Caught in the Car Couplers

The drawheads came together with a loaded cut behind them, and your hand was in the gap. What you pulled back is not shaped like a hand anymore: the bones gone to gravel inside a glove of skin, blood welling black at the nail beds that remain. The doctor probes once by lamplight, goes quiet, and lays out the saw beside the silk. He will fight for the wrist, but mortification does not bargain, and every man in the room knows what the sweet smell would mean.

• The right hand is lost or in the losing: no use of it whatsoever, the arm bound to the chest until the doctor rules
• Bedridden the first 2 days with shock and laudanum, then up only with help for a week
• No riding, roping, shooting, or yard work for 6 weeks at the least, longer if the saw is used
• /me cradles a bound and shapeless bundle where the right hand was, breath hissing through the teeth

Recovery Weeks before the verdict, months before the arm serves again, and the hand itself only if fortune and the doctor both hold.·Doctor, urgently

The faces caught you across the knuckles and ground shut. The doctor saves the hand, working an hour by lamplight with silk and carbolic, but the first two fingers of it are crushed past any argument, the bone in splinters and the flesh already going dark. He splints what can be splinted and tells you plain: those two will not come back to life, and taking them clean now beats waiting on the rot.

• Right hand splinted and bound: no gripping, carrying, or shooting with it for 3 weeks
• Daily carbolic washes and fresh wrappings; any blackening or sweet smell goes straight to the doctor
• One-handed at every task: buttons, reins, and rope all take twice the time
• /me holds a splinted hand chest-high, the first two fingers wrapped thick and stiff

Recovery Three weeks splinted, six before the hand grips, and the two fingers answer to fate.·Doctor, urgently

You got the fingers clear but the flat of the hand did not follow. The drawheads pinched palm and back together for one grinding heartbeat before the cut rebounded, and the small bones in there moved like shot in a sack when the doctor pressed. He molds the hand around a rolled bandage, splints it front and back, and says the shape it heals in is the shape you keep, so mind the splint.

• Right hand splinted around a bandage roll, useless for gripping anything for 4 weeks
• No riding except at a walk with the reins in the off hand for 2 weeks
• Swelling checked morning and night; wrappings loosened if the fingertips go cold or dark
• /me carries a hand splinted into a half-closed fist, wrapped from fingertips to wrist

Recovery Four weeks in the splint, then a summer of squeezing a rag ball before the grip comes back honest.·Doctor required

The faces did not meet flush, and that crooked mercy spared your bones the worst of it, but the edge dragged the skin off the back of your hand from knuckles to wrist as you tore free. Two long bones underneath are cracked besides. The doctor lays the flap back like a page, flushes the coal grit out with carbolic that makes you sing, and sets thirty small stitches of silk by lamplight.

• Back of the right hand stitched from knuckles to wrist: no spreading the fingers wide for 10 days or the silk pulls
• Hand splinted straight and carried in a sling for 2 weeks, no lifting with it
• Wound kept dry and wrapped; grit, pus, or red streaks up the arm go to the doctor at once
• /me favors a stitched and splinted right hand, the wrapping stained yellow with carbolic

Recovery Stitches out in 10 to 12 days, the cracked bones knit in 5 weeks, the scar stays for good.·Doctor required

You snatched back at the last instant and the faces caught just the ends of you. The first three fingers are broken at the last joint, the nails already the color of stove iron and throbbing with every heartbeat. The doctor burns a hole through each nail with a needle heated in the lamp to let the blood out, which hurts less than you would swear it must, then splints the three together in a leather stall.

• First three fingers of the right hand splinted together for 2 weeks, no fine work with them
• No gripping a rope, rein, or pistol butt with the right hand for 10 days
• The nails will blacken and shed; kept wrapped and clean until they do
• /me holds up three fingers splinted in a single leather stall, waving with the other hand

Recovery Two weeks splinted, and the new nails a season coming in.·Doctor required

The pinch caught the edge of your hand as you twisted clear. The ring and little fingers snapped between the faces, and the knuckle above them split open on the iron to show white. The doctor pulls each finger straight while you grip the table edge, hears the small click of the bones seating, and sets the pair in a wood splint with a silk stitch in the knuckle for luck.

