A Warm Liquid
3.30.6
The pain was instantaneous. I knew that something had gone horribly wrong, but it took a few moments to even understand exactly what that "something" had been.
As I realized what had happened, a certain sense of dread came over me. I stumbled for about 20 feet before realizing that I had no idea exactly where I was going. I held on to the nearest object and tried to regain my composure. I blinked repeatedly. Each time, the world reacted violently...erupting into a spiral of bright whiteness.
A warm liquid oozed from the area around my eye. I could feel it on my hands, but couldn't see well enough to identify the substance. I needed to get to a mirror.
I weighed my options. The nearest mirror was halfway through the office. Going there would mean passing by dozens of my co-workers. If I was bleeding profusely, I wanted to avoid being seen. I don't like having to explain myself, unless I know exactly how much I have to explain.
Instead, I made a bee-line to the outer door. I thrust it open and headed out into the parking lot.
The bright sun set off another explosion in my eye. Black specks swam around spastically in front of everything. My thoughts screamed that this was what the process of going blind was like.
Five minutes earlier...
The real key to it is in the thumb.
You begin by pulling lightly on the rubber band. Next, you must hook your thumb about halfway down, and pull one side taut, leaving the other end loose, like so:
From what I understand, the effect is something like the spinning of a bullet. It makes for a very fast, very powerful shot. When one of these rubber bands flies past you, the sound of it splitting the air is quite audible.
I pulled a thick band back, lifted my hands, and took aim. The back of Greg's head was almost in my sights. He was absolutely unaware of what was about to happen.
Unfortunately, so was I.
It wasn't until I had finally decided I was attempting an impossible shot, that it happened. Somehow something slipped, and the rubber band backfired. It came at me so fast that my eyelid didn't even have a chance to close. It hit the unprotected eye at probably over 30 miles per hour.
As it hit, I felt the entire organ flatten down. As the ocular nerves shut down, my vision went black. My brain immediately started to send blood to the area...filling the capillaries with much needed Oxygen.
The pain was instantaneous.
I entered the car and prepared myself for the worse. My vision, while blurry, was finally working again. I reached for the rear-view mirror and turned it towards me.
I was almost surprised to see an un-ruptured eye still sitting in the socket. In fact, aside from being incredibly red, it didn't look too bad. I went back in, laughed about the story with the guys, and continued working. Within an hour, the numb throb had subsided.
I suppose this was just one of those stupid freak occurrences that happen to people sometimes. Fortunately, I had come through it without any permanent damage this time.
However, it's events like these that make me wonder if I'm an incredibly lucky person...or an incredibly unlucky one...
