Page 32 of The Mentor
“A girl pushed him backward and he landed on his rear. It wasn’t directly in the flames but more on the embers around it; still his pants caught on fire and I put it out with dirt.” Marco explained.
Finn’s dark brown eyes were full of sympathy when he carefully took William’s left hand and cleaned it before applying an antibiotic cream. “And you used this hand to push up from the embers?” he asked.
The boy nodded and flinched with pain from Finn’s touching the burned hand.
“All right, here we go,” Finn said and applied fish skin on top of the burn wound.
“Why fish skin?” Marco asked and leaned closer to see better.
“This isn't just ordinary fish skin,” Finn explained. “This is sterilized skin from the tilapia fish. It has high quantities of collagen proteins. Much higher than in human skin. It provides a protective layer that blocks outside contamination and helps keep the moisture and protein in.” He kept working with precise movements. “Trust me, this stuff works miracles and will have William back to teasing the girls in no time.”
“I’ve never heard of this fish.”
“That’s because they can’t survive in our cold waters. We get these from a supplier that breeds them in aquariums.”
“Thank you,” I said to Finn, grateful to this man who had always been nice to me, and was now helping heal William.
“No problem,” Finn worked with concentration, first on William’s hand and next on his back and buttocks. When he covered the last part of the burn wound, his fingers traveled along the edges of the fish skin on William’s back. “How do you feel?” he asked the boy.
William dried his eyes with his right hand, raising his head up to look at Finn. “Better,” he said with a voice still shaking from all the crying.
“Good.” Finn got up to his full height and tousled William’s hair with a hand while smiling at the boy. “I'm going to leave some strong painkillers with Archer, but I think the best thing for you right now is to find a comfortable bed and get some sleep.” Finn turned to look at me. “Make sure he sleeps on his belly.”
I nodded solemnly. “Marco and I can take turns watching him tonight.”
Carefully, I had William hanging on my shoulder, making sure that I only touched his lower legs, when I carried him to the teacher's bedroom.
“I'll take the first shift,” Marco said and I patted his shoulder.
“I'll set my alarm for two thirty; that way we can at least get three hours of sleep each.”
When I got outside, the atmosphere was tense. Finn was speaking with Khan, Pearl, and Magni while all the children were quietly looking at me with visible concern on their faces. My eyes fell on Sky and anger welled up inside of me. The eleven-year-old girl stood under Kya's arm with eyes red-rimmed from crying.
“Is William going to be okay?” Raven asked and sniffled as if she too had been crying.
“Yes, William will be all right,” I muttered and kept staring at Sky, who quickly hid her face against Kya’s side as if she could hide from what she had done. “William has a bad burn but Finn treated him and gave him something for the pain. There’s nothing you can do tonight, so it's best if you all go to sleep now. We can talk about this tomorrow.” There were no objections from the kids. They just quietly did their nightly ritual and found their beds.
We adults stayed up a while longer, still shaken from what had happened.
“How long will it take to heal?” Kya asked Finn and folded her lower lip between her teeth.
“Normally about eleven days, maybe sooner since kids heal faster than adults.”
“Should we clean his wounds daily?” Her eyebrows were drawn in. “Will he have scars?”
“We’ll see about the scarring, but no, you won’t have to do anything. I applied tilapia pads and they will stay on until his skin has healed underneath.
“And how can we tell if his skin has healed?”
“The tilapia will dry out and fall off,” Finn explained. “Isn’t that how you treat burn wounds in the Motherlands?”
“No,” she said and cleared her throat. “It wouldn’t be legal for us to use the skin of a fish since that would involve killing the fish.”
“Ah, yes, Athena told me. What was it she called it?” He looked up as if to remember a conversation from long ago. “Speciesism, right?”
Pearl looked over. “That’s right, we don’t believe in killing anyone. Humans or animals.”
While Finn, Khan, and Magni engaged in a heated discussion about speciesism, I kept out of it.
