was just part one. We still need to clean the area, and actually extract the glass" she answered comically.

I rolled my eyes, and lied in the chair, since I didn't know how long that would take, but in a quick guess, a lot.

"I need you to rinse your foot with cold water. Well what are you waiting for? Go, go"

Meanwhile I was doing as I was told by the unexpected doctor, I heard she was looking into the red bag again. I retuned and saw over the table alcohol and hydrogen peroxide, tweezers, and a bandage. She gave me the tweezers and the bowl and told me to fill it with boiling water and drop the tweezers in. I did. When I was done, I gave her the bowl and she left it in the table. I sat and gave her my foot.

"I think you are pretty much capable of cleaning your foot all by yourself" she laughed.

"I know. I just don't want to" I said and have her my foot again. "Besides, it sort of was your fault. No, it was your fault" I continued.

"Fine. What would you rather alcohol, or hydrogen peroxide?"

"Hydrogen"

Alicia grabbed and pour hydrogen peroxide to it. It hurt, but the pain wasn't irresistible anymore, I knew alcohol would have been worse.

"Moment of truth" she said as she grabbed the tweezers, fast so she wouldn't burn her hand.

She started pulling out the glasses. More pain. Because in order for her to pull them out, she had to pinch my hurt skin every time. Fortunately, she was able to remove them all, and she was finally over after covering my foot with the white bandage. Still, I didn't stand up until she was done cleaning the mess I left on the floor.

"I suggest you not to walk a lot, for now. But you should be fine by the time of your date" Alicia said relived once she was done cleaning. Winking her eye.

"Thanks" I said honestly. She smiled and walked away.

I smiled back. 

Shit.