The Burn

The burn hurt, but only for a split second after she dropped the cup of tea on her foot. Stupid move to try to carry two teas and the whole cake over to the table. She bent down to dry her sneaker when her mother in law started screaming "Ice! Ice! you have to put ice on it right now!" The song "Sha Sha Da Shviga Kumpt", klezmer music's rendition of a very annoying mother-in-law, started up its doleful and repetitive melody in Sally's head. Sally gritted her teeth and insisted "No it's fine, really I'll be fine. It doesn't hurt at all."

"No! You won't! Burns don't hurt at first!" Fanny got up to start filling a basin of water and dumped in a tray of ice.

Harold, Sally's husband, just sat there staring into space. He did that whenever his wife and mother got into it with each other. Sid, Fanny's husband and Sally's father-in-law, sat reading the paper as if nothing at all were going on.

Sally had no choice but to comply. As always, she must do what Fanny told her to do or she would regret it for the rest of her life. Sally began to remove her shoe and started to peel off her sock. That's when it really started to hurt.

---

"Prepare before you see them. They could be dangerous."

Fanny, Harold and Sally were on their way to the emergency room.

Fanny was notorious for her distrust of doctors and had a basement lined with jars of homemade remedies. A portion of skin about the size of a poplar leaf sloughed off when Sally removed her sock, and the ice bath caused excruciating pain. It was not until Sally began to moan that her husband took an interest, but her father in law continued to read the paper not saying a word or offering any help at all. Next Fanny smeared an aloe, lavender and coconut oil salve on the burn that made Sally scream. When Sally started screaming Sid calmly put down his newspaper and said "Let's go".

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"That's our motto, and if you can't abide by it, then you are not the type of person..."

Sid was driving.

The Punch and Seymour Show blared out its daily admonitions on the radio, and the ice pack felt like acid eating away at her foot. Sally felt assaulted at both ends of her body.

Sid drove like a madman at all times, and this time was no exception. Sally gripped the arm rest, muttered prayers under her breath, and hoped that when they got to the hospital the four of them would still be alive.

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This is my entry to @mariannewest's weekend freewrite challenge https://steempeak.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/the-weekend-freewrite-6-15-2019-part-3-the-dramatic-twist

I've gotten the prompts messed up - I must have opened the third one first - and interestingly, the story goes nowhere. Choosing the prompts must be tricky.