Good Things I'll Never Do Again

Twenty-Three: Pink Casts

"Life is short. Smile while you still have teeth."

~Unknown

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The doctors make me wait outside while they take Dusty's X-Ray and the hallway is eerily quiet. I check my watch. It's already almost six o'clock.

The hall is painted in a bright red color, with a large rainbow arching across it. Ew.

I hate children's facilities. They just assume kids want all of this tacky crap hanging around. I can't think of one child who would appreciate reruns of Spongebob Squarepants on the TV over and over and over again while paintings of farm animals with soulless eyes stare at them from the walls.

I also can't believe Dusty broke her arm.

Or that Finn is here too.

Or that Aimee hasn't sent a sniper to shoot me through the window yet.

But I keep telling myself that a broken arm is less my fault than one of the girls getting suspended from school. Good moms get kids with broken arms all the time, right?

I sigh and make my way back to the waiting room to check up on Eloise and Jemma.

I open the door and see Jemma sitting in-between Finn and Eloise, concentrating hard on the notebook in her lap as she makes gentle strokes with a pencil. Finn guides her hand in delicate swirls across the page.

"That's so cool!" Eloise cries. That's the most excited I've heard her sound in days. "Let me try."

Finn takes the notebook and gives it to her before noticing I'm standing there.

He gives a wink and I smile.

"How is she?" he asks.

"Hopefully done soon," I reply.

The doctor calls me back to fill out the paperwork. I have to guess a few of the answers, just like any test. I Googled how much the average 5-year-old weighs, and put that down.

Soon we're back on the road. Dusty has a shiny, new pink cast on her right arm and they're all piled in the back watching sweaty people fight zombies.

I sneak a glance at Finn, who drives like he's taking a stroll through a meadow. Calm. Peaceful.

I sigh and push my hair into a ponytail. "Not exactly the aquarium adventure we were hoping for."

"Adventures only happen when you least expect it. Today was more of an adventure than we'd thought it would be yesterday."

I snicker. "Right." I glance out the window again. "Um, thanks again. For everything."

"My pleasure, Miss Beverly."

"Maybe we...or, us...could do it again sometime?" I suggest. "Except maybe without the broken bones, screaming children, and angry moms?"

I watch his face carefully.

His lips twitch into a knowing smile and he nods. "I...think that would be quite nice, yes."

We drop him off at the aquarium where his car is parked and by the time we leave, the girls are more hangry than a bear who decided to pillage a vegan cafe. Thankfully, it's nothing a few McNuggets can't fix, and we're headed back home.