Day Seven I Signed It novel · Chapter 5 of 24
Chapter 5: Frozen Peas
On Friday my wrist was swollen from the door, and I was still hearing Gavin on the sidewalk outside the steakhouse.
How did he know what my father used to say?
I had no answer, so I put it down the way I put down everything that week, and I went to work.
I had shouldered it open twice a day for three days, and I had stopped lifting the handle first.
I was on the third-floor landing at six that evening, holding it against my chest, when Ivy came up the stairs with a grocery bag and a bag of frozen peas.
"You're doing it wrong again," she said.
"I know."
"Sit."
She pointed at the top step, and I sat.
She put the groceries down, tore open the peas, and took my wrist in both hands.
She turned it over once, then pressed two fingers against the bone.
"Does that hurt?"
"A little."
"Does this?"
"Yes. Ow. Yes."
"Good. That means it's a bruise and not a break."
She wrapped the peas around it with a dish towel from her bag.
Her hands were warm, which surprised me, because the peas were not.
She kept hold of my wrist a second longer than the bandaging needed.
I noticed that her thumb was resting directly on my pulse.
I noticed my pulse noticing it.
"You're fast," she said.
"It's the stairs."
"It's one flight."
"It's a long flight."
She laughed again, and let go, and sat down on the step beside me with her knees up.
"So what's the story with the one bag?" she asked. "My ex left me with a toaster and a houseplant, and I felt very sorry for myself. You've got a laptop."
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