than he had in a long time, and she seemed so vulnerable and so sad. He wanted to make it better, for both of them, but he wasn’t sure how.
* * *
—
Once Jaime was walking, the next few months were hard on her. She constantly had a scrape or a bruise, or a “boo-boo” somewhere. She’d had a hard time teething, with pain and fevers that Zoe had reported to Cathy Clark. And with all the minor injuries from walking and falling on unsteady one-year-old legs, Austin said she looked like a child abuse victim when he gave her a bath one day. But her broken arm had healed well, and there was no scar from the cut on her lip.
Zoe took her to the playground one Saturday afternoon and had fun with her. Austin was playing tennis with a friend, and Zoe swung Jaime in a circle around her, holding firmly to her hands as Jaime squealed with pleasure, and then let out a blood-curdling scream, let go of her mother’s hands, and clutched her elbow. Jaime was crying as Zoe dropped to her knees in the sand beside her, trying to figure out what had happened. She was alone with Jaime, Fiona was off on the weekends, and not knowing what else to do, Zoe left the playground with Jaime and headed to the emergency room. It was the opposite arm of the one she’d broken, so she hadn’t reinjured that. She was sobbing and hiccupping in the cab on the way to the hospital, as Zoe held her. She paid the fare and carried Jaime into the hospital, running with her. And as they walked in, one of the nurses smiled and waved at them.
“Hi, Jaime,” she said with a warm look. “How’ve you been?”
“She just hurt her arm at the playground,” Zoe explained, looking stressed.
“Same one she broke?” the nurse inquired, and Zoe shook her head. “I’ll get the pediatric attending,” she said, heading for the desk, as Zoe went to sign in. They were in the computer so it didn’t take long, and the nurse put them in an exam room five minutes later. Jaime was still crying when the doctor walked in. He remembered Jaime from last time too, as soon as he looked at the chart.
“What happened? Did she fall?” he asked Zoe and she shook her head.
“I was swinging her around by her arms, and all of a sudden, she screamed and grabbed her elbow.” The minute she said it, he nodded.
“Easy one this time.” He looked at Jaime then. “This is going to be an owee for a minute, Jaime, but then it won’t hurt anymore.” As Zoe watched, wondering what he was going to do, he held Jaime’s small upper arm firmly with one hand, pulled on her lower arm with his other hand, turned it sharply, and moved the lower part of her arm upward, and suddenly Jaime stopped crying instantly, like magic. “Dislocated elbow,” he said to Zoe. “It happens to toddlers all the time. You’ll have to keep an eye on it, if she has a tendency toward that, it could happen again. Their joints are loose at this age. It can happen reaching for a spoon or putting on her pajamas. It doesn’t take much to pull an elbow out of a socket. No more swinging her by the arms after this.”
“I promise,” Zoe said, looking subdued. What the doctor had done had hurt her, but he did it so quickly, Jaime didn’t have time to react, and the relief was total after he did, with her elbow back in place. Zoe’s stomach felt upside down, as the nurse walked into the room and he explained it to her.
“You can give her some baby aspirin tonight if she needs it, but I don’t think she will. It’s back in place now. There should be no residual pain. Bye, Jaime, thanks for the visit, take care.” He waved at her as he left the room, and Jaime waved back with the arm that had been excruciating a minute before.
“Well, that was quick,” the nurse said as she lifted Jaime off the table, and smiled at Zoe. “She keeps you on your toes, huh?” She could see that Zoe was a great mom, she always came to the hospital with her. They left a few minutes later and went home.
Zoe gave Jaime some juice and cookies. She had just stopped nursing six weeks before at