Loralee and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Hour-and-a-Half

This very morning Loralee got out of bed much earlier than she wanted to, got dressed very fast, and rushed off to catch her bus without having any breakfast. Fortunately she made it to the bus stop with a whole minute to spare—she would be ten minutes early for school today!  But just as she reached the bus stop sign, she remembered that she'd left her homework at home.

She turned around and trudged back home to get her thumb-drive and then headed back to catch the next bus; now she would be five minutes late for school.  She walked away with Lindsey, who was on her way to school.  As they rounded the corner, Loralee stepped on the one, tiny patch of ice that had not melted in the sunshine.  She fell crashing to her right knee.

"Ow!" Loralee hollered.  "Ouch, ow, owie, ow, ow, owwww!"

She could not stand up because her hurt knee didn't want to bend, and her other foot was still sliding around on the ice.  She got her school bag untangled from her hand, crawled over to the curb, and rolled up her pant leg to look at her knee. It was very scraped up.

Lindsey was very worried. "Are you all right Mom?" she asked.

"No!"

"Can I do something for you?"

"No, Lindsey, you'd better get to school."

Loralee sat on the curb for a minute holding her leg and trying not to cry, then she got up and hobbled back home.  She went up to her bedroom where Bruce was getting ready for work and she threw herself on the bed.

"What happened?" Bruce asked.

"I slipped on some ice and fell on my knee. I hate school and I hate taking the bus! I'm tired of being tired all the time! I am always late for this first class, no matter what I do! And my knee hurts."  Loralee started to cry.

Bruce was sad.  He cried too. Loralee felt bad for making him sad.

Finally Loralee got off the bed and went into the bathroom to wash her knee.  Then she went out to catch the next bus. Now she would be twenty minutes late for school.  Loralee was very sad.  When she was seated on the bus she started to cry again.  Her knee hurt her very much. She felt like a silly three-year-old crying about a scraped knee. She tried not to cry.

When she got to the train station, she started crying again. She felt very silly.

At last Loralee got to her class. She had finished crying by the time she got there; she was glad because she didn't want anyone to see her crying about a scraped knee.  Her school work took her mind off of her owie knee and her crummy morning.  She felt better.

By the time Loralee went home in the afternoon her knee was stiff and swollen, but she felt much happier.  Bruce was more cheerful too. They had hamburgers for dinner and banana cream pie for dessert.  They felt much better.

Thank goodness some ordeals only last an hour-and-a-half.
And for banana cream pie!