Cold

First Aid Kit-Summer

A cool breeze came across Suumer's brow as she began to open her eyes.
"Hey Roger, I think she's waking up!" The voice Summer heard was loud and yet gentle, definitely not her mothers harsh, cold voice. Yet she still flung her body promptly from where she was and moved away from where the sound had come.
"Hey now sugar, it's alright, breath calm down. You gave us quite a scare earlier!" The woman laughed a lofty laugh and put her hands in her lap. They sat there for a short while, staring each other down. The woman was tall and slightly round, her skin was dark and lightly wrinkled. Her eyes were the most gentle eyes Summer had ever seen, and they warmed her to the core.
"What happened? Where am I? Is Cheryl here?" At the thought of Cheryl being near Summer's blood ran suddenly cold. She pulled farther from the woman and nearly began to cry. The woman looked around in confusion.
"Baby, I don't know who Cheryl is, but she isn't here. The only people here right now are me and  my husband Roger, and we aint gonna hurt you." She reached out her hand and touched Summer gently on the knee. “Relax Sugar, and tell me, what has you so frightened? And who do we need to call?"
"First you have to tell me where I am and what happened to me!"
"Alright sounds like a fair deal as long as you tell me what I want to know when I'm all done. Deal?"
Mila was a little unsure, feeling like this could be a trap. But honestly, she had nothing left to lose. "Deal."
The woman began to talk, knowing exactly what she was going to say.
"Well Right now your in the back of my store, on my cot, where I lay down when I feel ill while working. You got here, by foot I am assuming, but I'm not really sure. All I know about you getting here is that you walked into my store and passed out clean. Hit the floor like a rock. So I brought you back here and have been slowly giving you water and cooling you down. You've been out for a good hour or so now. I wouldn't know precisely, I haven't left your side." The woman paused and looked gently at the child on her bed. “That’s all I got Shug, now it's your turn."
Summer thought carefully about what she was going to say, afraid that Cheryl was going to come bursting into the room at any moment fists blazing. Somehow the woman seemed to notice it and took Summers hand in her own.
"Your safe here. Now talk to me."
She wasn't sure why, but for some reason she trusted this woman, the kindness in her eyes was unlike anything she had ever encountered before, and she knew that it was safe here to speak.
"I ran away. I came from my house. Mother hit me again. And I couldn't take it anymore, everything was so numb. I heard on the television of kids running away and starting a new life somewhere. I wanted for so long to leave, but Mother was always too strong. But this time-"
She gently lifted her shirt, exposing a dark purple-bluish bruise, awkward in how it sat. It appeared that several of the ribs had gone out of place and were about to pierce through her skin. She put her shirt down and pulled back her hair, there a deep gash was scabbed over but still obviously recent.
The woman held back a gasp and gently reached out without touching.
"Oh Baby, oh my goodness, Roger come here."
A older white haired man appeared in the door way across from where Summer was laying.
"Yeah?" He had the same kind eyes that the woman had, but his build was more muscular and stocky. He also has the same slightly wrinkled face, Summer now recognized them as work lines, made from years of carrying the weight of a bleeding heart. THe same face, but much older that her father had once carried.
"Come here and look at this child, it's, oh it's awful." The old man advanced towards Summer, with very cool, careful movements. When he reached the bed he crouched down, so he was eye level with Mila.
"Show him what you showed me." Summer shook her head diligently. "Now then, we have no interest in hurting you, we can make this better, or at least try, but you have to show it to Roger."
With shaking hands Summer reached for the bottom of her shirt and slowly lifted it to show the wound. When Roger saw it he merely nodded and mumbled to himself. When he nodded his head to show that he was done with that wound she pulled  her hair back.
"I see." He looked his wife.
"So? Can you do anything?"
"Yeah I can fix this up good. Gonna need a few things though from the first aid kit my nephew gave us."
"But that thing is so old! Is anything in there still useable?"
"Well it's either that or some super glue." He cracked a small smirk. She looked back at him, fake annoyance in her eyes.
"I'll go get the kit."
"Now then, I'm sure that my Wife asked you some questions, but she tends to get carried away and forget the ones that matter, you answer my questions and I'll answer them also. What's your name darling?
"Summer."
" Well I'm Roger. How old are you?"
"Ummm, well. sixteen. I just turned sixteen."
"Alright I am fifty-two, well then, where do you live?"
"Nowhere, anymore. I ran away."
"I see, okay well where was your house?"
"What about you?"
"Oh right, well Marge and I live in a small house behind this old shack. Now then, where did you live before you ran away?
"1325 Brookie street, Dover."
The old man looked at her bewildered. "You mean to tell me that you came here all the way from Dover?" He shook his head as his wife came in.
"Margot, this little girl came from Dover."
"Ohlordy, no wonder you were so tired and sick." She rushed back to her seat next to Summer and touched her hand. But don't worry, it's going to be okay now. We will take care of you." She pulled her hand back and opened the kit on her lap. "What do you need Rog?"
"The bandadge stuff, what's it called. Oh I don't know let me see it." He reached into the box and pulled out a long strip of skin tone athletic wrap.
" Now, this is going to hurt real bad, I'm going to need you to take these." He handed her two asprins. " And bite down hard on this rag." He handed her a stiff yet clean looking rag which she put into her mouth. She looked up at Margret with great confusion in her eyes.
" Baby this is going to hurt alot, but judging by what it looks like you've been through, it won't be too bad. Just clench that cloth real hard and squeeze my hand okay?"
Summer nodded her head and closed her eyes as Roger put the wrap to her skin and began to wrap up her ribs. It wasn't long before she didn't even know that she was still alive.