The Spia Family Presses On - By Mary Leo Page 0,61
of her own blood involved.
“But you don’t understand. I’m on a deadline. I have to be able to type.”
“But I never said you could not type, Miss. I simply said you should not use your thumb for five days. It is badly bruised and combined with these stitches it will need time to heal. I will put your arm in a sling to remind you.”
“I don’t want a sling, thank you.”
He finished stitching, cut the threads and began bandaging her thumb. “I will give you a sling anyway. It is what I recommend.”
She started to disagree but I interrupted. “I’ll make sure she wears it.”
He looked over at me. “It is for her own good, Miss. I will give her a prescription for pain medication as well. This is going to be one heck of a thumb-ache.”
“I can handle it,” Lisa said.
“Ah, you are like your books then?”
Her face lit up. “You’re familiar with my work?”
“I have five daughters, a wife, a mother and a mother-in-law. How could I not know? They have memorized parts of your books and discuss them over dinner. My mother-in-law used your foul-smell method to make my nephew vomit when he ate her pet goldfish, Stan. It was too late for Stan, but my mother-in-law was impressed that your technique worked so effectively. She used her husband’s jar of pickled herring. I have to say, that smell would make anyone toss their cookies.”
Lisa chuckled. “I’ll have to remember that.”
“These women practice your survival skills religiously just in case they might need them. My middle daughter has jumped out of a second story window into a garbage container with her hands tied loosely behind her back. I did not approve of this, of course, but she worked up to it, and by the time she jumped, she knew what to do. She was able to find something sharp to cut the rope on her wrists and get out of the container on her own.
Regrettably, she also managed to cut her baby toe when she jumped . . . she wore flip flops, not the best. I cleaned up the cut and gave her three stitches. She refused the pain medication as well. She said she needed to have all her pistons running on full speed just in case she needed to survive something else.”
“I’ll send you a few autographed copies of my latest book,” Lisa told him.
“My family will be so pleased, Miss. Thank you.”
“It’s the least I can do.”
“Ah, the least you can do is to wear the sling for five days,” he said. “This will make my family very happy because you will assure them that your thumb will heal properly so you can write more books.”
She laughed. “Okay, I agree. Bring it on.”
He patted her shoulder. “You are a very intelligent woman. My family will be happy to learn this.”
As soon as he left the room, Jade said. “Wow! You’re that Lisa Lin? I’m a total fan. I’ve read all your books. You have to be the coolest chick ever. This is, like, way cool, ya know? To actually meet you and you’re so normal. And short. I mean, not that you’re short, short, but you’re tiny and yet you’re a real kick-ass, ya know?”
Lisa smiled. “Thanks. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten such a cool compliment.”
“I passed a coffee stand on the way in here. I, like, so need a latte,” Jade said. “Can I get you guys anything?”
Both Lisa and I jumped on the opportunity to be alone. We gave her complicated drink orders that would keep her and the barista busy for at least fifteen minutes.
As soon as she left, Lisa turned to me. “I think one of the goombahs tried to kill us, or at the very least give us a warning.”
“If that was a warning, I’d hate to think what it would be like if one of them really came after us.”
“We wouldn’t be having this conversation, that’s for damn sure. That guy knew his shit.”
“I wouldn’t be so quick to assume it was one of the ex-cons.” I was thinking about that disappearing mustache. “You were pretty incredible out there.”
“Of course I was. I just wrote about it, Chapter Six, How to Survive a Car Chase. I did extensive research with an adorable wannabe NASCAR driver who taught me all about driving defensively, and how to keep control of your car after a rear or side bump, along with some other, more personal moves that still give