07 IV 2002 - 18:03 - trivialis36

This is for the fifth Alchera monthly project. For April, this is the second option; I think I'll be doing both over the next two months because I can't really do the eighth weekly challenge...

Carefully observe your body from head to toe. Note every scar you have, and tell each scar's story. How did it get there? How much did it hurt? What events surrounded the whole shabang? Et cetera, et cetera... When you submit your piece, please include the total number of scars somewhere. And, you know, if there are places you can't quite see, you're more than welcome to just assume there aren't any scars there, or you're more than welcome to have someone look for you.

So.

I don't have many scars; I'm young enough that most have faded, and things I remember quite clearly as causing pain (skinning my knee after I fell off the bicycle in the first abortive attempt to learn how to ride it, for instance) haven't really left their mark. I'm left with only three scars that are even faintly visible - two on my right leg and one on my nose.

The first scar is a diagonal slash across my shin on the instep side of the leg; it used to be bright red, but now it's only a grey discoloration, the mark of an ash-coated branch that was in my path when I was hiking once. It didn't hurt when it cut me - what was the worst was trying to dig the ash out of the cut with what amounted to one of the alcohol-soaked napkins they give you at certain fast-food restaurants. (Still, skinning my knee was worse, and it lasted for much longer, too.)

The second scar, a small red mark in the center of my right knee, is from the time I took a pot off the stove, put it on the floor because I didn't have any room, then knelt a little too close to it when trying to get the flour for the cake I was also making. It's not the brightest thing I've ever done. My knee met the pot's edge, and thus was the red mark born. It hurt a little bit, sharply, but not too much and was soon gone; again, skinning my knee was worse.

The last scar sits at the edge of my right nostril. Shaving in the shower, where I have no mirror or glasses with which to see myself clearly, is sort of a foolhardy undertaking, but most of the time, it's the only thing I have time for. Because I hold the razor with my left hand, the right nostril gets all the abuse, which means that there's usually some trace of a cut there. (I suppose it's not technically a scar, just a really long-lasting cut. But most of the time you can catch me with a mark there, so in it goes.) This again is one of those cuts where there's a momentary flash of pain which then fades. Nothing to worry about. Although it's not one of the things I enjoy, much like a papercut.

Three scars. Ha. I have more interesting calluses; there are ones on each heel (because I don't take care of my feet), ones on all the fingertips of my left hand (from the strings of my cello), one at the joint of my left thumb (ditto), one on my left ring finger's first joint (on the back, from a pencil), one on the surface of my right thumb (from pizzicato and holding the bow), and a permanently marked spot on my chest where the cello rests... there are more, but this was supposed to be the scar entry, and somehow it got away from me.

Until later, then - take care.