• Ring and little finger of the left hand splinted for 3 weeks, no gripping with that side of the hand
• One stitch in the knuckle: no dirty work bare-handed until it comes out in 8 days
• Card playing, penmanship, and rifle work all done clumsy or not at all for 2 weeks
• /me rests a hand on the table with its two outside fingers bound stiff and straight

Recovery Three weeks splinted, and a month more before the grip stops being shy.·Doctor required

Everything came clear but the thumb, and the faces kissed it as they closed. It came out of its socket and cracked besides, standing off your hand at an angle no thumb should hold. The doctor braces against the table, pulls until it seats with a clunk you feel in your teeth, and binds it to a splint whittled to the curve of your hand.

• Right thumb splinted and bound to the hand for 3 weeks: no pinch grip, no buckles, no hammer
• Mounting a horse is a left-hand affair for 2 weeks
• Splint checked and rewrapped every third day, sooner if the thumb tip goes cold
• /me works a buckle one-handed, a splinted thumb standing rigid out of the wrappings

Recovery Three weeks bound, then careful use, with full strength in the pinch by 8 weeks.·Doctor required

You tore the hand out as the gap closed and the iron kept your glove, but the wrenching of it did the damage: something in the wrist gave with a crunch, and by the time you walked to the yard shack the joint had swollen to fill your sleeve. The doctor turns it gently, finds the grate of cracked bone under his thumbs, and binds it to a slat from knuckles to mid forearm.

• Left wrist splinted from hand to mid forearm for 4 weeks, no weight through it at all
• No coupling work, roping, or lifting; light one-handed tasks only for a month
• Sling worn when moving about so the arm does not swing
• /me keeps a splinted wrist tucked against the belt, turning the whole body to reach for things

Recovery Four weeks in the splint, stiff and weak for two more after it comes off.·Doctor required

Some old instinct fired and you snatched the hand back as the faces slammed home. The iron got a lick in anyway: knuckles skinned raw down to the shine and a bone bruise across the back of the hand that aches clear to the elbow. The yard doctor picks the grit out, swabs it with carbolic, and tells you that hand owes its life to half a second.

• Back of the right hand bruised deep: no hard gripping or punching for 5 days
• Knuckles wrapped and kept out of the muck for 4 days
• /me flexes a wrapped hand slowly, wincing at the deep ache in the bones

Recovery The ache fades in 5 or 6 days, and the knuckles scab and peel inside a week.·Doctor advised

The leather glove caught between the faces and dragged your fingers in after it before you tore loose. The glove is part of the coupling now, pressed thin as paper, and your fingers came out whole but crushed enough that two nails are already going dark. The doctor pronounces nothing broken after a long, mean bout of squeezing, and lets the nails be.

• Fingers of the left hand deeply bruised: no fine work, cards dealt slow, for 4 days
• No hard gripping of tools or reins with the left hand for 4 days
• Two nails going black; they will lift and shed over the coming weeks
• /me shows off two blackening fingernails like medals, flexing the bruised fingers gingerly

Recovery The bruising is done inside a week; the two black nails shed and regrow over a couple of months.·Doctor advised

The faces pinched you flat for the barest instant before the slack ran back out, and that instant was enough. Nothing broke, the doctor is sure of it after pressing every bone from fingertip to wrist, but the whole hand has swollen up like a proving loaf and gone the color of a storm sky by suppertime.

• Right hand swollen stiff: no closing it around anything smaller than a coffee mug for 4 days
• Hand carried high or slung to keep the swelling down for 2 days
• Cold creek water or a wet cloth laid on it three times a day
• /me rests a swollen, storm-colored hand on the table like a cut of meat

Recovery The swelling falls inside 4 or 5 days; the bruise takes two weeks to say its whole piece.·Doctor advised

Only the little finger stayed in the gap, and the iron treated it like a coupling pin. It jammed straight back into the hand, and now it will not bend and stands fat as a sausage. The doctor pulls it out to length, feels no true break in it, and buddies it to its neighbor with a strip of wax-stiffened linen.

• Little finger of the right hand bound to the ring finger for 8 days
• No roping or hard rein work with the right hand for a week
• /me deals cards around a little finger bound stiff to its neighbor

Recovery Eight days bound, limber again inside two weeks.·Doctor advised

You pulled clear with the flat of your palm taking the pinch edge-on. There is a blood blister across it now the size of a two-bit piece and a bruise beneath that goes to the bone, and closing the hand around a hammer handle is a thing you do once and then think better of for a few days.

