“His leg doesn’t look bad,” Erin commented in disappointment.
“You didn’t see it when Dave broke it,” Joel told her. “You could actually see the bone poking against his skin at an odd angle.”
Patricia gasped and leaned forward in interest. “You could?”
Joel nodded. “It was gross. When the bone broke, it snapped like a large tree branch.” Joel put his hands together and then separated them as he made a large snapping sound. “Only a part of it was still intact. The other part was pressing right up against the skin like a person’s head when they’re trying to get a blanket off of them.”
“Was there blood everywhere?” Patricia asked.
“No, but there was some bruising. See?” He gestured to the bruises still on Dave’s leg. “They’re yellow now. Yellow is good. It means he’s on the mend. However,” he added after a pause, “now that I think about it, there was some blood from where his leg skidded along the ground. You can see the scabs along here.” He pointed to the superficial wounds on Dave’s leg. “Your uncle must have rolled a few times after he fell.”
“Well, I was on an incline,” Dave spoke up.
“That’s why he had the blood,” Joel told Patricia. “Trust me, it’s good you weren’t there to see it. You would have had nightmares for weeks. I’m just glad the bone wasn’t actually poking out of his skin. That would have been way worse.”
“Did you ever see a bone poking out of someone’s skin?” Erin asked.
“A couple of times. Once was when a man broke his arm as he was lassoing a cow. He misjudged where the cow was running and lassoed the fence post instead. It sent him off the horse and rammed him right into the post.”
“Wow,” Erin said, her eyes wide with shock.
“How could he miss the cow?” Nelly asked.
Joel wrapped the bandages around Dave’s leg. “His vision wasn’t doing him any favors. He needed glasses. Thankfully, he finally got a pair.” He paused and turned his attention to the children. “If you ever start to see things that are blurry, tell your parents to take you to Mr. Hardwick. He knows how to get a person’s vision just right.”
“Can I touch Uncle Dave’s leg?” Jeremy, who’d been quiet up to now, asked.
“No,” Dave answered for Joel. Like he wanted the group of kids around them to start touching his leg as if it was some kind of pet.
Joel offered the boy a sympathetic smile. “His leg is still mending. I’m sure it’s still sore.”
“I don’t see what’s so great about it,” Greg finally said. “It looks like any other leg.”
“That’s how it’s supposed to look now that Uncle Joel is fixing it,” Erin told him with her hands on her hips. “He does a good job of healing people.”
“Yeah,” Nora added. “My pa can fix anybody.”
The dog started barking, so Dave peered around the nearest kid. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the carriage. “Richard and Amanda are here with Tony, Mark, and Annabelle. Why don’t you tell them all about my leg?”
As he hoped, the children ran for the carriage.
Joel shook his head. “Sometimes you’re so grumpy.”
“I’m not grumpy,” Dave said. “I just don’t want everyone hovering around me like I’m a novelty.”
“Children are curious. You can’t blame them for that.” Joel finished with the bandages and started putting the splint on. “You were a child once. Don’t you remember being curious about the world and how everything worked?”
“When I was a child, I didn’t need to see a broken leg to be impressed.”
“Work is good for you, Dave. You’re grumpy when all you do is sit around the house all day.”
Mary came back out with a glass of lemonade and gave it to Dave.
Joel finished with the splint and stood up. “I have good news for you, Mary. Your grumpy husband will stop loafing around the farm in two weeks. His leg is almost as good as new.”
“Joel, you need to check this out!” April called out from where she stood next to Amanda who was handing out copies of the newspaper.
Joel headed on down the porch, and Mary sat by Dave.
“You can take off the splint in two weeks?” Mary asked.
Glad she chose not to dwell on the fact that Joel had called him grumpy, Dave nodded. “Yep, and I’m looking forward to it. I’m tired of sitting around all the time.”
She rubbed his shoulder as he took a drink of the lemonade. “I know it hasn’t been easy for you to stay on the porch for the past month, but your patience has paid off. You don’t have to wait a full other month before you can take the splint off.”
He set the glass in his lap. “I am looking forward to that, but apparently, I have to take it easy. I can’t do all of the chores right away. He said I should start with one trip to the barn and see how it goes from there.”
“It makes sense that you can’t get back up as if nothing happened. When I had the children, I wasn’t able to run around the house like I normally do.”
When she put it like that, he didn’t feel quite so frustrated. The truth was, he had hoped he could get right back into his work. He was so sick and tired of doing nothing all day. Going to the barn once a day was better than what he was currently doing.
Mary kissed his cheek. “It’ll be alright. Just be glad you didn’t break your neck when you fell off of Jack. Things could have been a lot worse.”
“That’s true.”
“I’d rather have you here with us.” She gave him another kiss. “Do you want to stay out here?
