Childhood Story // 18

I'm not very good with memories.  Most of them I forget.  I may loath the idea of forgetting but it's one of the easiest things for me to do.  I cannot hold a grudge because I forget what the person did!  I do have a few memories of my earlier years though. I'll share two of them with you since they both involve the same people.

During 2nd and 3rd grade I was really good friends with a girl named Courtney.  This might have been because she had a pool, but I like to believe that I liked her as well.   Anyhow, one day, my mother and her father were working on a project in the yard while I was playing with Courtney in her room.  We were lost in our world, like kids are, playing with the stuffed animals and creating stories when my mom just comes in and announces that Courtney's father had basically cut his finger off and we had to go to the hospital.  Now, my mom jokes about things like death and cancer quite a bit so I remember Courtney and I looking at each other and deciding to believe that it wasn't true.  There was no way something serious and dangerous had happened on such a nice sunny day.  We reverted back to playing until Jerome actually walked in with a bloody napkin wrapped around his finger and told us to get in the car.  The rest of the day still feels like a dream.  Even after being yelled at, rushed into a car, and saw the blood soaking the napkin around the finger, I couldn't understand that it had happened.  I remember sitting in the hospital with a couple stuffed animals just staring around me.  I remember seeing the stitches and I think then I understood.  However, I no longer cared cause he was then fine!  I think this was the first time I experienced someone getting hurt and just fell into a weak place of shock.  I wonder how Courtney remembers this day?  How did you handle your first experience with people getting hurt?