AIR-CLINIC WRITING CONTEST: MY LAST INJURY

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I felt the sting of cold metal in my right eye as I walked away from the swing set, at that moment, I knew I screwed up.

Earlier that day before I left for school, my mum specifically told me to stay away from the swing set in school, I didn't understand why she was so specific about it, but knowing my mum, if she says something, you'd better listen, cause she's always right, well that like basically all yoruba mothers, as she told me to stay way from the swing set, I had a quick flashback of the day she told me and my sister not to take a bike to school, "e ma gun okada oh" she repeated, "yes ma" we said, knowing very well we were going to take a bike. On our way to school, the bike slid in a pool of water on the road, dragging us along, we had several bruises, I remember the bike man picking up his bike saying "oya let's go now", we simply rolled our eyes at him and walked away, we actually walked till we got to school, we were scared of even entering a cab.

I wasn't about to make the same mistake again, I said "yes ma" again, except this time, I meant it. During our break time in school, I just sat outside, watching all the other students having fun, I wanted to be part of it so badly, but I couldn't, I had recently watched the movie "final destination", so I didn't even feel safe where I was sitted, "what if one of the swing flies off and aims for my head" I thought, I quickly stood up and went inside my class. My friend Sulaiman ran inside after me, he was all sweaty, apparently he had been playing police and thief "let's go and swing" he said, I looked at him thinking "see this devil oh, it is you they sent abi", I refused, he went away when he realized I wasn't going to answer him.

After a while, he ran back inside, "oya please come and push me" he said with his rubbish puppy eye, "this guy has been begging me since, the least I could do is push him" I thought, so I went with him, he was so happy. We got to the swing set and he hopped on one of them, I went behind him to give him a little push, I started walking away after I did, then suddenly my eyes went black as the swing came back to hit me in the face, the next thing I heard was the sound of students screaming, my face was covered in blood, the swing had split my right eye lid in two, luckily, my eyeball was not affected. The teachers came running with a first aid kit "what happened" they kept shouting, in mind I was like "is it what happened you should be asking now, my face is covered in blood and you just stand there shouting what happened", but being the good child I was then, I explained everything to them while they wiped the blood on my face with cotton wool dabbed in ethanol(spirit), all the teachers were worried, but it wasn't a big deal for me, it wasn't my first eye injury, I had a similar injury to my left eye a few years before that. They told me not to touch my eyes as it could lead to more complications, they carefully cleaned the injury and placed a bandage over it.

The real pain started when the teachers took me home to my mum, "what happened to him" she said running towards me, one of the teachers replied "the swing...", the next thing I felt was the brutal sting of my mum's hot slap, I wanted to bite the teacher in frustration, "how could you start your explanation with the word swing" I thought, my mum embraced me after the slap, typical yoruba mother, I seriously don't get them. My mum took me to a hospital to get checked, by the time the doctor took off the bandage, the eyelids had joined back together "we could still stitch it if you want the doctor said, "no" I shouted jumping off the bed, the doctor then told me to apply ice to the affected eye about 3 to 4 times a day for the next 48hours in order to avoid swelling, "make sure you put a cloth between the eye and the ice" he repeated.

After a few days, my eye was completely healed and good enough to recognize a swing set so I could run away from it.

THIS IS MY ENTRY TO @air-clinic's WRITING CONTEST