Read Online Fleabrain Loves Franny by Joanne Rocklin - Free Book Online

ever.
    â€œNurse Olivegarten!”
    Now Nurse Olivegarten was listening to the other end of her conversation. “M-
mh
. M-
mh
. M-
mh
. Isn’t she, though? M-
mh
. Report
that
to Emily Post! Now, tell me about the food. Rubbery chicken, I’m guessing. M-
mh
.”
    The other person went on for minutes and minutes. Wasn’t Franny’s wiggling toe more important than rubbery chicken and Billy’s buck-and-wing, whatever the heck that was? Nurse Olivegarten herself would be the first to agree, especially since her professional expertise had helped make it happen.
    â€œNurse Olivegarten! I moved my toe!” Franny yelled, louder now.
    The water was hardly warm anymore. Her fingers were wrinkly. Franny grasped one side of the big white tub and pulled herself to a sitting position. She stared at her left toe and tried to wiggle it. She tried again, glaring angrily, willing her puppet-toe to move. It didn’t budge. That’s when she felt the muscle spasm, like a blow to her thigh. She gasped and fell back into the water.
    â€œNurse Olivegarten! Please!”
    The pain, the pain! It was a howling monster swimming upfrom the Allegheny River and rising from the drain. Franny breathed deeply, just as she’d been told to do during a spasm, great gulps of air that didn’t help at all. She tried to sit up, but the angry pain pinned her down. Purple and pink tiles shimmied on the wall. She heard the gurgle of bathwater in her ears and, from far away, the river-monster screaming and screaming.
    Nurse Olivegarten burst into the bathroom. “What’s all the yelling in here?”
    â€œI have a cramp. Can’t move,” Franny whispered between sobs.
    Nurse Olivegarten pulled her from the tub, wrapped Franny in a big pink towel, and laid her on the bathroom floor.
    â€œWhere’s the cramp? Where? Stop crying like a baby, for goodness’ sake!”
    â€œThigh,” said Franny, pointing. “Here.”
    Bending down, Nurse Olivegarten pressed hard on Franny’s thigh and massaged the spot for several minutes. “Better?”
    â€œA bit,” said Franny. Her chest was heaving, and the sobs kept coming.
    â€œI was gone for only a few seconds! How did it happen?”
    â€œI moved my big toe. It was like a miracle. I was trying to make it move again. And then I got the cramp. I called and called you.”
    Nurse Olivegarten loomed above her, suddenly grinning. “Well, now,” she said. “Of course. But it was no miracle, young lady! Didn’t I tell you my treatment would work, if you’d just be patient and stop fussing all the time? Didn’t I?”
    â€œYes,” Franny whispered. She wanted to get off the cold floor.
    â€œNow,” Nurse Olivegarten said. “Do we have to go potty?”
    â€œNo,” Franny said, looking away in embarrassment.
    â€œYou sure? I didn’t like the looks of your bowel movement this morning.”
    â€œI’m sure. But will it happen again?”
    â€œThe cramp? I have no idea.”
    â€œNo, the toe. I moved it.”
    â€œOh, the toe!” said Nurse Olivegarten, making Franny sit up and rubbing her hair with the towel. “You bet! More than the toe. But remember, it’s only a toe, eh? You have a long, long way to go. It will take a fair amount of time, but I’ll get you skipping around downtown Pittsburgh eventually.”
    Nurse Olivegarten carried Franny to her bedroom and dressed her in her pajamas.
    â€œYou were gone for more than a few seconds, you know,” said Franny. “I might have drowned.”
    â€œDon’t be so dramatic! Completely your imagination. I stepped out and came right back.”
    â€œWas moving my toe my imagination, too?” Franny began to cry again.
    â€œWell, let’s see,” said Nurse Olivegarten. “Which toe was it? Your left?” She reached over and jerked Franny’s toe hard, moving it up and down.