Embers

The summer before my senior year, Viv hosted a bonfire at her house during band camp and invited all the pit kids and battery kids that would generally come to such things. I remember showing up that night when it was still sunny and going, I think, though Viv's house and then out the back door and seeing Chloe playing with a stick on a rock, like trying to draw on the rock or something. I think this may also have been the night that Viv's parents weren't home, and I went into the house at some point and someone rang the doorbell so I answered it. It was Chloe's mom, and she asked if Chloe was there and I said yes and started to close the door but then she started to walk in the door and I knew that if she did she'd find out there weren't any parents home. So I blocked the door and told her to go around out back because that's where everyone was. Crisis averted.

Anyway. We were making smores at the fire that night. Of course, some kids like to set their marshmallows on fire. And some kids set their marshmallows on fire even if they don't like setting them on fire. In either case, Trisha was roasting a marshmallon at the end of a long stick and it caught on fire. I forget exactly where she was sitting, but I think it was with her back to the house. I would be sitting on her right, then, with my back facing the Bohr's house. When it caught on fire, instead of bringing it to her mouth calmly to blow it out, she started flailing it around in the air at the end of the stick. Which is great, because exposing things to oxygenated air is a surefire way to put fires out. Anyway, a bit of flaming marshmallow came off of the end of her stick and managed to land at the inside base of my left middle finger (between my knuckle and the lowest joint in the finger). It wasn't too much, like maybe a square centimeter. When it landed there I remember just being like "!!!!!!!!!!!" in my head, and I think I said "Oh, f**k!" I know that I definitely recoiled a good bit and ended up leaning backward till I could touch the ground (I was sitting on a bench).

When I sat back up I thought everything was pretty much okay. I looked around my hand and saw a couple little spots of black/brown stuff and started to pull it off slowly, but it was really hard to pull off. Viv asked me if I was okay and I said yeah, it didn't really hurt too badly at that point. I kept trying to pull it off and then about two minutes later the pain really kicked in. I had been caring for my finger more than talking for those minutes and then I remember loudly interrupting and begging for water or something to make it stop hurting so much. It really was fairly intense pain at that point (thank god it wasn't much area). I went up with Viv to get some ice and water on my hand as soon as possible. We got a big pitcher full of ice water for me to stick my hand in and brought it back down to the fire, telling people not to flail flaming marshmallows through the air anymore. Numbing my hand was also painful, so I would alternate between leaving my hand sitting out and numbing it to try to hit a middle ground that still cancelled out pain, which mostly worked.

At some point I remember Viv and maybe a few other people came inside and went on the computer with us to see what we should do about treating burns. I don't think it said much, and I don't think we found out later that ice wasn't a very good idea (although water is recommended).

I drove home - I forget if I brought ice or if I just tried to deal with it - and asked my mom (a nurse) what the hell I should do, and she basically just told me to numb it. I forget how late I stayed up that night but I had a pack of ice with me the entire time. I got myself a new pack of ice for when I went to bed and kept my left middle finger in it while I slept. I remember waking up with my finger resting on a ziplock bag of warm water under my pillow, which for some reason surprised me, but really isn't all that surprising I suppose.

I think we might have wrapped my finger the night before, and I remember when we looked at it in the morning my skin was raised about a half a centimeter over that entire area and filled with fluid. It looked like if you breated on it funny it would pop. I'm the type to pick at scabs and scars, but I was so afraid of what would happen if I picked this I actually managed not to touch it. We wrapped it and put ointment on it and I did my best not to aggrivate it.

I would like to thank Trisha right now for deactivating my left middle finger through band camp my senior year. Great time to lose it.

In about a week it was probably 95% healed and the swelling had gone down. It was very pink for about a year, though. Now I can see a slight outline of where it was, although no one would ever see my hand and realize that I had second degree burns there.

When I was wincing in pain and numbing my finger, instead of saying "Sorry," Trisha said, "You deserved it."

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Pit kids really like bonfires. The January of my senior year we had a bonfire at Viv's house while it was snowing. I think there was even like an inch of snow on the ground prior to the snow that was coming down that night, but we decided to have a bonfire anyway. We were all outside and sitting around the fire, some strange combination of burning and freezing, and somehow my socks got wet. I hate it when my socks get wet, plus I know it's terrible for your body heat and whatnot, so I took my socks and shoes off and laid them near the fire where it was dry. It was my first pair of Asics that I had bought, the orange running shoes that I bought after Alex Laun said that they were The Only Serious Choice. Someone else also put their shoes by the fire but I forget who, although I think it was a guy.

