Wind whooshed and whished past my gleaming face of joy. “Karla! I don’t know what goes through your little 4 year old mind… You are going to crash into something one day!” yelled my mother as I dashed away. If I do fall, I’ll just pick myself up! “Honey, go run outside if you want to burn off some energy.”

“Mom! It’s too hot outside. It’s like a bazillion degrees,” I called behind me.

“Well then go play a game with Cate, Pops and Grandma. Just please don’t let me catch you running again,” replied Mother.

“Fine,” I waltzed over to Grandma and Pops. “Grandma! Pops! Wanna play a game? Catherine! Daddy!” They both told me yes. Catherine is hiding silently in her spot. Secretively, I went to go get for her.

My plan seemed simpler said than done: run around looking for her. Where could a two year old hide? That’s easy. Everywhere! Rapidly, I raced to my room. Whoops! Barely missed the dresser! “Catherine!” I called. Nowhere in sight. “Catherine!” I called again. Cate isn’t in the house. “Mom! Mom!” Not hearing her either, I thought that maybe she would be in her room, but continued to yell her name.

Dashing to her room, I ran at full speed. Breeze danced through my hair as I entered the room. “Mom!” Suddenly I couldn’t stop in time. I caught a glimpse of my mother feeding Ethan, then I faced forward to see what was going to end my life and I thought, “Oh no.”

Tears drizzled down my face as I lay beside the exercise machine. I held my face while the red warm liquid spilling on my cheek. Automatically, because of the sticky liquid overflowing on my hand and blasting onto the floor, my other hand grabbed the side of my face. “Karla, suck-it-up.” my mother said. I curled my legs up to my face so I looked similarly to a mouse when it dies. Ethan started crying as the ghost of death floated above me. The ghost picked me up and tears kept on drizzling down from my eyes. “Bear! Grab a towel! Start the car! Grandma! Take care of Ethan. He’s on the bed!”

Dad ran in with a fluffy flowery towel. Mom applied it to my face and rushed to the car, carrying me in her arms. Dad hopped in the front and Mom held me on her lap in the back as we rushed to the emergency room.

When we arrived, Dad went to check me in and I sat on Mom’s lap. I tried to reach the coloring pages and the colors, but my mother held me back. A little boy saw me. He didn’t look over 6. He handed me 3 colors and the page I wanted. “Thank you.” I said with a smile. Giraffes on my lap came to life as their blue body filled. Blue spots appeared from nowhere as my hand lapped over them.

“So how long of a wait?” my mom questioned. Her worried face made me worried.

“Remember when Catherine hit her head on the bench at church?” my dad answered.

“Mm-Hm,” sounded Mom.

“Add 30 minutes to that.”

Mom gasped at the thought. Looking at them from one to another, I shrugged then thought, “Is this my fault? What did I do wrong?” And all of a sudden, “… You are going to crash into something one day” entered my mind. If only I listened to my parents! Then none of this would have happened! That’s my error. No more running for me. Ever.

“Karla San Miguel.”

Mom carried me while following the nurse into the doctors’ room. Laying on a white table in a white room, it reminded me of heaven. I feel like I am going to die! “I can see her cheek bone. She’ll need stitches.” A surgeon said. “Let’s get to work!”

While I stared at the TV to the left of me, an alien voice told me, “You are going to have to hold real still. Okay?”

“Okay.”The word oozed out of my mouth similar to the stuff on my right cheek. While I continued to stare at the TV in front of me, I noticed Noah on the ship.

“And the dove brought back the olive tree leaf; He landed that ship near Mount Ararat. And one of his children grabbed Noah's robe and said, ‘Hey Dad, how many animals on this old ark, anyway, huh?’” The little guys ran around on the screen matching up animals by twos. Noah, dressed in yellow with a rain hat, danced around explaining multiplication. Rhinos and hippos and okapi jigged off the ark to stretch their aching cramped bones. “Now, if you want to multiply two times 174 or some big number like that... Two times 174 equal two times 100 plus two times 70 plus two times 4, that's all. So two times 174 equals 200 plus 140 plus 8, or, 348. It's elementary!” Noah yelled. How can 174 times two equal 348. When I add I get… nothing. How come I can only add to 20? “Now, what is two times 98?”Noah asked.
“Aww, that's hard!” The child answered.
Noah chuckled and replied, “No, it's very simple. Two times 98 equals two times a hundred, minus two times two. That's 200 minus four: 196.” He spread out his arms. “Elementary!” Two times 98? Even though I can count by ones and zip my jacket, I can’t multiply. At least not today.

“Done.” the doctors announced. While I sat up in the heavenly room, the surgeon told my mom about the stitches and everything that she needed to know. Ever so slowly, I glanced in the mirror from across the room to see everything I needed to know.

Black ran across my face almost touching my lip and my neck. It snaked around touch the thing, the doctor eyed me.

“No.” He said and moved my hand aside. “Don’t touch this until someone says you can.”

My teary eyes looked at the thin slug on my face. I couldn’t have this ugly slime on my face! What am I going to do when I go to school for the first time tomorrow? Gasping, I didn’t dare think about what my school picture would look like. The slug snickered and smirked. My mother took my hand and led me out of the dreaded hospital that made my face repulsive look at when eyes are placed upon it. I’ll just have to show my left side…