Her dark skin glissened with sweat when she would run after me to come to lunch or dinner. I ran away from her and looked back and saw her grab her leg below the knee. I saw her grimace and I ran to her realizing she was hurt. She said she felt a sting and saw a scorpion fall from her dress to the ground and crawl away. She sat down and massaged the sting saying how much it hurt. I looked for the scorpion in the grass below the red cliff of clay but didn't see it. My clothes were red with mud, my hands were too and she took some clay from my shoe and pressed it against the now swelling wound. We walked back to the house slowly, she with a limp, me crying for her hurt. When we reached the bottom of the stairs my mother came down quickly to help and soon she put Louise in the Jeep and off to the hospital we all went.
My mother was a fast driver in the little jeep and I worried about her when she drove anywhere, but this was different, we were rushing for Louise. The smell of the emergency room was of pungent alcohol and medicines. The doctors and nurses were US Army GI's and while it was unusual to have a Panamanian there they quickly went to work on Louises wound. My mother and I held hands while we waited anxiously in the waiting room. I felt guilty for having run from Louise when she can after me and I told my mother that I was sorry and felt I had caused the pain to Louise. I loved Louise as I did my mother as she had been with our family since we had arrived in Panama right after I was born. She was my caretaker and friend, parent, big sister and all of those things rolled into one. When she came out of the emergency room her leg was bandaged from the knee to her ankle. She told us that they had given her treatment and that she was to return in a week.
We drove her to her home in Panama City and my mother told her she would take her next week. Over the next few days things were different at home, my father was very busy at his Army work and Louise was not there to watch over me, cook or clean house as was her usual duties. The next week Louise went with my mother to the hospital, now her leg had ballooned to twice it's normal size and was black and blue and very painful to the touch she said. We once again waited patiently in the waiting room while she was being seen. When she reappeared her dressing had been changed and now there was a tube coming out of it as a drain into a little bottle filled with cotton balls. It had become infected and become gangrenous too and the doctors had told her that they might have to amputate her lower leg. This upset me greatly and I cried once again for feeling I had caused this catastrophe to befall my Louise. Over the next month she came once a week, then twice and finally she was "home", her leg better but with a huge scar where the drain had been. I never ran from her again.
My mother was a fast driver in the little jeep and I worried about her when she drove anywhere, but this was different, we were rushing for Louise. The smell of the emergency room was of pungent alcohol and medicines. The doctors and nurses were US Army GI's and while it was unusual to have a Panamanian there they quickly went to work on Louises wound. My mother and I held hands while we waited anxiously in the waiting room. I felt guilty for having run from Louise when she can after me and I told my mother that I was sorry and felt I had caused the pain to Louise. I loved Louise as I did my mother as she had been with our family since we had arrived in Panama right after I was born. She was my caretaker and friend, parent, big sister and all of those things rolled into one. When she came out of the emergency room her leg was bandaged from the knee to her ankle. She told us that they had given her treatment and that she was to return in a week.
We drove her to her home in Panama City and my mother told her she would take her next week. Over the next few days things were different at home, my father was very busy at his Army work and Louise was not there to watch over me, cook or clean house as was her usual duties. The next week Louise went with my mother to the hospital, now her leg had ballooned to twice it's normal size and was black and blue and very painful to the touch she said. We once again waited patiently in the waiting room while she was being seen. When she reappeared her dressing had been changed and now there was a tube coming out of it as a drain into a little bottle filled with cotton balls. It had become infected and become gangrenous too and the doctors had told her that they might have to amputate her lower leg. This upset me greatly and I cried once again for feeling I had caused this catastrophe to befall my Louise. Over the next month she came once a week, then twice and finally she was "home", her leg better but with a huge scar where the drain had been. I never ran from her again.
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