That Hideous Thing

Thursday, September 21st, 2017

Several months ago my finger got smashed between a twelve inch steel pipe and a large wooden skid. Although I was wearing leather impact-resistant gloves, it still cracked my fingernail and caused some bleeding. And then, those words were spoken, predicting the future quite accurately: "That's gonna fall off in a couple months." Sure enough, they proved true, and today was the day. The nail had already been limping around half ripped off for some time, but now, with a finally tug and pull, I managed to yank it off. O what joy and satisfaction filled my heart! I was free! No longer would I have to worry about it causing me pain whenever I stuck it in my pocket to retrieve something, or when I bumped it and it got caught on something. Naturally, I wanted to show off my good fortune to everybody. Bobby was right there, so I showed him. He was like, "Yeah I saw you pulling it off." So then I showed it to Bradley, and he gazed in wonder at the sight of my now bare finger. After that I showed it to Christy and Charli, who grimaced at the sight but were interested in the tip of my finger where a nail should be but wasn't. After that I showed it to Lucy, who ran screaming and yelling to another part of the room. Apparently the sight didn't delight her that much. Brooke and Anna shared her opinion. Anna turned her back to me while saying, "I don't even know why we're friends Leaf!" Brooke was like, "Yeah that's kind of nasty." I liked the whole spectrum of responses to my show-and-tell. Definitely worth it. There's not many responses that would displease me actually, and I suppose that's part of what made it so funny: you never know whether they'll want to inspect your finger or run off crying into the wilderness at the sheer hideousness of it. Either way, I'll be laughing inside.