It was a movie night with the family. Our family had one every week and I was very excited about this one. The film was “The Bourne Identity”. It wasn’t new at the time but it was new for my family. I had watched it before them and I hat told them about it. Usually, they wouldn’t really listen to my movie recommendations. I was very small then so I couldn’t really blame them but I told them that Matt Damon starred in it. So, they agreed to watch it, maybe because of Damon or perhaps simply to stop my whining. I knew before the film that this was going to be a special night.

I put on the movie for them, with the volume set to the max. We dimmed the lights to almost complete darkness. The only light came off the television itself. We got through most of the movie okay but then this one action scene came. Bourne was being shot at and he had a rifle. I was playing with a shirt hanger at the time. Having already seen the movie, I wasn’t really paying that much attention by then. As Bourne cranked open the rifle to check for bullets, I cringed at the noise and nearly dropped the hanger. Wow, it was nothing. I smiled at the thought of me being so scared of such a small matter.

I picked up the hanger and brought it near my eyes, using it as a make believe gun, the way most kids did when they were small. Suddenly, Bourne let loose a bullet and it sounded very real. I panicked and the hanger went out of my hands. I felt sudden pain near my eyes. I felt around my left eye and noticed the hook of the hanger sticking to the inside of my eyelid. It was wedged pretty deep inside. I screamed, not so much by the pain surprisingly, but by the fact that the hook had somehow landed on the inside of my eyelid. The movie still kept playing. My parents, looked at me startled, and I could feel the fear radiating off of them at me. That made me much more afraid. Was my eye bleeding? Had it gone blind? With so much darkness, I couldn’t tell anyway.

My mom swallowed her fear and tried to pull it out of my eye but as soon as she moved it, I felt another large wave of pain. I shoved her hand away. I didn’t mean to do it so harshly but I wasn’t thinking straight. I told my family to keep away while I removed the hook out on my own. It came out quickly. I hadn’t really thought about what I was doing and what kind of risks may have been involved on taking it out. I just acted on impulse. I had to take it out and I did. My elder brother quickly turned the light on. My mom and dad assessed my eye to check for any damage. There wasn’t any thankfully and I didn’t feel any pain either now.

I didn’t really think on that incident much after that. To this day the thought of it makes me shudder and check my left eye instinctively but thinking back on it carefully, I didn’t realize how fortunate I was in that situation. Any number of things could have happened. The hook could have missed my eyelid and hit my eye direct on. When it got stuck there, it could have caused me bleeding or injury. I could have been blind in one eye but none of that happened, not even eyesight weakness. I realize now what a miracle that was, how blessed I was and still am to have not only my family and friends care about me but to have someone far above, in the skies, always looking out for me.