In Stitches

My cell phone rang around 11:00 pm. on Friday. I was chatting with Jim on our home phone while I painted the basement steps, so Jacob grabbed the cell for me. I overheard this one-sided conversation:

"Adam?" Pause. "You're going to the emergency room?" Pause. "Your leg?" Pause. "The glass table?" Pause.

By this time my interest was piqued. I shot questions to Jacob who, in turn, relayed them to Adam. Apparently, Adam had been leaning on the glass coffee table in his apartment when it shattered. Some glass had cut deeply into his leg. Luckily, his roommate, Mike, and Mike's fiancee were there and able to take him to the hospital. I offered to meet them, but Adam assured me - via Jacob - that he would be fine with Mike and Andrea. I told him to update me on his condition as things progressed.

I completed my discussion with Jim, who had stayed on the other phone the entire time but did not seem very concerned about our older son's predicament. I finished touching up my painting and gingerly climbed over some still-wet spots on the stairs. Not long after that Adam sent a text saying that he was at the ER and waiting to be checked by a doctor. An hour or so later, he was back home with six new stitches in his leg and lots of glass to pick out of his carpeting.

While the doctor was cleaning his wound, Adam had actually passed out on the examination table. Jim and my sister, Nancy, often faint during medical procedures, so it did not shock me that it happened to Adam as well. Not only were these Adam's first stitches, but this was also his first hospital experience.