"Mama!"
"What is it, Michael? I just got your brother down for a nap," Madeline turned around, and her expression softened as she saw five year old Michael standing there, tears in his eyes, and something cupped between his hands, "what's wrong?"
"I didn't mean to break him!" He exclaimed teafully, "I was just trying to pick him up!"
"What have you got there?" she asked cautiously. Michael had been known to bring all kinds of dangerous wildlife into the house including, once, a baby coral snake.
"A lizard? Just one of the little ones."
"All right. Can I see?"
"If I open my hands he'll get away."
"I'll just take a peek then." She knelt down and looked through a small gap between his fingers. Sure enough, he was holding a small brown anole, although there was nothing wring with it that she could see.
"He doesn't look broken to me. Where's he broken?"
"His tail came off..." Michael recoiled reflexively, as though he expected to be punished for revealing this detail.
Madeline thought for a moment. "I think I know what to do. I'll bandage his tail back on. How does that sound?"
"Okay, he paused, considering, "but Mama, he's so wriggly. I don't think he'll hold still while you fix him."
"I know what to do about that! Stay there, I'm going to get an ice cube."
Michael's eyes widened, but he stood as still as he could while his mother got a piece of ice out of the freezer.
"Open your hands...a little more...there." She slid the ice cube into his hands quickly, before the lizard could escape. "Now we just need to wait a minute." She counted to 15 in her head, while Michael stared at his hands.
"You can open your hands now, it's okay, he won't run away."
Michael did so, slowly, to find the little lizard completely still in his hands, althing with a slowly melting ice cube and the broken off tail. Its eyes were closed, and its sides didn't move in and out the way he was used to seeing when he played with them.
"Is he dead?" He asked.
"No. Being cold makes lizards go to sleep. He's just fine."
Madeline lifted the lizard carefully by the base of what remained of its tail. She set it down on the kitchen table, and got out a roll of guaze and another one of medical tape. "Now, give me his tail."
Michael handed it over, and watched in awe as Madeline held it to the place where it had broken off, and wrapped the gauze tightly around the place where the touched, securing it with a piece of tape.
She gave the still unconscious lizard back to Michael. "There. Good as new. Why don't you go put him out on the front porch, so he can get back into nature when he wakes up?"
"He's all better now?" asked Michael uncertaintly.
"All better."