Daddy's Little Girl, Too

Chapter 26: Pain to Stop the Pain

"Emma!" Nancy yells as she tries to block the onrushing knife. Her palm is deeply sliced. The meaty area, just below her thumb begins to bleed profusely. She quickly disarms the five year old, knocking the weapon to the floor. She grabs Emma by the shoulders and shakes her, "Emma! What are you doing?" Her blood soaks into Emma's nightgown.

Her eyes flicker and she exits the semi-conscious state. "Hi mommy." Emma notices her mother's hand. "You're hand's bleeding."

Nancy holds tight pressure to slow the loss of blood. "You just cut me with that knife, Emma." She points to the floor.

Emma sees several drops of blood and a large carving knife lying on the ceramic tile. "No I didn't..."

"Yes, Emma! You did!" Nancy keeps her injured hand held up, hoping gravity will help. The blood still seeps past her grip, through her fingers and runs down her forearm, dripping off of her elbow. She hurries to the sink and runs cold water over the cut.

"Emma, sit down at the table and don't move."

She starts to tear up as she obeys her mother. "I'm I in trouble?"

Nancy glares at her young one, "Just sit right there."

As the chilled liquid saturates her wound, Nancy sucks the air through her teeth as she clinches her jaw from the stinging sensation.

After a few moments, the bleeding slows enough that the wound can be bandaged. Nancy finds some topical ointment in the bathroom medicine cabinet. She spreads a generous amount of the antibacterial cream over the affected area to help prevent an infection.

Nancy is certain she will need stitches, but decides to doctor the wound herself in order to avoid the hospital. The thought of sitting in an emergency room, in the middle of the night, doesn't appeal to her at all. She is confident she can at least stabilize the injury until morning.

She wraps a gauze bandage around her wrist and over the now red, swollen incision. Nancy examines her repair job; it doesn't look half bad. She notices it happens to be the same hand on which she recently burnt her fingers. Coincidently, the pain she had in her fingertips vanished the moment the knife split her skin.

Nancy returns to the kitchen table to find Emma sitting, just as she was told.

Nancy slides a chair out. Before speaking she stares at her little girl. Emma's cheeks are wet and she sniffles uncontrollably.

Nancy begins. "Do you remember what just happened?"

Emma shakes her head negatively. "No."

Nancy refreshes her memories. "You came into the kitchen and told me you had another dream. You said there was an accident. Then, you cut me with a knife. Do you remember any of that?"

Emma looks to her mother with unremorseful eyes. "I remember the dream."

"Tell me about it."

"It was a car accident."

"Do you know how it happened?"

Emma nods, "Yes. Abby stabbed the man in the neck."

Nancy throws her hand over her mouth. "What man?"

"I don't know. He was driving, then the car wrecked."

Nancy releases a deep sigh. "Is there anything else?"

"No."

"Okay Emma, you need to go back to bed now. We'll talk more in the morning."

Emma stands from the table, "Mommy? There's something else I remember now... I remember grabbing the knife... I didn't mean to cut your hand."