#12 China Cat (Blood Everywhere)

He watched as she did somersaults as she fell. She felt every jagged edge, but the pain was especially strong in her arm and foot. The fall had opened her foot back up, and broke her arm. At the bottom of the stairs, she just laid there. He thought she was dead. There was blood everywhere. Dan rushed down the stairs, and to her side. Her eyes fluttered open when he touched her. He was so relieved. ‘…I love you…I’m so sorry…this will never happen again…I love you so much…I’ll never let this happen again…’ ‘…I think my arm is broke..’ she said, as she cradled it.

He cried, she held him, and rocked him with her one good arm. He was so upset and sorry too. He loved her mightily. ‘…I’ll take you to the hospital…don’t tell them I hit you…he sobbed…I’m so ashamed…I love you so much…’

He wrapped her in a soft blanket and helped her in the car. He treated her like a precious jewel. All the way there, he stroked her forehead and told her he loved her. Once at the hospital, he told the girl that she fell down the stairs and something maybe broke. He called her his wife several times. He was so sweet with her. He was a such a good husband. They believed everything he said, and she said the same thing. She fell down the stairs. They wrestled an intravenous needle in, then knocked her out for surgery.

She was groggy from the anesthesia, and they wouldn’t talk to her unless he was there, so she went back to sleep. She slept the whole weekend, but he never left her side. He was devoted. Finally, on Monday they woke her to tell her what they told him. She had a concussion, restructured her face, set her arm, and stitched her foot while she was in surgery. She was to come back next Monday to get the stitches out. He was such a great caregiver that they let her go home early, but he never spoke to her all the way home.

He started speaking to her when they got back to the hospital to get her stitches out. ‘…he never spoke to me all week…’ she pleaded with them. ‘…it’s insufferable…’ But they didn’t listen to her, because it contradicted everything about him. He was so good to her. It must be her concussion talking. Well, at least he started talking to her. When they took out the stitches in her face, she ran to a mirror. She touched the angry marks, misshapen face, and didn’t recognize herself. ‘…he did this to me…’ she turned to them and said frantically. They just patted her on the shoulder, and one of them, the prettiest, said to her that she could come back in a year for a reassessment, but he just whispered that he would love her no matter what. They saw her relax after he whispered in her ear, and it just confirmed what they were thinking. He was such a good husband.

China found a book called The Seven Grandfather Teachings. It was Native, and she remembered her father, she was Native, so she devoured it. Dan had went to the used book store, and bought a box of books for a buck, but never opened it. She read them all, but especially liked The Seven Grandfather one. She kept it under the deck, out in the garden, where it was dry. It was about values; wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility, and truth. The more she studied them; the more she realized they were intertwined. She lived by them all, but she had trouble with the truth and bravery part. She was not living her truth. It took guts.

Dan stopped speaking to her as soon as they got in the car. He would grunt his displeasure, and get angry, she could clearly see that, but he never spoke to her. She was lonely, but she got used to it. He came inside her every night, but she was already used to that, but he wouldn’t let her paint, and she wasn’t used to that. The Zen Garden helped. She was obsessive compulsive about the painting; it relieved stress, so she did it in