The Rusty Nail

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His scream of agony brought me up from the shallow cool sparkling water of big willow as if it were a tub of boiling liquid. Something awful must have happened he never ever made a fuss.
I shook the droplets of water from my eyes and looked across the stream to the source of the commotion, he was hopping around on the bank with his right foot in the air and protruding from it was an ugly six inch rusty nail, blood was dripping over the muddy brown of the bank and onto the late spring green grass in big shiny red globs.
Horse flies buzzed around in the early afternoon sunshine excited by the prospect of a gory feast.
I opened my mouth and let out a howl of fear my brave Podge was dying from loss of blood! I fancied I could see him emptying of the life force and turning chalk white before my panic stricken eyes.

The ever increasing decibels of varying howls and screams brought the older boys scurrying across the field from where they had a game of football in progress. Heading up the posse was Billy my half blood cousin and secret love. His dazzling white smile soon turned to a light brown frown of concern as his intelligent eyes took in the situation. He scooped up Podge in his strong arms and started to run towards the road with blood streaming from Podge’s foot, and calling over his shoulder for me to stop my howling and run on ahead to alert the gown ups.

As soon as I arrived at Gran’s cottage, I saw that the aunts and uncles were all there in force, guzzling tea, the air blue with their cigarette smoke. A murmur of grown up conversation was in progress along with the serious business of the Sunday afternoon card game, as if the continuation of the world depended on it. I tried to make myself heard above the muttering and cursing of bad luck but I was just a baby whining, and no one heeded my cries of distress . So I took a great gulp of air into my tiny lungs and screamed loud enough to waken the dead… A dozen pairs of outraged eyes turned in unison in my direction and silence reigned for a beat. Gran was the first to divine that something was terribly amiss and she told Aunty Nellie who was in the process of telling me to be quiet and stop being mardy, to “ shut up and listen to what my baby has to say!” She listened intently to my hysterical rambling and then calmly instructed Uncle Tom to go down to the pub and ask the landlord, Mr Beck to phone for an ambulance.

It became impossible after that to keep up with events, the grown ups all talking at once and aunts bustling around to make more tea, I only knew that I was trapped among a lot of sweaty grown up bodies with every one of them ignoring my pleas to be allowed to go wherever my beloved Podge was going. The time dragged after the ambulance had taken him away from me and I sat on the itchy horse hair sofa sucking my thumb and wishing I was in heaven with my Daddy, I was sure that he would put his arms around me and tell me everything was going to be alright. Degs sidled up to me and with his blond hair falling over his eyes and streaks of dirt adorning his pale cheeks he took my little hand and whispered “He’ll be alright Mu you see, he’ll be back in no time at all” I blinked and another tear fell off my lashes and onto my cheeks to rolls with rest of them toward my chin to be gathered up by my tongue.

Presently Billy wandered over to me and picked me up and set me on his knee and started to sing ’ Mr Woo’ in his best George Formby voice. He made me giggle and I began to feel a little better. Gilly pushed a dish of red jelly into my hands smiling at me, “c’mon Mu it’s yummy” she said . I took one look at it and squawked out my revulsion, the red jelly had taken on all the characteristics of the blood pouring from Podge’s foot and I let it fall to the floor smashing the dish to smithereens. That’s when I was marched up the road to our house and right up stairs to bed and told to stay where I was until I could behave like a big girl!
I must have cried myself to sleep because the next thing I remember was Mum gently undressing me and tucking me up in my bed, “where’s Podge?” my voice small and wobbly, demanded.
“You’ll see him tomorrow pet, he’s staying at Grandma’s tonight. He’s fine, nothing to worry about.” she whispered kissing me softly on the cheek.

Next morning I ran all the way to Gran’s cottage and into the parlour to see Podge sitting in Grandpa’s rocking chair with his right foot resting on a fat goose feather cushion bandaged up like an old man with the gout. He wore a big grin and held out the rusty nail for me to examine. “ Look Mu, ain’t it a cracker? They gave it to me to keep after they took it outa me foot!” I stared at it open mouthed. Then back at Podge. Why would he want to keep the horrid thing? I thought, trying hard to puzzle out what made him so happy about it.
I watched him tie a piece of string around the head of the nail then fasten it like a medal around his neck, “ this’ll be me badge of honour” he declared proudly “Can’t go to school today Mu, so I’ll beat yer at snakes and ladders instead, but don’tcha get knockin’ me foot ”