View Four

I never saw what happened, but I heard Diane screaming across the lawn one day, all the way to the neighbor's house. I was in the tree in the backyard. She was hysterical, running to get Daddy, crying and screaming that Melanie was going to die. Daddy came running back across the lawn ahead of her and into the house. I quickly got down and went inside just in time to see Daddy, with a very worried look on his face, rush into the kitchen with Melanie wrapped in a towel. "Get a blanket!" he ordered, and he unwrapped Melanie on the kitchen counter. She was lying very still and crying. He was putting butter all over her before he wrapped her up inj the blanket and took off with her. The neighbor lady came over and stayed with us while they went to the hospital. She told us that Melanie was burned very bad and that we should pray for her. So we knelt down and did that.



I don't remember very much about what happened in the next couple days except that Mommy and Daddy weren't with us too often. They took us over to some people's house to stay while they were in the hospital with Melanie. The people had turkeys at their farm. As soon as I got out of the car, I went across the lawn to go see something. There was a funny sound behind me and I turned around to see a whole bunch of turkeys coming after me, looking at my head. I was scared to death and I started to run. They ran, too. I climbed up on top of a picnic table to get away from them. But they jumped up on the bench part of the table and were starting to come up onto the table with me. I screamed bloody murder, and Daddy came over and scared the turkeys away. He was laughing his head off. I was terrified and awfully glad he got me out of there. He laughed and joked about that happening for years.



Later that day, Daddy drove us over to the hospital lawn so we could wave to Melanie upstairs. I had become so worried that she wouldn't come home again, that I wanted to see her real bad. So we went onto the lawn and looked up to the fourth floor. There, who we saw didn't look like her because she had all this white stuff all over her. I couldn't see her hands or anything. But I knew it was her because Mommy was holding her up to the window. I felt really good to see her because I loved my baby sister.



When Melanie finally came home, I saw the way Mommy and Daddy treated her and I realized that she had to be taken care of carefully. I made sure that she didn't get her bandages dirty, and I played with her and told her stories so she wouldn't feel sad. She acted different when she came home, but I saw her looking at me to cheer her up, so I always did. I have a picture of us from that time: Melanie was dressed up in a white dress with a white dresser scarf over her head like a veil. I had on a bowtie over my striped T-shirt. We had Shultz, our Daschund, with a white bonnet on him and a white dress. We put him in Diane's doll carriage and took a picture of us, all getting ready to get married in our make-believe game. Melanie liked to play those kinds of games with me and I think it made her feel better.



I look back at that picture and remember very fondly, how I protective I was of Melanie. We used to be very close and she needed the help I gave her. I worried for awhile about her dying because Mommy and Daddy would cry about her, especially when they told other people about what had happened to her. But soon she didn't have to wear bandages at all, and she could run around and fall down like kids do without being hurt. Her skin wasn't tender after awhile. I remember this time warmly and have always been so glad Melanie made it through.