the book is out

Michiel had an encounter with the table saw. I wasn't even there, I was having a beer over at the aunties. Piffin came to their door and said 911 had been called, so Clare and I ran. We also called neighbour Peter who was working in his front yard. Half the Chinese church was in ours (they offered to pray, so sweet), and Michiel was sitting on the porch steps with a towel over his hands. Apparently that is what 911 tells you to do, to sit down and put a towel over the injury, so you don't look at it. It took the ambulance sixteen minutes, somebody timed it. The paramedics were very nice, and calm. Michiel was hyperventilating, they bandaged his thumb, and said we could go to the ER by ourselves, no need to pay for the ambulance ride. The ER was quite entertaining, all these hours, from four to very very late at night, I don't know, it was half an hour past midnight when we got home, the kids went for dinner in a restaurant by themselves. There was a girl in the ER waiting room, in full theatrical withdrawal. A woman had met her just before going to commit suicide, and decided God wanted her to save this girl. And the girl, Christel, how appropriate, decided she had found God. She seemed a sweet girl, deep underneath all her chemically induced behaviour. Her arms were badly scarred from cutting herself. I hope she got help and is doing well, but I very much doubt it. Michiel came out of the surgery ten minutes after going in, but just to get us in there with him, he couldn't do it alone. He needed for us to make him laugh, it was either that, or going into shock, shaking all over. So we joked as hard as we could. Another patient kept checking on him, it's very nice how people start bonding during these long hours in the ER. Anyway, after X-rays and new bandages he was sent on his way with an appointment for plastic surgery today, there was nothing for them to stitch. So today, in a much duller waiting room, the arthritis clinic for god's sake, plastic surgery. The doctor froze the thumb so they could have a good look at it. Together with another doctor he contemplated how to go about it, Michiel did his utmost not to freak out. Are you a fainter, the nurse had asked. No, I don't faint, I just shake and hyperventilate. Do you know yoga or meditation? They ended up shortening the thumb a little, bone too, I think, in order to get enough soft tissue to construct a new top. The doctor said there is a little bit of nail left. Nice pills, Michiel is almost as high as Christel.