oh, what a day (Cycle Paper #5)

It has been almost nine years and I still have the torn-up scar on my right foot.  You can still see the faded outline of the jaw that clenched into my skin.  

On my spring break vacation on Molokai'i, my brother, Bobby, his friend, Shaw, and I went down to the beach to hang out.  There were plenty of small fish swimming around the reef that we thought would be fun to catch.  We grabbed our reef walkers and got ready to go.  But there was one problem: we only had two pairs of reef walkers and three people.  Of course the two boys got the reef walkers and I was left with nothing.  Not the one to be left out, I went along anyways, but completely barefoot.  I was alright with it and didn't think much of what could happen, but come on, I was seven years old. 

Well, at the time when I was young and stupid, there seemed to be a lot of dry rocks around that I could climb on easily enough, so off we went.  Soon after we departed I realized this certainly wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  I guess from far away, the rocks looked harmless, but up close and personal, they were slippery from the saltwater and algae growing on them. It was hard to keep a grip on the surface of the rocks with my tiny feet, I realized that at any moment I could fall over into the water.  Anyways, for some reason or another, I didn't stop but continued on.

"Look at this!" I heard my brother exclaim from ahead.  I lost my intense focus and looked up to see what was going on.  In that short time of lost focus, I managed to slip and get my right foot stuck between two rocks.  I pulled at it but it seemed to be really stuck.  I wasn't as freaked out as I probably should've been in that situation but I was seven and thought I was invincible.  I counted to three and pulled at it with all my might, finally it slipped out.  I thought nothing of it and didn't even look down to notice that my foot was covered in blood.  My brother saw my struggling and came back to help.  As he got closer, his eyes grew big and were looking directly at the foot.  

"Uh, whatcha lookin' at?" I asked.

"Look at your foot!" He yelled. 

I looked down for the first time since pulling my foot out from between those two rocks, and was shocked.  What I saw was a bloody, torn-up mess.  At that moment,  I suddenly felt all the pain I should have felt from the beginning.  It was as if someone was continuously stabbing my foot with a million needles at once.  I was too freaked by everything to wonder why I hadn't felt it before, but all I wanted to do was get out of there. 

I cried and yelled for someone to come get me.  My auntie, Shaw's mom, came over to see what all the commotion was about.  I pointed to my foot and was suddenly lifted off my feet and heading back towards shore.  My mom took one look at my foot and freaked out, telling someone to call 911.  A couple minutes later, I could faintly hear the sirens of the ambulance coming to fetch me. 

For some reason, I was rushed to the hospital but then was forced to wait for three hours before I went into surgery.  On the entire island of Molokai'i, sadly enough there is only one doctor and he was busy with another patient when I came in.  Waiting for only hours was excruciating and unbearable, it actually felt like days.  When it was finally my time to go into surgery, I just wanted it to be done with quickly so I could go home.  I took a series of five shots throughout the two-hour surgery to numb my foot so I couldn't feel the 36 stitches being weaved into my skin.  I was told that I was lucky I pulled my foot out when I did because the eel was close to ripping my pinky toe completely off my foot, to be lost forever.  Thinking back, that would've really sucked if I did lose it but I guess I could've been worse also.

Even though it may be hard to believe, I am somewhat proud of my scar.  I hope it doesn't fade of disappear as I grow older because it's the only physical proof that I have from it.  It is something that sets me apart from everyone else I know and I have yet to meet anyone with anything like it.