Magical Realism:Monster Toes

When I was younger, I would always stub my big toe on anything from stairs to the door, to even a chair. So after I stubbed my toe, my grandfather would bandage up my toe for me. And when he was bandaging my toe, he would tell me the story of how his big toe got distorted. I always loved the story because it made me feel better. And while I was listening to the story, cringing at the pain, and giving the occasional nod, i realized he really understood what i was going through.

One day my grandfather was bicycling in his neighborhood, Daipatu. Daipatu had lots of hills that they would race on. My grandfather was racing with his friends Bob, Fred, and Albert. His friends were very unique. Bob had wings with white feathers, Fred had snot oozing out of his body, and Albert was colored like a watermelon but had scales.

So my grandfather, who has a fluffy tail, was racing with his friends without his big sneakers. His tail suddenly got stuck under his seat, so he got distracted and was not concentrating on pedaling. Then to make things worse, his toe got stuck in the chains. His toe was shooting blood everywhere. His monster friends tried to stop the bleeding so that they wouldn't get in trouble for not listening. They wrapped his toe with one of the snot covered tissues Fred was carrying.

Within a few days my grandfathers toe was as big as a melon but his tail was fine. My grandfathers toe started having a mind if its own. And it would not stop growing. Two weeks after his toe nail was not on so he has a gash. It was infected.

One night a bacteria monster crawled out of the gash. The monster just kept on growing and feeding off of all of the bacteria. They finally realized they had to tell his mom what had happened. She rushed to him immediately to check how bad it was.

Once she saw it she screamed, scolded him, and was scared for his life. His mother rushed him to the hospital and when they got there he immediately had to have of antibiotics pumped through his system. He was in the hospital for a week and while he was in there the police finally tracked down the bacteria monster and placed it in an air tight modulator with no bacteria or germs at all.

Eventually it healed and he was fine. His toe now has a curvy shape, like an hour glass just not as extreme. And my grandfathers deformed toe nail is black with specks of brown. His toe is safe for now, safe until he forgets to wear his big sneakers when he is playing, and safe to walk on. My grandfather loves to tell me this story and I think it makes him happy to see how he can make me feel better just with his life stories.

I hope this story makes you also feel, AT-LEAST-MY-STUBBED-TOE-WAS-NOT-THAT-BAD. And you remember that it might hurt but you have to tell someone what is happening or things could get worse.