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RDP Monday: superficial

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written for RDP, where sgeoil asks us
 to get creative with the word “superficial”.
Thanks, Heather! Here’s where the prompt took me.

David, 1983
© NAR

It was moving day, June 1985. People were all over the house, in and out, packing boxes, loading trucks. We were, perhaps understandably, distracted. When I checked on our boys, at the time seven and five years old, they were eating bagels and watching cartoons. They were still in their PJs, barefoot, happy and excited. Two minutes later, we heard a crash and screaming. Rushing into the living room, we found David, our youngest, standing in the middle of what used to be our glass coffee table. His feet were covered in blood and I knew this was no superficial injury. Wrapping him in a blanket, my husband carried our boy to the car, and we drove to the hospital. On the way, between sobs, David told us he was jumping from the sofa to the table when it broke. I thought I would throw up. In the emergency room, doctors cleaned his foot, carefully removing all pieces of glass. The entire top of his foot, from the base of his little toes to his ankle, had been shaved off; I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, and my heart broke for our boy. The doctors said the only thing for us to do was to keep the wound as clean as possible, which meant washing several times a day in an antibacterial soap, treating the wound with antibacterial ointment and keeping it covered. Slowly, David began to heal, and as he grew, the scar began to shrink. Today he is 45 years old and his scar is barely visible. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending, and he remembers nothing of that day, but I will never forget. That was the end of glass top tables in our house.

spring cleaning my life
looking back at memories
my eyes remember

NAR©2026

This is “Beautiful Boy” by John Lennon

RDP Monday: SUPERFICIAL

Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.

34 thoughts on “RDP Monday: superficial”

  7. Boys! They definitely have a different way of doing things… Lordy.

    We were three girls and had a glass coffee table. No, no jumping from the sofa onto it. Ever. We didn’t even think of it. (Which is surprising, knowing me…)

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    1. Ange, we had so many feelings, not the least of which was guilt. Yes, we were busy with the movers, but we should’ve been more aware. We were so lucky it wasn’t worse than it was and David remembers nothing about that day. Thank you for your lovely comments.

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