Cookies and Crutches (4 page)

Molly’s skate wouldn’t go on. And it was not white like Rachel’s. It was gray. The blades were not like mirrors. They were dull.

She pulled and pulled.

She tugged and tugged.

“Those are too small!” whispered Mary Beth. “Why don’t you get a bigger size?”

Molly did not want a bigger size.

She wanted the same size as Rachel.

She did not have big feet.

A hex on Rachel for saying so.

“My socks are too thick,” said Molly. “I have to take them off.”

She took her socks off and put them into her pocket.

Then she tried to pull the skates on again.

“Your feet are too big,” said Rachel.

She stopped twirling and put her hands on her hips.

She stared at Molly’s feet.

“They are not!” said Molly, pulling extra hard on the skate.

POP! It went on.

But it felt awful.

Molly’s toes were bent. Maybe they were even broken!

Molly could not move one toe. She tried to lace up the skate. She had to pull the lace tightly to tie it.

She pulled and tugged on the other skate to get it on.

Finally it went pop! Her heel slid in. But just barely.

Now all ten toes felt as if they were bent in half.

How would she ever be able to stand up?

Both Rachel and Mary Beth were twirling on the ice.

They reached out their mittened hands to pull her up.

Oof! She was on her feet! The pain from her toes went all the way up her ankles.

“Come on then,” said Rachel in her size-ten skates. “Let’s skate together.”

M
olly was in the middle.

Rachel had hold of one arm, and Mary Beth had the other.

They skated along, pulling Molly with them.

After a little while Molly could not feel her feet at all.

They were numb!

Molly’s dad came skating up to them.

His arms were out.

He wobbled from one side to the other.

His knees bent in, and then out.

“I’m not too good at this,” he said, laughing.

Mary Beth’s father came skating over to them.

He was better.

But not much better.

He slid toward them.

Crash! He bumped into a bench, and fell onto the ice!

Rachel’s father came gliding toward them.

He was skating smoothly. Just like Rachel.

His blades flashed as he came to a stop.

Ice chips flew up where he stood.

Most of the dads were having trouble standing up.

They wobbled back and forth and fell onto the ice.

“Look at Roger and his dad!” cried Rachel. “They are bumping into everyone!”

Mrs. Peters was helping the fathers to their feet.

She was showing them how to put one foot ahead of the other.

She showed some of the Pee Wee Scouts how to stop.

“Look!” called Molly, pointing.

There, skating smoothly among all the wobbling dads, was Mrs. Betz.

In and out, in and out.

Then she skated arm in arm with Sonny.

Then she skated backward.

And then, while everyone watched, Mrs. Betz skated with both arms out and one leg out in back of her. Just like the skaters on TV!

All the dads began to clap. Mrs. Betz bowed and waved.

“See?” said Sonny as he whizzed by Roger. “What did I tell you? I told you my mom could skate better than your dad!”

Roger turned red. He couldn’t call Sonny a sissy now.

He and his mother could outskate them all!

“Hex, hex, hex,” called Molly to Sonny and his mom.

Her feet were aching. She felt awful.

“Try this!” said Rachel, skating with one leg out in front of her.

Molly tried it and toppled over sideways.

“Come on, Molly!” they called. “You’re no fun today!”

Molly got to her feet.

She closed her eyes in pain, and tried again to put one leg out in front of her. It did not work.

She turned her ankle and fell on the ice.

“I can’t walk!” she said, trying to get to her feet.

When her father pulled her up, she could not stand on her sore ankle.

“It’s broken!” she cried.

Everyone ran to help.

They carried Molly to the bench.

Mrs. Peters showed them how to make a stretcher with a coat, and they took her to the car.

Molly’s father began to take her skates off.

Molly cried in pain.

“Let’s wait,” said Mrs. Peters, who always took charge. “It is best not to disturb a patient.”

Molly could not believe what was happening to her.

Her father’s car was taking her to the hospital!

Was her ankle really broken?

She should not have lied about her skate size.

A hex on size ten!

At the hospital everyone got out.

They followed the coat-stretcher.

It looked like a parade.

In the emergency room a nurse X-rayed Molly’s ankle.

The doctor came in and felt Molly’s bones.

He looked at the X rays.

“It is not broken,” he said. “Just sprained. You have a sprained ankle, Molly. You will have to stay off it for a while.”

The doctor wrapped her ankle with a bandage.

Then he got out a pair of crutches and showed Molly how to walk on them.

In the waiting room all the Scouts gathered around Molly.

“Wow!” said Roger. “Real crutches!”

“My brother had crutches once,” said Mary Beth.

Rachel was standing in back by the door.

No one was fussing over her shiny skates now.

No one was noticing her blue pompoms.

Rachel had never sprained her ankle.

She had never had crutches.

“Does it hurt?” asked Sonny.

“Put ice on it,” said his mother.

“We must get Molly home and into a warm bed,” said Mrs. Peters.

Everyone followed Molly out.

She led the parade, on her crutches.

M
olly went to bed.

She had to miss school.

Everyone sent her cards.

The Pee Wee Scouts made their own cards.

Roger’s had a girl skating on it.

It did not look like Molly. But Molly liked it.

Mary Beth drew a hospital bed on hers.

And she brought Molly candy. Chocolate-covered cherries!

Her favorites.

Mrs. Peters sent flowers, from the whole Pee Wee Scout Troop.

They made Molly’s room look bright and cheery.

Every day after school some of the Scouts came to her house.

They played Candy Land.

Mary Beth brought Molly her homework and her school papers.

They wrote spelling words together.

“I wish I had a sprained ankle,” said Rachel when she came to visit.

“You skate too well,” said Molly. “You wouldn’t fall on the ice.”

“I used to fall when I was little,” admitted Rachel. “It took me a long time to learn.”

Molly wished she hadn’t hexed Rachel.

And the good skaters.

It took time to learn to skate.

She could learn to skate too.

Once she got the right size skates.

The next week Molly went back to school.

She went on her crutches.

On Tuesday she went to Pee Wee Scouts on her crutches.

“I have some badges to give out,” said Mrs. Peters. “Some of you get a skating badge.”

Everyone clapped when the good skaters got their badges.

They all pinned them on their Scout kerchiefs or their shirts.

Next to their cookie badges.

The skating badge showed a picture of a skate.

A skate with no pom-poms.

Just a plain skate.

“I’ll get that badge someday,” said Molly.

“Of course,” said Mrs. Peters.

“And now I have another badge. It is a badge for being a good patient.”

Everyone knew who that badge was for!

The Pee Wee Scouts all looked at Molly.

“Molly Duff,” said Mrs. Peters. “Come up and get your badge please.”

Molly got up.

She walked to the front of the room on her crutches.

“Thank you,” she said as she pinned it onto her blouse.

The badge was beautiful.

It had a little bed on it.

It looked like Molly’s bed!

Across the bed was a little thermometer.

Around the edge it said
THE GOOD PATIENT BADGE
.

Molly hobbled back to her chair.

Everyone clapped.

She was glad to have a badge to pin on next to her cookie badge.

It wasn’t as good as a skating badge.

But almost!