Beauty Mark

I didn’t feel anything. His sharp knife cut my skin easily, and the adrenaline rushed through my body, helping me to avoid the pain. My brain was too busy to think. My whole body was in survival mode. On a Wednesday morning, of 2007, I gained a particular beauty mark.

That particular Wednesday started like any other day. I woke up and went to work. While I was working, I realized that some of the double size prints weren’t ready. We needed to pack them for the show, so I had to take care of that. Around 10 am I walked out of the office, and down the street thinking I would enjoy a little walk before taking a taxi that would take me to the printer place.

I noticed the young man passing by on the motorcycle as I started to walk down the street. He didn’t look dangerous to me, so when I saw him a half street later pulling over and walking toward me, I may have thought that he was lost, but he wasn’t. “Give me your purse or I’ll cut you,” he said in a threatening tone.

He was showing me something in his hand and getting closer and closer. I looked down, trying to figure out what he was holding while grabbing my purse. “ Ok,” I said, “But let me take out my ID”. He got closer threatening me this time with “Give me your purse or I’ll kill you.” My heartbeat rushed while my mouth yelled “No!”. We started to fight. I can see me attacking him, or maybe defending me from his attacks. I may have been feeling invincible. After a while, he was running away on his motorcycle. There I was, in the middle of the street, with my heartbeat on my head, breathing frantically, yet still holding my purse.

Two men in a car stopped in front of me. They asked me what had just happened, and offered their help. It is then when I felted it, my arm was soaking wet. I looked down at my left arm, it was all red, covered in blood. My heartbeat stopped and the adrenaline despaired. I started to cry. Meanwhile, the two men put me in their car and drove me to the hospital.

Sitting in the front seat of two strangers' car, bleeding, I saw my life pass in front of my eyes. “What was I thinking?, Am I going to die?, From where is all this blood coming?” questions like that played on my brain during the longest car ride ever. They dropped me off at the hospital and disappeared. I never saw them again.

At 5pm I walked out of the emergency room. A piece of bandage covered 13 stitches, while a sling held my arm. I got 20 days of medical license and a 5 inches scar, a beauty mark, that reminds me how unexpected life can be.