Chapter 11: The Cast
The cast came off on a Thursday morning.
The skin underneath looked pale and unfamiliar, the wrist stiff, the muscle thinner than it had been before the accident. The nurse gave me a short list of exercises and a warning not to lift anything heavy for another week. I listened, signed the papers, and took the bus home with Lily’s car seat braced carefully at my feet.
Nathan met me at the building entrance without being asked. He had tracked the appointment the same way he had tracked night feeds—quietly, without commentary. He carried the seat up the stairs, set it down inside the apartment, and waited to see whether I needed anything else.
“I can manage from here,” I said.
He nodded. “Nights are still open if the fatigue hits harder than you expect. Otherwise I’ll leave it unless you text.”
“Thank you.”
May you like
After he left I sat on the floor beside Lily’s activity mat and rotated my wrist the way the nurse had shown me. The movement pulled. The freedom of it mattered more. For the first time since the accident I could pick my daughter up without planning the angle of every joint. She made a small sound of surprise when I lifted her, then settled against my chest as if the cast period had been a temporary administrative error.
I held her until my arm trembled, then set her down again and finished the rest of the afternoon at my own pace.
