A bloody evening

My friends, The Twins, were coming to dinner. Unfortunately, the only day we could manage was the day of my dentist appointment. This cut severely into my cooking time, so I decided to start my dinner the evening before. I was busy all day, and got home from the evening Mass at St. James at about seven. Then somehow, Spider Solitaire had much more appeal than cooking, and I had a hard time getting motivated. Once I pulled myself together though, I was on a roll. At ten, I had just put my cobbler in the oven and set the barley in the pressure cooker going when there was a call from Rebecca. “You have to go to Rachael right now! She cut her foot badly on a broken wine glass, and needs to go the to Urgent Care. She’s fainting and there’s blood everywhere.” Wow! What to do? Go to Rachael, of course, but my barley! My pie! So I took the barley off the heat, turned the oven off, grabbed my wound dressing kit, and scurried out. When I arrived minutes later, (she was house sitting nearby) poor Rachael staggered to the door and was indeed nearly fainting, or at least was pale as the Easter Bunny, had trembley blue lips, and little sobs were emanating from deep within. And there was indeed blood everywhere. It looked like Al Capone had dropped by. Her wound was deep, but the bleeding had stopped. I cleaned and dressed it, and we decided that it didn’t need to go to the hospital. “I’m too weak and upset to clean up all that bloody mess,” she quavered. “You have to do it.” And it was a mess. The kitchen floor was awash in blood and wine, the trail went into the dining room, and then down the hall to the bathroom, which looked like Macbeth had been trying to wash up there in the seas incarnadine. And the wine glass, wine and all, was mixed into the gore on the kitchen floor. “What were you doing? Why is there blood all over the house?” I asked. “I had to feed the cat! He eats in the dining room. And then I had to go to the bathroom for a washrag.” Yuck! So I cleaned up blood, wine, and glass, and helped her put the bath mats and towels into the washing machine, was comforting, went home and put the pie back in the oven, the pressure cooker back on the heat, and hoped it wasn’t all ruined. Next day, her foot was better, the dinner wasn't ruined, and I had a lovely evening with The Twins, playing mindless but fun games. Look here for more of the games.