Theme week #4: Truth…or not.

1. Truth
We were salvaging old boards from a chicken barn to use them to build a shed. The boards had old chicken poop on them and were full of rusty nails. I was scraping them clean with a wire brush, and then I leaned them against the floor joists of the shed, with the nail side down.

My four year old daughter was playing in the yard nearby. She came over toward me. I told her to be careful. She sat on the end of one of the boards, as if it was a see-saw. The weight of her body took her down and drove one of the nails into the back of her ankle. She screamed. Ed, my husband, came running and got the nail out. I took Rachel inside to clean up the wound. It looked bad to me, so we drove to the ER.
There wasn’t a long wait, and soon the Doctor on duty was taking care of us. She looked at us and at Rachel’s ankle and asked us what happened.

I explained that we were taking the nails out of old lumber. I’d been careful to keep all the nails pointing down, but Rachel sat on the boards and drove the nail in through the top of her ankle.

The Doctor furrowed her eyebrows and looked at us for a second. She cleaned and bandaged the wound and sent us home.

2. Gussied up
It was a hot summer day. We were cleaning up some salvaged lumber from an old chicken barn. The boards were covered with chicken poop and were full of rusty nails. It was my job to clean them. After scraped them off, I leaned them against the floor joists to the shed with the nail side down. The stench was bad and the dust was clinging to my sweaty body “Why did we want to use these boards, anyway?” I thought, “Oh yeah, we needed a shed, and we had no extra money and they were free. It was just our time that we were wasting.”

My four year old daughter was playing in the grass nearby. She was getting hot and bored and came over to me. “Mommy, can I have a drink?”
“In a minute honey, let me finish this. Be careful there are nails in these boards.”
Rachel watched for awhile, and then she climbed up onto the floor joist of the shed and sat on the top end of one of the boards. Suddenly she was screaming. I looked up, when she sat down the board fell to her leg just like a seesaw and pushed one of those dirty rusty nails into the back of her heel. Ed came running and got her off the board and the nail out. I took Rachel inside to clean the wound and all I could think of was that chicken poop inside her body. The wound looked gross, and I decided I wanted to take her to the ER. We piled into the car and drove as fast as we could.

There was no wait and soon the Doctor on duty was taking care of us. She looked at Rachel’s foot and at us “What happened here?”
“I was trying to make sure that the kids didn’t step on the nails, so I set them against the floor with the nail side down. She sat on the board and the nail went through the back of her foot.” I said in a rather hysterical voice. I did not like seeing my daughter hurt, and I had tried so hard to make sure she wouldn’t be.
The Doctor asked again, not quite believing the story. “Tell me how that happened again.” This time I think she decided it was too strange not to be the truth. She cleaned the wound and wrapped it up. She told Rachel she was a brave little girl and gave her a sticker.

3. Fiction
It was a hot summer day. We were cleaning up old boards from a chicken barn to build a shed. I was so hot that I had had a beer. I was cleaning old chicken shit off the boards and pulling nails. As I finished a board, I put it against the shed floor with the nail side down.

My four year old daughter was playing near by, she was bored and she wandered over. “Mommy, can I have a drink, when will you play with me, I’m hungry.”
“Not now honey, let me finish this last board.” My husband Ed went in for another beer. “I’ll get her a drink.” He offered.

Rachel sat down on the top of one of the boards. Like a see-saw it came down on the back of her foot. A nail went right into her ankle, and she screamed.
Quickly I pulled her up off the board, as I did the nail tore her flesh even more. It looked awful. Ed came out when he heard the scream. We carried her inside and tried to clean the wound. We decided that we should go to the ER. When we got there the Doctor on duty saw us immediately. “Tell me what how this happened!” She looked at us and noted that we had been drinking.

I was so worried and nervous about Rachel that it took me a few tries to get the story out, and even then it didn’t seem to make much sense. I said “we were pulling nails out of boards, and Rachel sat on one. The nail went through her foot.” The Doctor looked at both my husband and I and at Rachel, she wasn’t buying the story. She went to the nurse’s desk and talked to the nurse. The nurse started looking through old ER records. Of course, it was the same Doctor who took care of my son when he was jumping on the couch and fell of breaking his collar-bone. She came back cleaned up the wound and said we would need to wait here for a case-worker from DHHS to come question us. “What!” my husband yelled. He almost went nuts. I wasn’t much better, I was pretty hysterical myself. We were not neglectful of our children, nor were we abusing them. Accidents happen, even ones that seem really far-fetched. By that time a policeman had arrived and escorted us into a small room to wait for the case-worker.