So when we went shopping the other day, he insisted he'll pull the shopping bag.
"Sure" I said, finding this obsession finally useful. "Just let me know if it becomes heavy and you find it difficult to pull."
We completed our shopping, and Ady and I were walking ahead of DS. As we were walking the sidewalk, I saw some grates on the road.
"Son, be careful when you cross here," I told him. "Just use the ramp. Avoid the grates."
He was so happy he was pulling the bag all by himself, that he didn't hear me. I ran towards him, as he was maneuvering over the grates. I caught his hand just as his leg slipped into the grates. I pulled him up carefully, but the shock of having his leg stuck between the grills really scared him.
He started crying out loud. I held him close and consoled him. There were no visible traces of an injury. Just a slight scrape. I called Ady, who was a few feet ahead of us. He ran to us hearing his son cry.
As we inspected his leg together, the scrape started to become more visible with slight traces of blood.
This scared the little one more.
"Hold" I said. "You're fine. It's just a scrape on the skin."
"But there's blood" he wailed.
"Let's go to the doctor, just in case" Ady said. "It was an iron grate, and God knows what else was in that ditch"
"We don't know what was on that ditch?" DS started screaming his lungs out.
"You'll be fine. There isn't anything." I said. "But we'll go to the doctor, to be doubly sure."
"Ok, call the ambulance!" He said, slowly calming down.
"Ambulance?" Ady and I asked in bewilderment.
"Why ambulance? Can you walk?"
"Yes, but ambulance will take me to the hospital sooner"
"Oh my God, he has the mancold!" I signaled to Ady. He smiled.
"An ambulance won't come for this" Ady said.
"Why? This is an emergency. There is blood."
"But it isn't gushing. It's just on the skin. An ambulance would come if there is a lot of blood, or the bone is broken, or...."
"Is my bone broken?" DS started crying again.
"No. Babe, if we call the cab, it will come sooner than the ambulance, because it's just around the corner" I offered.
"But it can't take us sooner, like the ambulance can." DS argued.
"The hospital is just around the corner, sweetie" I said.
That seemed to have calmed him.
"How long will I survive?" He suddenly asked.
"What?"
"How long will I survive with this hurt in my leg?"
"Sweetheart, you'll live to a 100"
"But how long will I survive with this?"
"You mean a scar?"
"No, what will this hurt do to me? Will I become ok?"
Oh my God, this boy has a severe case of the manflu! I wondered.
"Yes. You'll be perfectly fine. You won't even have a scar. We're going to the doctor, just to make sure we're not missing anything."
"What are you missing?"
"That's what we're going to find out sweetie."
Once we reached the hospital, the doctor looked at the scrape, at us, and back to the scrape.
"He fell through a sewage grate. He wasn't sure he'd survive" I offered, realizing how foolish we must be looking.
He smiled, cleaned the wound, and put some ointment on it.
"It's just a superficial scrape. He must've already had his Tetanus shot. I've cleaned it. So he should be fine. Just clean it again tomorrow."
"Doctor, can you repeat the part where you said he is fine?"
He looked at me again, this time as if I was daft.
"Yeah, he is fine."
"Did you hear that, sweetie?" I asked.
He finally smiled. "I can walk?"
"You've been walking...well, yeah" I said giving up.
"I am worried" I whispered to Ady.
"Why? It's just..." he started reassuring.
"No, not about this. About the person who will marry this boy. I hope that person's a Doctor!"
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