Injuries, Or 'The Universe Has A Sense Of Humor'
I'm missing two fingerprints on my right hand. On my middle and ring fingers I have bubbly scar tissue instead of prints. There's very little nerve damage; I could probably read braille with those fingers, if I read braille, but it looks strange.
It's supposed to be impossible to burn off fingerprints. Even under scar tissue, they grow back. I was about a year and a half old when I touched a woodstove with wet fingers; I don't remember it.
When I was eight, a yellowjacket stung my left eyelid. I got stung all over my body, actually--I wandered into a nest in the middle of a raspberry patch and it took me a while to extricate myself--and my hands swelled up like baseball gloves; I was itching for a week. Everything else healed. There's no visible damage to my eyes, but when I smile my eyelids are lopsided.
When I was sixteen, I rolled my mother's station wagon three times down a steep hillside at 45 mph. The worst injuries I had were the bruises on the insides of my fingers from gripping the steering wheel.
It's supposed to be impossible to burn off fingerprints. Even under scar tissue, they grow back. I was about a year and a half old when I touched a woodstove with wet fingers; I don't remember it.
When I was eight, a yellowjacket stung my left eyelid. I got stung all over my body, actually--I wandered into a nest in the middle of a raspberry patch and it took me a while to extricate myself--and my hands swelled up like baseball gloves; I was itching for a week. Everything else healed. There's no visible damage to my eyes, but when I smile my eyelids are lopsided.
When I was sixteen, I rolled my mother's station wagon three times down a steep hillside at 45 mph. The worst injuries I had were the bruises on the insides of my fingers from gripping the steering wheel.