34

Chapter 34

By the time we'd arrived at my house, my head was throbbing, images were a bit fuzzy, and I was hearing some temporal ringing, which I considered 'not good'. Since I most probably had a moderate to severe concussion, Edgar suggested I stay awake for at least 12 hours. That wouldn't be a problem since it was only 10:45 a.m. I left the two in the living room to go wash out my wound and get some ice to wrap in a towel. The ice cream products were still in the freezer beside the ice trays, but I thought better of offering them to the present company. I returned, applied the compress and lay down on the couch, reviewing my RICE protocol. Ethyl crawled across the floor to get a close look at the now-coagulated wound.
"This isn't exactly what I had planned for today," I said.
"Uncalled for," replied Edgar. "That looks like it might need stitches or something."
"Yeah, and to the untrained eye, I might look like a guy who had health insurance. Anyway, I'm fine and I think we need to turn our attention to the young lady among us instead."
Ethyl had returned to the La-Z-Boy. Edgar and I sat a while in expectant silence, but she didn't initiate discussion, so I decided to prime the pump.
"Ethyl, we're all one big family here. Do you mind if I share your predicament? We should bring Bufford into the discussion, as well. He gets off work at 6:00 today. Can we re-convene here at 6:30 and discuss this? I believe you'll feel better if you do."
Both parties agreed. We would have Chinese food and V8s. They both said goodbye and I put a throw pillow over my face, deciding a nap was a reasonable risk, or maybe I was still contemplating when I drifted off to a deep, red sleep. Dinosaurs stalking ina dark cave amongsubterranean trees. The heavyheartbeat thudof some steam-spewingmachine. Flowers wilting in the pathofa steam burst. Suffocating, restless sleep amongthecannibaltribes...