Chapter 62: Day 61

Day 61,

The makeshift bandage around the cut was redder when I woke up this morning and didn’t smell great.  I made the walk to the Village first thing and made my way to Lin’s house rather than the library.  Huan answered the door, took one look at my hand (which I’d tried to keep hidden as I made my way through the Village streets), and brought me in.

I explained that I’d cut myself attempting to clean a fish.  Thankfully he didn’t ask where I’d gotten the fish, which I’d worried about the whole way over, even if in hindsight that would have been an odd thing to ask.  Instead he merely chided me for my carelessness and for not coming to him sooner, saying I was lucky it wasn’t infected and went to work treating me.

Once he removed my makeshift bandage I could have sworn the wound was larger and uglier than it looked yesterday.  He set about cleaning it, rinsing it with some manner of kelp-derived iodine solution and applying a few other things that I asked about at the time but don’t really remember the answers because I was too distracted by them stinging.  And then there were stitches, which I was simultaneously less than thrilled about and fascinated at how fine they were given the largely pre-industrial nature of the Village.

After that he bandaged me back up and sent me off with a length of spare bandage, directions for changing and cleaning, and instructions to go easy on using that hand and to come back in a few days to have the stitches removed.  I’m told I may or may not end up with a small scar.

Returning to the library after that I found a small pile of requests in the request box waiting for me since I’d left early the other day following the conversation with Theo.  Pulling the books from the shelves and flipping through them and re-shelving those that had been returned (for villagers had taken to just dropping the returns on the table next to the request box even when I was in for the day) semi-one handed was more irritating than I would have expected, but I managed, and then went out to make those deliveries of information and books to check out.  Near everyone asked about my hand, but I brushed it off as not being a big deal, even making a self-deprecating joke or two about it, playing into the persona of the klutzy, easily lost and distracted Archivist that most of the Villagers seemed to know me as by now.  Perhaps that reputation is a bit exaggerated and more of an archetype than the real me, but it’s oddly comforting to have a familiar role to fall back on and play when dealing with those you don’t know well.

The rest of the day was largely uneventful.  I considered tracking down Pat to follow up on the Theo conversation, but wound up using my hand as an excuse to justify procrastinating.

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