We were all talking and having a good time - the temperature and winds weren't so bad - when someone said "Jeff, your shoes are on fire." I said, "No, it's okay, I wanted them to get warm," not really understanding what they said. Again they said, "No, Jeff, your shoes are ON. FIRE." So I looked at my shoes and, of course, they were on fire. I think it was the right shoe's right lining that was actually melting away when I looked down, and I screamed and picked it up and started grounding it into the snow until it went out. Fortunately the shoe was still wearable. Come to think of it, I think it burned some of the heel as well.

I never really did anything to hide my shoes but my parents didn't notice for months. One time my mom asked me what happened to my shoes and I said, "Uh, it caught on fire." Sometimes other people would notice and I would give the same answer.

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Nicki's next door neighbor is her uncle and he has a nice patio in the back with a firepit that we often use when we go to Nicki's house. Her dad told us it was a really nice night around the time we were finishing up Juno, so we went over to his house and started a fire. As Nicki was going inside to get s'mores materials, her uncle came out was like, "So uh, who are you guys?" And we told him that we were Nicki's friends so it was okay. He got us mechanical marshmallow roasting sticks that rotated the marshmallow for you. We made them climb around the logs.

Anyway, it was a pretty big fire for that fire pit. Every now and then an air pocket would burst inside a log and send embers flying through the air. I think both times that it happened it went away from the house. The second time that it happened I remember Gina kicked one away from herself and it ended up going right beneath my feet, but thankfully I avoided it. Soon after that I realized it was time to go home though - 10:54 - and got up to go around and give people hugs. As I was walking around the fire - further away from the house rather than towards it - to give Hetty and Abby a hug, I stepped on an ember. I didn't notice it at first, but after maybe a step and a half I started to feel a burning in my foot, which quickly got a lot more intense, and of course was followed by me hopping around and shouting and trying to clear it off of my foot. Everybody laughed at me, knowing it was my third such incident.

I could actually feel a hole in the outside sole of my right foot when I was walking back to Nicki's house to get my things. I could feel it during the drive home, and I could feel it on my sandals when I came back to the house to watch The Daily Show and have a bowl of Life.

I thought I was going to have second degree burns again but it turns out it wasn't so bad.

Peace out.

Beth's Last Day

Today is the day that Beth moves, at 10AM. I saw her yesterday (Saturday night). I drove over to her house at about 8:30 after dinner and after plans fell through. It wasn't raining much anymore but there was still lightning. There was a very intense strike of almost red lightning as I was heading up Temple Road, just before the left turn. It was one of the only time lightning actually made me feel a little uneasy - my heartbeat quickened for a few seconds.

We went to Target to buy face wash and hair dye because it was easier than Beth buying it in D.C. Tina was there and she had her tonsils out on Monday; Beth said that she sounded like herself but like maybe she was a little deaf. Jen and Sumi were also there. We talked about The Happening and Lindt and an old employee that was a liability and how Beth loves books more than people and being a cashier. She had a copy of Perks of Being a Wallflower and we felt sorry for her. She had a copy of Siddhartha, I don't know if she wanted to keep it or not. She gave her red squarish CD racks on the wall to Jen, as well as the cubes that she put in the corners of her room and the Asian lanterns hanging in the corner, red and white. We ate some Ben & Jerry's Caramel Sutra ice cream, for Tina's tonsils. She had to leave early because she wanted to rest. We talked about how we don't understand how some people can be late all the time, and how Beth walks fast, and whether or not the girl on the Garnier box was black. Tina was going to leave if Beth ran out of stories so I filled the silence so Tina would stay by talking about my day, like Sam's comments about Fat Arts Repetory Teaching School and Malcolm XL. Beth put her legs over Tina's legs to keep her in place. Tina said it was too warm but Beth said she was fine. Eventually it got way too warm in the room and Jen and Beth talked about sweating. Tina found pockets in Beth's shirt. Beth said that Ben Kweller was totally impressed when she brought up the movie where he got the line "Sex reminds her of eating spaghetti." She only got two hours of sleep last night because her flight was cancelled and in between she went to see David Sedaris with her friend Jenna.

A little bit before 11, she said that she wanted to go to bed, so Jen and Sumi stood up to go. I was a little hungry at that point so I stayed sitting for a second, and then I just realized that it would be the last time I was in that room, the last time I was at Beth's house, and the last time I drove home. And I thought of all the wonderful times we all had there. And I was incredibly sad that this was the last time. I hugged Beth when we were outside and told her that I would miss her, and she told me that she knew I would come see her and that I'm reliable, and I said Yes, I'm good about stuff like that.

Peace out.