After posting a couple of pretty dark memories, I thought it might be nice to share something lighter, so I rooted through what bits I could remember, until I came across a particularly special memory. Even now, I still smile, while thinking of this moment. :)

The Nurse's Office
Copyright 2021 by Heather Rose Brown

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I sometimes wonder if the person who thought it was a good idea to pave a school playground with the same material used to pave roads didn't like children very much. Or maybe they just didn't like clumsy children ... like me.

I'm not sure if I'd been tripped, or if I'd stumbled over my own feet, but however it happened, I'd been sprawled out on my stomach in the middle of the playground, and bawling my eyes out. Eventually, someone helped me up, and led me into the school.

By the time we reached the nurse's office, I'd mostly cried myself out, and was just sniffling when I was introduced to the school nurse. I flinched when she reached for my hand, but she was careful to not touch my scraped palms, and I relaxed a bit.

I don't remember exactly what she said to me, but her voice was soft and comforting while she led me by the wrist to a bed. After sitting me down, she opened a foil package, pulled out a folded cloth, then gently wiped away the dirt and grit.

Once she was done cleaning my hands, she stood up, and started pulling a curtain around the bed. When I asked her why she was doing that, she said, "I'm going to need you to remove your blouse so I can take care of your elbow."

I was pretty confused at first. I looked down, just to make sure, but I still had on the same shirt I'd put on in the morning. The left arm had a hole in it from when I fell on my elbow, but it was the arm of a shirt, not a blouse.

Then it hit me. She knew. Somehow, without me saying anything, she saw I was really a girl. She was pulling the curtain around, so nobody who wandered into the office would see me topless.

I felt giddy, and grinned like a lunatic, when a weight I'd forgotten I was carrying was lifted from me. Someone finally saw what I'd been trying to explain to my parents. It had taken a complete stranger to see the truth.

If I could have, I would have never have left the nurse's office again.