Mother pulled a peppermint stick from a bag she carried over her shoulder. “Then here you are.”
The little boy’s face lit up with a huge smile. Evie knew this candy represented dreams come true and all that was good in the world to the child.
Seeing the candy, the little girl edged around to the front of her mother.
“I want one.”
“Abby, you need to ask please.”
“Peese. I want one.” Her eyes were wide as she held out her hand.
Evie spotted the sores on the child’s bare arm. It appeared some sort of infected scratch, or perhaps other injury.
“Abby, you have some sores on your arm,” Mother said, kneeling. “What happened?”
The little girl shook her head. “I got some bites.”
Mary nodded. “It’s the rats. They go after the children in their sleep. I try to keep a clean house, but still they come.”
“They come to the finest houses, believe me.” Mother handled the matter without disgust or condemnation. “Evie is a nurse, and she will look at your bites, Miss Abby. She is very gentle.”
Evie drew a deep breath. These were just little infected wounds. There was no reason to worry about getting sick over them. “Come, Abby. Let me seat you on the table, and I can see better how to help.”
The little girl looked apprehensive, but her mother picked her up and placed her on the table by Evie. “I didn’t have any medicine to help, but I tried to keep them clean like your mother told me to do.”
Evie gave a cursory examination of the child, searching for other sores and bites. She had three on her arm, but thankfully those were the only ones. Evie opened her medical bag, pulled out a cleaning solution her mother had put together, and grabbed a clean washcloth.
Abby was more than a little apprehensive and began to tear up, but Mother handed her the candy and the child’s concern over her treatment was forgotten. She popped one end of the peppermint stick in her mouth and began to suck on it for all she was worth.
Evie cleaned up the sores and put salve on them before wrapping a clean bandage around them. She didn’t feel sick, and for that she was grateful. Perhaps it was the heady scent of peppermint. It had always helped during more major medical ordeals. Evie forced a smile, but her heart ached for the wretched living conditions these people had to endure.
“I have a couple of iron traps in the wagon,” Mother said, standing. “I’ll get those for you, Mary. If you set them near where the children sleep, perhaps it will attract the rats. I’ll show you how to set them.” She left the shack.
Evie was finished with Abby’s arm by the time her motherreturned. The child glanced at her arm, then waved it up and down as if to determine whether the bandage would impede her. Evie helped her from the table, and Abby dashed over to her mother.
“Lookie. Lookie.”
“You have a bandage now. You must keep it clean,” her mother chided.
“Evie will leave you some bandages and a little container of salve. We made it ourselves. My husband Dr. Turner helped us to come up with the ingredients, and it works very well,” Mother declared. She looked to Evie. “How often should she change it and clean the area?”
“Once a day is just fine. Unless, of course, it gets wet or really dirty.”
Mary nodded. “I’ll do just that.”
“If you should see proud flesh or streaks of red, you must let the doctor know. It will mean the infection has worsened. Sometimes that happens, and it can be deadly,” Mother said, looking to Evie for approval.
Evie appreciated her mother’s thorough manner. “Yes. It’s very important to keep an eye on wounds inflicted by animals. Hopefully, this will take care of the problem.”
“That and these traps,” Mother added. “Here, let me show you how they work. Where are the children’s beds?”
Mary frowned. “There are no beds. We’ve a mattress, and we all sleep there. Can’t afford to get a frame. We had one, but it was in really bad shape and we burned it last winter when the cold was so bad.”
Evie’s emotions were almost her undoing. She fought back tears. They lived in such luxury compared to this poor woman who couldn’t even protect her children from rats.
Mother took it all in stride. “You know, we have some sturdy pallets that we’ve wanted to get rid of. We could bring thoseover, and you could put them under the mattress. That way you’d at least be up off the floor. That along with the traps will deter the rats.”
“We can’t just take all this charity.” Mary looked around the room. “My husband wouldn’t approve. He’s very proud.”
