The Polar Express - Part 4

Power has been on all day today, so I actually had to spend it working, which honestly just sucked. The temperature also warmed up slightly, so I watched snow melt off people’s houses through my office window. When the day was finally done, and I was able to finally break free, we went out for another treacherous walk. Troy made it all of three steps down the driveway before he was on his butt. The snow may have melted, but it left the slicker, compacted ice beneath it. Again, it was Troy running with wild abandon, me chasing with cautious anxiety, and my wife slowly and carefully following behind.

And then I heard a loud scream from behind me. I turned to see my wife laying on the ground. I wrangled Troy into my arms and sprinted back to her. She had apparently stepped on a deceptively okay patch of sidewalk, which in reality was an exceptionally slick layer of ice instead. Unfortunately, she landed right on her wrist in her desperate attempt to catch herself. I’m going to guess that she sprained it pretty badly.

She wanted to soldier on, letting the frigid air act as an ice pack for her ailing wrist, so we kept walking. And all I could think about was not being the third victim of these sidewalks. Hard to do when your toddler keeps romping across the ice like he’s running through a Spring meadow. But I managed to make it without falling and then wrapped up my wife’s wrist in a bandage. Now, we just have to keep Troy from inadvertently hitting it during his carefree expressions of love.