How fast everything changes. Roll out the cliches. Seems you have to be reminded. Annual house swap. Your Vancouver friends settled into your old cottage on the Sunshine Coast while you enjoy the city without having to take the ferry back and forth. Last year he was with you and you drove him to some of the places you used to frequent in the early days when you lived in the city. This summer you are here on your own, lying in a narrow bed in a small dormer room upstairs. There's an open window at nose height. The back garden is a riot of dahlias, late summer tomatoes, profuse Swiss chard and so much basil that you can smell it from your upstairs window. The sky in the east is blushing a soft pink. If you snuggle here long enough you may see the sun appear. But no. An habitual early riser. Coffee to brew, mail to check, lists to make. A writer friend is coming for lunch in the garden. What to do for dessert? Was it the coming day that distracted? Or morning light entering a staircase landing-height window that appeared to level two pale-carpeted stairs so that you missed the one above the landing, tried to right yourself, couldn't, felt yourself tipping and said outloud, oh shit, it's happening. No witness to describe it, but later you think you must have pinwheeled over the last five steps onto the yoga mat you'd spread on the carpet the day before. One second, two? And life yaws irrevocably.
Head seems ok but you are sickish, nauseous. You lie still for a moment. Can't be too bad. Hands hurt. The left more than the right but it will be okay. Just have to wait a minute. You don't notice the gash on your leg until you get up without using your hands and immediately move to the couch because the nausea hits again when you are upright. The ottoman is white. Oh no, is that blood dripping on it? The left hand is puffy, distorted, but the right doesn't seem too bad. The laptop is set up in the kitchen and you poke at the keyboard with your right index finger to ask Dr. Google what to do about an injured wrist. Advice? Don't wait long to get it assessed. Meaning x-ray, meaning... you could take a taxi to an urgent care centre? Which one would be closest? Which offer shortest waiting times? Which the least risk of Covid exposure?The garden at the cottage
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