(no subject)
People keep asking me how I broke my leg, so here's the story:
So, it all started Friday night. I was taking a long hike in the Cascades when I heard a distressed yelling. I looked up slope to see, careening towards me at great speed across the pristine snow, a house. Now this was no normal house, it was a genuine, three story, Tudor mansion and it was on fire. Thinking nothing of my own safety I plunged head first through one of the bay windows as the building shot past me.
I stumbled about, slightly disoriented by my sudden entry, my eyes already becoming bleary with smoke. The flames curled about me, licking at my heels when I was shaken from my stupor by the cry of a child. Knowing that I had no time to lose, I leaped into action, darting up the crumbling inferno that was once a staircase. I burst into the room bewildered to see, not one child, but an entire room full of beds. I was in an orphanage. I swept the nearest two children up off of their feet and cleared the stairs in a single bound, pushing the sobbing angels out the door as gently as I could onto the snow as we skidded faster and faster down the hill.
Back and forth I went, carrying the children two by two, becoming weaker and weaker each time until the I was very nearly out the door with the last child. Before I could make my way to safety the little girl sobbed, "No! My puppy is still up-upstaiws!!" My eyes darted in the direction the house was moving. Everything was blurry as I'd lost my glasses in rush, but there was only one thing that expanse of emptiness ahead of us could mean. Hardening my heart, I knew there was only one thing I could do. I set the girl outside the door and she skidded to gentle halt into a snow drift as I plunged once again into the blazing mansion.
Fighting my way up first one flight of stairs, then another I found myself in a wide open space. What was once an attic playroom had turned into a nightmarish scene from the bowels of hell itself. Struggling past flaming teddy bears, a doll who babbled ceaselessly as he plastic flesh melted away. It was almost too much to bear for me, I began to despair, lose hope. I stumbled to my knees, crawling through piles of toys. I passed through a mess of wooden blocks, sure that their colorful letters, no longer distinguishable by my blind eyes, spelled out the tauntings of an angel of death. It was then that I heard that faint whimpering and knew that my task was almost over.
From some reserve previously unknown to me I summoned the energy to stand once more, snatching the frightened puppy into my arms. I dashed towards the window readying myself to leap into the snow below. As my body tensed to leap, I felt the world drop away. The house had flown off of the precipice I had seen earlier. In that instant, as my forward momentum carried me through the attic window.
I fell in slow motion, weak limbs flailing as I held the small life close to my chest. Luck! My hand grabbed hold of the freezing, crumbling stone edge above me, but with the dog in my other hand I knew I could never climb to safety. I reached above myself and set the shivering ball of warmth on the ledge just as the rock in my other hand gave way.
I fell.
I fell.
I fell . . .
. . . into a pothole in the alley across the street while walking to Kai's house. Fractured a bone in my ankle and another in my foot. No joke.
So, it all started Friday night. I was taking a long hike in the Cascades when I heard a distressed yelling. I looked up slope to see, careening towards me at great speed across the pristine snow, a house. Now this was no normal house, it was a genuine, three story, Tudor mansion and it was on fire. Thinking nothing of my own safety I plunged head first through one of the bay windows as the building shot past me.
I stumbled about, slightly disoriented by my sudden entry, my eyes already becoming bleary with smoke. The flames curled about me, licking at my heels when I was shaken from my stupor by the cry of a child. Knowing that I had no time to lose, I leaped into action, darting up the crumbling inferno that was once a staircase. I burst into the room bewildered to see, not one child, but an entire room full of beds. I was in an orphanage. I swept the nearest two children up off of their feet and cleared the stairs in a single bound, pushing the sobbing angels out the door as gently as I could onto the snow as we skidded faster and faster down the hill.
Back and forth I went, carrying the children two by two, becoming weaker and weaker each time until the I was very nearly out the door with the last child. Before I could make my way to safety the little girl sobbed, "No! My puppy is still up-upstaiws!!" My eyes darted in the direction the house was moving. Everything was blurry as I'd lost my glasses in rush, but there was only one thing that expanse of emptiness ahead of us could mean. Hardening my heart, I knew there was only one thing I could do. I set the girl outside the door and she skidded to gentle halt into a snow drift as I plunged once again into the blazing mansion.
Fighting my way up first one flight of stairs, then another I found myself in a wide open space. What was once an attic playroom had turned into a nightmarish scene from the bowels of hell itself. Struggling past flaming teddy bears, a doll who babbled ceaselessly as he plastic flesh melted away. It was almost too much to bear for me, I began to despair, lose hope. I stumbled to my knees, crawling through piles of toys. I passed through a mess of wooden blocks, sure that their colorful letters, no longer distinguishable by my blind eyes, spelled out the tauntings of an angel of death. It was then that I heard that faint whimpering and knew that my task was almost over.
From some reserve previously unknown to me I summoned the energy to stand once more, snatching the frightened puppy into my arms. I dashed towards the window readying myself to leap into the snow below. As my body tensed to leap, I felt the world drop away. The house had flown off of the precipice I had seen earlier. In that instant, as my forward momentum carried me through the attic window.
I fell in slow motion, weak limbs flailing as I held the small life close to my chest. Luck! My hand grabbed hold of the freezing, crumbling stone edge above me, but with the dog in my other hand I knew I could never climb to safety. I reached above myself and set the shivering ball of warmth on the ledge just as the rock in my other hand gave way.
I fell.
I fell.
I fell . . .
. . . into a pothole in the alley across the street while walking to Kai's house. Fractured a bone in my ankle and another in my foot. No joke.