I have WordPress set up to give me reminders to write blog entries twice a week.
Today’s prompt was “Have you ever broken a bone”.
The only time I ever had broken bones was on Canadian Forces Base Griesbach in Edmonton.
This would have been in the spring / summer of 1982.
The was just after my father and my step mother had their civil union in our PMQ.
Richard took Sue to Jasper for a honeymoon.
Richard and Sue went to Jasper, my father dropped my brother and I off with our mother in Calgary. Yes, the same mother that Richard told social services that had just up an abandoned her family.
My father had borrowed a pick up truck with a camper from one of his air force buddies named Tim.
The pickup truck was a 4×4, so with the camper on the back the camper sat up pretty high. I’d say the roof of the camper was about 3m off the ground.
Due to my father’s inability to look after my brother and I my brother and I had devolved into trying to find the best way to get the other in trouble with Richard.
This was more of a survival technique than just childhood brattiness because if Richard was dishing out physical punishment to the other, that meant that you weren’t getting punished.
Anyways, my brother had decided to pack the pop-up vent in the roof of the camper full of leaves. Richard was at work. I knew that I was going to be in for the beating of a life time if Richard came home and found the vent packed full of leaves.
Why?
In Richard’s mind, I was my brother’s keeper. And even though Richard couldn’t look after his two sons, I was somehow supposed to be my brother’s father.
So, I hurried my ass up the ladder on the camper and cleaned all of the leaves out. Made sure that the vent was like spick and span.
On my way down the ladder I slipped and landed on my back.
I had the wind knocked right out of me.
One of the neighbours came over and helped me up.
Somebody called the military police and the military police called my father at the squadron.
My father hated being interrupted at work.
When he came home he wasn’t too pleased.
First, I was a stupid asshole for having played on the roof of the camper.
Then after the neighbours had told him that they saw my brother on the roof of the camper stuffing leaves into the vest I was a stupid fucker for not keeping an eye on my brother and for allowing my brother to get on top of the camper.
Did Richard take me to the hospital or even to our family doctor over in North Town Mall?
Nope.
I spent two days at home in an extreme amount of pain.
I couldn’t even wipe my ass after taking a shit, that’s how painful my wrists were.
Finally three days later he took me to the Charles Campsell hospital where it was found that I had numerous fractures in my right wrist and that my left wrist was heavily sprained with hairline fractures in the bones.
He told the doctors that I had only told him this morning about me having hurt my wrists a couple of days ago but that I didn’t seem to be in any pain.
As the doctors were setting my arms in casts he kept telling me that I should have told him sooner.
I shudder to think how long I would have had to suffer with my broken wrists had my family not been under the supervision of Alberta Child and Family Services.
I don’t think that Captain Terry Totzke would have given a flying fuck about my predicament, but Alberta Social Services wouldn’t have been none too pleased.
I was Richard’s “little buddy” for a couple of days afterwards, but that didn’t last too long. I guess that wiping my ass took a toll on him really quickly.
One of the things he did say is that I should have just left the leaves in the vent and that he would have made my brother clean them out.
There’s no way he would have handled things so calmly. Sure, he probably would have beat the shit out of my brother for having fucked around, but he would have beat the shit out of me for not looking after my brother and allowing my brother to do what he did.
I was only supposed to have my casts on for 6 weeks.
Richard decided that I was going to keep my casts on until the start of school so that I’d learn my lesson and not fuck around like I had.
I can still feel the fractures when I have to do heavy lifting or use large wrenches.
I can still remember Richard feigning surprise when he was told about the damage to my wrists.
Beeshive 