Chapter 6: Felicity's Dilemma

Emma Watson walked into her home, feeling happy and successful. Her first-term report card was out, and she'd managed to pull off a couple of "A"'s to leaven her slate of "B"'s and "B+"'s. Her parents would be more than satisfied.

Quickly she doffed her shoes, dropped her books in her room and looked for her mother. She found her, sniffling in the guest bedroom.

"Wow, Emma, that's great! We're going to have to go out to celebrate!"

"What's wrong, Mom? You're crying!"

"It's your Aunt Felicity. She was in a bad accident." Aunt Felicity was young, widowed and had a daughter about Emma's age named Melanie. Aunt Felicity also had the reputation as the family prude, being the only one between four grandparents and three other siblings, two spouses and assorted offspring to object to Emma's parents raising her in the naturist lifestyle.

"Is she all right?"

"Well, she's quite serious, but they're very hopeful she will fully recover. The recovery period will take some months, though. Don't worry, honey. We'll have our celebration tonight — after the family meeting."

"That's not important — where does Melanie stay while Aunt Felicity is in hospital?"

"That would be what the family meeting tonight is all about."

The family meeting took place at the hospital. Melanie's grandparents, aunts and uncles were all there. Emma, nude but for socks and runners, was there. Her parents, who felt it improper to be in a hospital as adults nude, were dressed, but were feeling uncomfortable, especially her mother who hadn't worn clothing for almost three months straight. Melanie was there, in jeans and T-shirt. Aunt Felicity, drowsy due to the pain medication and the after-effects of anaesthesia, was in traction, wearing a hospital gown and covered in blankets to combat the post-anaesthesia chills.

The room was redolent with the usual hospital aromas, of cleaning solutions and soaps and patients' fears.

"You have no objection to my daughter being in her school uniform?" they'd jokingly asked the admittance nurse, who informed then not only no, but that her son was a student at St. Dunstan's, so she understood. It was uncertain if Aunt Felicity even noticed Emma was in the room. The doctor, a friend of Emma's parents from Sunny Acres, was giving the assembly a précis on Felicity's case.

"Mrs. Watson is suffering from extensive fractures to the lower body, including pelvic girdle, both right and left femur and right tibia and fibula, and the right patella. She won't be dancing for the Rockettes again for quite some time. Due to the soft tissue damage in the abdominal cavity, we've had to remove her spleen and a length of large bowel, and she's also suffered from damage to one kidney. She has a catheter and a colostomy bag. She's on some pretty strong pain medications right now, and for the foreseeable future. After she gets through this week and possibly next, her next stop will be a rehabilitation hospital." The doctor squeezed Melanie's shoulder reassuringly. "She will get better," she reassured the young girl. "It won't be a quick recovery, but she will."

Melanie gripped her mother's hand fiercely and wordlessly nodded.

The doctor made her exit and left the family alone.

"Well," Grandfather Watson harrumphed, "let's start talking. Melanie can't stay alone, so one household is just going to step up and parent her while Felicity gets back on her feet."

Felicity's only other sibling was a brother who was a university student living in another city, in a three-bedroom apartment he shared with two fellow students. Not a practical option, it was universally decided.

Melanie's maternal grandparents resided in an assisted living facility, also not a practical option.