Skin Off My Leg

Joe came in and brought Chloe with him.  Natalie couldn't come with them because she was ill.  Chloe and Joe worked the pads until it was time for me to spar with her.  Chloe was really laying on the punches.  Afterwards, she apologized to me for going hard.  "I understand.  You've got a fight coming up at the Gloves," I said.  No offense taken.  "I'll be back in a couple of weeks hopefully with a win," she said.  I believe she has a great chance of winning.

After sparring, I was contending with the odd shaped black speed bag.  I don't like using that particular bag, but I've been trying to get used to it.  Someone had readjusted the height of the speed bag platform.  Instead of struggling to get it back down to where I could reach the bag, I opted to stand on one of the two blue steps in the gym.  Right below the bag were a couple of small wooden platforms.  I used to stand on those before the steps mysteriously appeared in the gym.  I guess the vibration of my hitting the speed bag was too much.  Either that, or the wooden platforms weren't stacked against the wall properly.  One of them fell and took a chunk of skin out of my left leg.

The open sore reminded me of a bad scrape I received on my left knee when I was in Kindergarten.  Ma came to pick me up from school that afternoon.  I hadn't figured out how to walk to school and back by myself at that point.  Instead of walking down the school steps normally, I decided to take a running leap.  Ma talked about me all the way to the A&P, which was the closest grocery store to our apartment.  "Look at at that!  That looks bad!" she snapped, as blood slowly ran down my leg and stained my sock. 

Luckily, I keep Band Aids and moist towelettes in my gym bag.  But I didn't have any cotton balls or tissues to stop the blood.  Usually there are paper towels in the gym, but none were to be found.  I wasn't about to use any of the old towels laying around.  Both Barry and Alan use those to wipe blood from the faces of the boxers.  I have no idea the last time any of those towels were washed -- if they get washed.  I found a tampon in my bag and used that.  Well. . .it does soak up blood.  If any of the guys recognized what I was using to tend to my wound, they didn't say anything.  I noticed a few minutes ago that the wound was oozing -- I know that doesn't sound pleasant -- so I cleaned it again and changed the Band Aid. 

"Carlos told me that he's sick," Alan said, shaking his head.  Carlos thought he might have picked up the ongoing sniffles from his five year old son.  His youngest son, who's a baby, is not around other kids most of the time, but Justin, who's in Kindergarten, is.  "It's probably due to germs from the other kids," Carlos said.  I hope he feels better by fight time this Thursday.