"It sounded like ya'll watch out 'cuz I'll get your ass smited".
I love my mom. I have decided that she is the only person on the planet that could possibly create that sentence. Such a lovely mix of biblical SAT words and modern swearing and slang.
I laid sleeping in the hot bedroom, the hottest room of the entire house. From far away, I heard the alarm. Why the fuck was my alarm going off at 7:30 in the morning? I don't even think the sun is up by then. Oh God, that's right. Hijo de la gran puta. I had rescheduled Spider Pig for 8:00am. Obviously not by choice, I was already weeks behind on my remove pins, follow up appointment and that was the only time I could get in before March. I could barely open my eyes. Lola was unconscious in her own warm sleep lethargy. I turned the alarm off. There was no way it was going to happen.
My step father is very ill. It is frightening. And it is taxing the hell out of my mom. I don't like it.
I applied for forbearance on my student loans. I have never had to do that before. It is embarrassing to talk finances, but mine are bad. I have a pile of medical bills that I shove under the microwave. I am constantly floating and skimming to pay all the other shit. It appears that my teaching position will go full time next year and a second full time position is opening up. No one has told me if I will officially be in either position. It makes me nervous.
I was hugging Lola. Maybe I shouldn't bother going to the appointment. All they were going to do was X-ray the bone again. It had to be healing, so what was the point? But, what if, what if, what if? I walked Lola, put some dirty clothes on and went into my 8:00 appointment at 9:15.
"Your name?" the receptionist asked.
"Hilary Wagner. I'm late for my nine o'clock appointment".
She typed for a minute.
"You were supposed to be here at eight".
"Really? I thought I was only fifteen minutes late" I answered. Then I just stood there. I wait hours for Spider Pig no matter if I am on time or not. It's like the DMV in there.
"We'll work you in".
I read my phone and some People magazines. A nurse called me back quickly.
"I need a urine sample" she said strictly.
"Why?"
"Painkillers, you're on painkillers"
"I had surgery two months ago. I never even took the painkillers".
"Oh, okay" she answered me, eying me warily.
I read some more People.
"Oh my God, Lola destroyed her crate, there is poo everywhere. Dogs do NOT do that unless they are sick!" Hadley's text read. I was worried. I had been worried. I called the vet in between classes.
"Sorry you guys, it's an emergency," I called to the class as they walked in.
I raced to the vet in Alec's car. Mine is still broken. Lola's bros at the vet held her tightly while they stuck a stick up her butt. She tolerated it well, but the SECOND stick up her butt tested her patience. It was all good, no worms or anything else. Just a week long diet of chicken and rice and antibiotics. And almost two hundred dollars. I wrote the check, knowing that the one I wrote for the window she broke would bounce.
She and I walked around the corner after a good, pre-work walk. I saw someone coming and paused. Lola likes to jump up and kiss people she doesn't know, rubbing her muddy paws on their clothes and nearly knocking them down. I was surprised that it was my neighbor. And her new rescue German Shepard that does nothing but bark at Lola every time she is outside. Or inside for that matter. Against my better instincts, I let Lola approach the dog, and the dog approach her. Lola lowered her head while the German Shepard sniffed her face and ears. Lola smelled its butt. Then she growled in a way that I knew was trouble. I pulled her back. Both dogs started barking loudly.
"I have to turn her around. She's funny about other dogs" I called.
My neighbor continued talking casually as if nothing was wrong. I wrestled with Lola.
"I really need to go" I called.
"We need to just leave them alone together. They'll work things out!".
I turned and left. Where, in the small confined space that you call a yard that is also your dog's territory? Surrounded by a three foot fence that Lola could jump over in her sleep? Yeah, let's leave a Pit Bull and a German Shepard that are showing aggression alone together. Sounds great.
"The bone is healing as it should, but you need a new brace for your hand. Your finger won't stop bending". Spider Pig informed me.
"Come back in a month. You don't have full mobility".
I went over to physical therapy.
"What'd he say?" the physical therapist asked when I walked in.
I watched a few people in the office slowly doing their exercises. A hip man that looked like Spike Lee pushed a towel up and down the wall. My eye fell on a second man that was moving slowly. He looked broken. I didn't know if it was his shoulder, his back, what it was. He could walk, but things were at strange angles. He wore a dark stocking cap that was nearly the same color of his skin. It went down below his eyebrows. He reminded me of that character in 'Fat Albert' that had a stocking cap for eyes. Except he was old.
"I have to keep seeing him. He told me to do the same things that you make me do. And I have to come back in a month".
"I've been pushing on it!" he said, exasperated.
"I know. It hurts". I responded.
"I don't know why I have to keep going to him".
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