This Wind Me Up, One More Time freebie story was the result...
No one expected Heidi to fall from the tree.
She was so much braver than the rest of us, climbing up the slick, gray bark, in spite of her jumper. Heather and I stood by, shivering while all of the other girls watched with open mouths. Besides us forgotten sat the basket of flowers we’d been gathering before those tree branches had caught Heidi’s restless eye. She just had to scale to it
“Come down,” I whispered, trembling while a part of me urged her to go on.
“You’ve already proven yourself, you fool.” Heather put her hands on her hips and glowered at me. “Why don’t you listen to your future wife and come down?”
“It’s because my future wives are watching, I’ve got to show them what I can do!” Heidi grinned at both of us, a sweet grin of pure mischief…
…right before she lost her balance.
If we’d been heroes or any kind of future wives, we would have caught her. All Heather and I could do was stare with the same stupid faces everyone else made while Heidi hit the ground.
She let out a high-pitched cry of pain.
For a moment, I dropped Theodora, my bear. An awful thing to do to one’s bear, but I was shocked. I heard her whimper in pain, echoing Heidi, or was it really Theodora?
Carrot Monster. Heidi’s stuffed rabbit could probably hear her child, maybe even feel what she felt.
I turned back and started running back to the school.
“Where are you going?” Heather screamed after me. She dropped to her knees and seized Heidi’s hand. It appeared to be intact. “Don’t leave us!”
I glanced over my shoulder at Heidi’s pale face, sweat tearing upon her forehead, trying not to see the blood pooling beneath her. “This is an emergency! I’m getting someone!”
An adult. I should go find an adult as well as Carrot Monster. I ran through the open doors, looking right and left.
“Grace, you know better than to run in the hallways!” Mrs. Grumple loomed out of the shadows, almost like a gargoyle in her horn-rimmed glasses and gray suit. “Whatever is the matter?”
“Heidi fell from a tree! She’s bleeding!” I gasped, seeing the door to our classroom. It, too was open.
“Well, take to where she is at once!” Mrs. Grumple ordered, but I could see a gray, white floppy ear lying on a desk.
It was Carrot Monster.
*Heidi, Heidi, you’re hurting,* she sang in the sad manner of stuffed animals whom are apart from their children and cannot help them. *If only I was at your side!*
“I’ll take you to her.” I marched into the classroom and picked up the rabbit, who was already showing a tear in her side. It was tough, being Heidi’s stuffed animal. Almost as tough as it was being mine.
“Well, I wish you would!” Mrs. Grumple crossed her arms and shoved her glasses back up the ridge of her nose. “Just what are you doing?”
“Getting Carrot Monster.” I carried the rabbit in my arms, realizing I’d dropped Theodora in my anxiety. “She and Heidi need to be reunited.”
“Well, that’s hardly the most important matter right now, is it?” Mrs. Grumple made a shooing motion with her hand. “Your friend is hurt!”
Maybe not, but maybe Carrot Monster might be able to help. I darted out of the classrom with the rabbit and starting running towards the doors.
“Didn’t I tell you not to run in the halls?” Mrs Grumple, taller and with longer legs had no need to run.
“Yes, but we’re hurrying, aren’t we?” I gave Carrot Monster a comforting squeeze. She might not be my stuffed animal, but I could imagine how worried Theodora would be about me if I’d fallen and we’d been separated.
“Don’t talk back to me, child,” Mrs. Grumple scolded. “Just show me where she is.”
I trotted out the front doors and pointed to a small crowd of children.
“Let me though,” our teacher ordered. The ranks parted, revealing Heidi laying on the ground with a bloody leg while Heather crouched beside her, holding her hand.
“Heidi, can you stand?” Mrs Grumple didn’t crouch. She stood over the two little girls, frowning.
“Mother, how can you ask such a thing?” Heather protested. “She’s bleeding!”
“She’s Vivian’s daughter, is what she is.” Mrs. Grumple pushed her glasses back on the bridge of her nose, giving both Heidi and Heather a stern look. “Vivian was always falling out of trees, yet getting back on her feet.” She fixed Heidi with her fierce stare. “Can you?”
This struck me as harsh. Heidi had just fallen. If I’d done this at home, both Nathalie and Maia would have made a huge fuss over me.
School was different. Verity’s School for Girls was a much harsher place.
Heidi released Heather’s hand and started to get up. She winced in pain, but she managed to stand.
“Now let’s get you patched up.” Mrs Grumple offered a wrinkled hand. “In the future, try not to climb so high, so fast.”
Heidi nodded, not quite meeting our teacher’s eye. She accepted the hand. The two of them walked off together.
“Your mama is tough,” I whispered to Heather. “Does she treat the same way when you fall?”
“Mother doesn’t allow me to fall.” Heather watched the two leave, her mother and her friend. A tiny wrinkle appeared in the center of her forehead. “Not if she can help it.”
At the time I wondered what Heather meant. How could you keep someone from falling? It seemed impossible.
It still seems impossible. You can, however, try to remove every single thing a little girl might trip or stumble over. Even if whatever trippable object was possibly fun as well as scary.
For Mrs. Grumple, it was always about preventing a fall rather teaching someone how to walk. At least as far as Heather was concerned.
No wonder Heather was so often jealous of the rest of her mother’s students.
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