• No tools, ropes, or reins gripped in the left palm for 4 days; fingertip work only
• Blister left whole if it can be; if it tears, washed with clean water and wrapped
• /me opens and closes a hand slowly around nothing, testing the bruised palm

Recovery The blister dries and peels in a week, the deep bruise a few days more.·Doctor advised

The faces closed on empty air a hair behind your hand, and the rough iron kissed your knuckles on the way out. Four of them are skinned shiny and weeping, the kind of hurt that is loudest in wash water, and the old hands at the yard do not even look up from their coffee.

• Skinned knuckles on the right hand: bar fights and bare-knuckle chores postponed 3 days
• Kept clean and dry, with a rag wrap for dirty work
• /me blows across a row of skinned knuckles before picking the coffee back up

Recovery Scabbed by tomorrow, healed rough in 4 or 5 days.·No doctor needed

The gap took the last half inch of you as you pulled away. Two fingertips are pinched purple and one nail is split down its middle, but every bone answers roll call when the doctor bends them. He trims the split nail, wraps the tips, and charges you two bits for the pleasure.

• Two fingertips of the left hand wrapped for 4 days; no fine sewing, gunsmithing, or lock work
• The split nail kept trimmed and covered until it grows off
• /me drums the table with one hand while two wrapped fingertips sit this one out

Recovery Tender for 4 or 5 days, and the split nail grown out in a month or two.·Doctor advised

You got the hand out clean because the whole rest of you hauled it out. The wrench of it went straight up the arm and into the shoulder, which now speaks to you every time you raise the hand above the heart. The hand itself has not a mark on it, which nobody at the yard will believe.

• Sore right shoulder: nothing lifted above shoulder height for 4 days
• No throwing a rope or a punch for 3 days
• /me rolls a sore shoulder in slow circles, holding up the unmarked hand as proof

Recovery The shoulder loosens in 4 or 5 days with light use.·No doctor needed

The glove paid the toll. The iron pinched a fold of good leather flat as a razor strop and your hand inside took a bruising through it, purple across the back but whole. The glove is done for. Gloves are cheaper than fingers, as the yardmaster is fond of saying over other men's stretchers.

• Back of the left hand bruised: no hard gripping with it for 3 days
• A new glove needed before the next shift of coupling work
• /me pulls a flattened, ruined glove from a pocket and lays it on the bar like evidence

Recovery The bruise yellows and quits inside a week.·No doctor needed

The slack ran out softer than it had any right to. The faces came together on your hand like a closing book and stopped short of the crush, held on the last inch by iron and providence. You slid the hand free with a red line across the back of it and stood there breathing while the whole yard went quiet.

• A red pressure line across the right hand; it stiffens by evening and is done in a day
• Coupling duty handed to somebody else for the rest of the shift, by order of your own nerves
• /me looks at a thin red line across the back of a hand that is still, remarkably, a hand

Recovery Stiff the next morning, forgotten the day after.·No doctor needed

The iron took hold of your glove and you left it there, your hand sliding out of the leather slick as a fish as the faces ground shut. The glove is coupled to the train now, flat as a pressed flower, and your bare hand does not carry so much as a scratch. Men keep asking to shake it for luck.

• Not a mark on you, though the hand shakes for an hour whenever the coffee is poured
• One glove short until the company store opens
• /me flexes a bare, unmarked hand, then glances back at the flattened glove in the coupling

Recovery Nothing to heal but the nerves, and whiskey handles those by nightfall.·No doctor needed

The cars slammed home with your hand between them, and every man on the yard heard it and turned away. But the pin held the drawheads a fraction proud, and the knuckles closed around the link and left one pocket of air in all that meeting iron, and your hand was living in it. You drew it out without a scratch, the coupling made behind it, and the yardmaster took off his hat. They will buy your drinks for a month on this one, and no two tellings of it will ever agree.

• Not one mark on the hand; the doctor checks it twice and finds nothing to bill for
• Your story is owed at every fire and barroom in the territory, and it grows in the telling
• The old brakemen touch your shoulder for luck before coupling, for the next month at least
• /me holds up a flawless hand to the light, turning it over slow, half expecting it to vanish

Recovery Nothing to recover but your breath, and that takes about a day.·No doctor needed