Trying To Get Stronger

I did as I was told to. I waited at home and got better over the next two days. Catherine was worried about me the entire time, so she stayed with me and forced me to do some exercises.

I had never actually done any exercising in my life, any of my lives. I mean, I had physical therapy in my old life to keep my circulation flowing and all that, but it mostly consisted of people moving my limbs for me. I never did it myself. And since I was healthy in this life, until recently, I never had to do any here. Playing around as a normal kid was exercise enough for me.

Still, I knew what types of exercises to do based on what I read and watched back in my Adelaide days. I just needed to do that here, or so I thought. The exercises that Catherine was telling me to do were nothing at all like the ones that I knew about. I had to wonder if she even knew what she was talking about since she was a little kid, or was I the weird one here?

I didn't know, but I was determined to get stronger no matter what. That meant that I was going to exercise the way that I knew and the way that Catherine told me to. I was doing twice the exercise so that I could get twice as strong.

Well, that was my plan at least. By the time that I was halfway through the second set of exercises I ended up getting a very painful muscle cramp in my leg and fell to the ground.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow." I howled in pain as I rolled around in the grass.

"Addie? Are you OK!?" Catherine was scared and nearly screamed the words at me.

The volume of the words that she had screamed had been loud enough to reach Mom in the house as well as Dad and Arthur in the store out front. All three of them came running out of their respective buildings with fear in their eyes.

"Addison!"

"Addie!"

"What happened, sweetheart?"

All three of them ran to my side and were looking down at me with concern while I tried my best to stop the look of pain that I knew was going to be on my face.

"I..i..it's nothing." I stammered through the words. I stuttered a little when speaking because of the pain as well as the embarrassment that I was feeling right now. They were going to think that I was too sick and weak to work now, weren't they?

"This isn't nothing, you're in pain." Mom knelt next to me and attempted to help me but didn't know what to do.

"N..n..no, really, I am fine." I smiled at them and willed myself to not feel the pain. "I was just trying to get some exercise in before Mr. Briar comes back in a couple of days. I wanted to get stronger, but I pushed myself too hard. I got a cramp in my leg, that really is all it was."

"What's cramp?" Arthur asked, tilting his head in confusion.

"O..oh, you know, when your muscle is all sore and feels like it is squeezing and twisting." I guess since I had never actually had one here, I didn't know what they were called. How the heck did I not know that yet. I have been fully aware here for years now. Well, I guess I was limited to my experiences.

"Oh, she got a twisty." Dad laughed. "I don't know where you got the word cramp, but what you're describing is a twisty. You made me so worried." He pulled me to him and sighed in relief. "Please don't scare me like that." He was holding me against him, cradling my head against his chest.

"He's right, Adds, don't scare us like that." Arthur grimaced when I pulled away from Dad, a scared and worried look still in his eyes. "I am your big brother. I don't want to think about you being sick or hurt."

"Are we sure that is all it is?" Mom didn't look convinced at all. "Should we send her back to bed? Should we call Mr. Briar back over here?"

"No, Mom, I really am fine. I promise you."

"I don't know, Addison. You're so recently better. Are you sure that you don't need to take it easy for a little while longer? I don't want you getting sick again. I would be heartbroken if something were to happen to you again.

It took a while, but I kept at it and eventually Mom understood that I was fine. She was finally able to calm down quite a bit and let me get back to work. Though I was told that I was not allowed to exercise any more that day, so I was just sitting outside and getting some fresh air. That would help me somewhat as well.

I had sat in the yard with Catherine for a while, talking about the excitement that was going to be part of my life soon. She was excited to see me become a healer as well.

"You won't have to worry if you get sick again. You can make yourself better next time." She was smiling at me. I don't think she realized that if I got the withering flu again, I wouldn't be able to heal myself. I know she was just excited that I was awake and better though, so I didn't bother to correct her right now. She was a sweet little girl. Shortly after that she rushed into the house to help Mom cook dinner. I was alone for the time being.

I was once again sitting near the stream, the same place I had been when I had gotten sick before. This time, I wasn't focusing on anything that might cause me to think too hard or anything like that. Right now, I was just trying to remember as much as I could from my previous life.

I was going to be learning healing from Mr. Briar. That meant that I was most likely going to be learning how to make remedies and poultices, and all those other natural remedies that people had to rely on before there was modern medicine back on earth.

I tried to remember what I knew about herbal and folk medicine. I had read a book about this stuff back when I was about sixteen, it had talked a lot about the ways that herbs, flowers, and plants were used to treat people back in the old days.

"Hmm, let's see what do I remember from what I read in my Adelaide times? I remember chamomile calms people; it helps with anxiety and helps you to relax when you drink it. However, it can help with swelling if you make it into a compress. Echinacea is good for colds, infections, and the lungs. Garlic helps with swelling and is an antimicrobial. Ginger helps with the digestive system. Valerian is used to calm you and help with insomnia. I can't remember more than that, though. I wish that book was here with me right now. I would reread it so I could study up on it some more."

"What book?" I didn't expect that someone was going to come up behind me. That about scared me to death, and I felt my heart jump so hard that it felt like it had jumped right out of my chest.