Halloween Hands

One Halloween, Dr. Vandyk was on duty in the emergency room when a young man came in with both of his hands injured. It was one of the Flinn boys. For some reason Dr. Vandyke had always called the brothers “The Flying Flinns.”

We quite frequently saw the Flinn boys for various injuries. It wasn’t that they were abused, but accidents just seemed to seek them out and find them. They looked a lot like peas in a pod, except they weren’t green. Each one had sandy, red hair and a wide scattering of freckles spread over their cheeks.

When we looked at the Flinn boy’s hands and they were abraded, bruised, and generally mutilated. The doctor ordered x-rays. While we were cleaning both of his hands and waiting for the x-ray tech, he began to share his tale.

“I was working at a haunted house tonight. I had huge rubber feet, rubber hands and a big, bushy wig that partially covered my face.”

We could see that the clothing he was wearing were old and tattered with red paint smeared on them to simulate blood.

“Two gay guys came into the maze of the house. All of us tried our hardest to really scare them.  I could hear them coming closer down the darkened hallway. The one was saying, ‘Oh, Frankie! I’m so scared! Frankie, hold me, I’m so scared!’ and I thought, ‘Here’s where I get them.’ Just as they reached the doorway to come into my room, I slapped both of my hands on the door frame and howled as loud as I could. I heard an ‘OH, FRANKIE!!’ and the guy slammed the door on my fingers. Now, I really did scream. I had a reason to yell. My hollering must have scared them, because they ran through my room and disappeared into the darkness beyond. Now, I’m here to see whether or not they broke my fingers.

When the x-ray films came back, He only had a small non-displaced fracture that we dressed his wounds, splinted the finger, and sent him home. It took all we could do to keep from laughing while we were treating him. The Flinn kid was obviously in pain, but what a story he can tell his grandkids.