Skip & Scab

My dad gave me a nickname when I was very young.  For all the things that happened to me, against all odds, I was a happy child most of the time.  It was reflected in my cheerful skipping.  Everywhere I went I would skip, upstairs, downstairs, in the driveway, porch, park, but never at school.  I was a very shy person in public, but at home I was safe to be me.  So dad called me Skip.  One day as I was skipping down the back steps, which were cement steps, I tripped and it was not pretty.  I cried and cried because it hurt of course but also because I was bleeding.  The corner of the step poked a hole in my leg.  My dad came running out of the house to check on my death curdling sobs.  He picked me up and carried back into the house to clean the wound and bandage my leg.  Dad liked the old fashioned doctor remedy of putting turpentine on the scraps and the bleeding hole in my leg because it supposedly would help the wound scab over and heal quicker.  When he came back with the can of turpentine I almost came unglued!!  What was he going to do to me?  He  used this to clean paint brushes, I watched him many times.  My panic was escalating and I just knew it would burn and sting horribly!!!  Well, he let me carry on for about 2 minutes before he looked up at me and in his deep impatient voice yelled for me to stop my caterwauling to firmly assure me it was not going to hurt.  I tried to push the can of turpentine away, but dad said I had a choice to let him finish or get a spanking.  So I closed my wet eyes as tight as possible and waited for the screams of pain.  Surprise, it wasn't smarting, stinging or anything!!  I opened my eyes and looked at dad and he looked at me then said I told you it would not hurt!!  Long story short, my knees and leg scabbed over and healed within a week.  So after this I learned to trust dad even when I wasn't sure he was right.  Within seconds of my first turpentine application I was up and skipping everywhere again.  Thanks dad!