I chuckle. “Is there a support group for parents who go through this? Because I could use it right about now.”
Shelda laughs. “I wish.”
She asks for my insurance card and gives me some paperwork to fill out. I sit down next to Charlie and fill it in. Charlie looks nervous again. I rub her back. “It’s okay. This place is big and smells funny, but the people are really nice and they’ll get rid of the raisin. The nurse told me her son shoved marbles up his nose.”
“Really? I wouldn’t do that. They’re too big!”
“Why did you do this, Charlie?” I ask without condemnation.
She shrugs and looks sheepish. “It’s so embarrassing…”
I open my mouth to talk her into telling me, because eventually I’m going to make her. This is a life lesson we need to talk out so it doesn’t happen again. But she looks so ashamed I worry she might cry again if I push her right now. I tell myself we can talk it out after the raisin is removed. Instead I finish the paperwork and bring it back to the counter. Shelda gives me a big, soothing smile. “I’m going to slide you into room two. Sadie will be in to help you right away. She’s the best nasal extractionist we have. She’s also every kid’s favorite.”
“Thank you so much.”
Five minutes later, as Charlie sits on the edge of the bed swinging her legs, the curtain is pulled back and Sadie is standing there. She’s in pale pink scrubs that give her porcelain skin tone a healthy glow. Her blond hair is pulled back in the same low ponytail it was in last time I was here, and her wide, light eyes are free of makeup. She looks gorgeous. Our eyes meet and she gives me a bright, confident smile and reaches out and pats my shoulder. “I got this. Don’t stress.”
My tension instantly dissipates. She drops her hand from my shoulder and turns and waves at Charlie. “Hey. You’re Charlotte?”
“Charlie,” she corrects quietly.
“Charlie is a cool name,” Sadie replies. “I’m Sadie.”
“I have a friend at school named Sadie,” Charlie offers.
“Awesome!” Sadie smiles, and it’s soothing even to me. “I hear you got a raisin stuck. I want to help unstick it. Is that okay?”
Charlie nods profusely. Sadie directs her to lie back on the bed. She grabs some instrument with a light at the end and angles it up Charlie’s nostril. She looks over at me. “This is going to be over in no time, Charlie. I promise.”
Charlie looks at me. “Can we keep it secret, so Cale won’t laugh at me?”
I can feel my expression darken. “I won’t tell Cale.”
Sadie doesn’t miss the shame on Charlie’s face, and she handles it like a hero, in my opinion. “This isn’t anything to laugh at. It happens to tons of kids, Charlie. I promise. My brother once shoved a Lego up his nose to keep my sisters and me from playing with it.”
“A Lego would hurt!” Charlie exclaims. Sadie nods emphatically.
“It did. And he cried a lot, but I never laughed at him,” Sadie replies. “And nobody is going to laugh at you.”
She turns to me. “This is going to look scary to her,” she explains quietly. “You might want to hold her hand.”
I nod and stand up and walk over to the side of the bed as Sadie grabs a long metal tong-looking thing with bent, pointy-looking ends. Yeah, I would freak out at seeing that thing at Charlie’s age. I watch her eyes flare. “Daddy…”
“It’s okay, Charlie,” Sadie says and puts the thing down on a sterile paper on the movable tray table. “First, I’m going to swab your nose with something. It’s going to feel cold and wet, but it won’t hurt.”
“O…kay,” Charlie says cautiously. I squeeze her hand.
Sadie glances at me but looks away. “It’s a wee bit of numbing cream. The extraction shouldn’t hurt, but this will make sure of it.”
“Thanks.”
She nods without glancing back up at me. Charlie squeezes my hand as Sadie works, but she doesn’t cry and she doesn’t wince. Sadie talks throughout the whole thing in a smooth, easy tone. She’s incredible with kids, that much is clear, and it only makes her even more attractive to me. Within a minute the smushed raisin is in a little disposable cup.
“Okay, all done!” Sadie announces as Charlie sits up and looks into the cup. “Your nose is a raisin-free zone. Promise me you’ll keep it that way.”
“I will. Promise!” Charlie replies, and without me having to remind her she adds, “Thank you.”
Sadie tosses the raisin into the garbage along with her gloves and turns to a computer station in the corner. She starts to type stuff up while glancing at Charlie. “Charlie, can I ask you why you put the raisin up there? I promise I won’t laugh.”
