Animals We Are by Valerie Brandy

Author:Valerie Brandy [Brandy, Valerie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction & Literature
ISBN: 9781734279207
Publisher: Little Leo Media, Inc.
Published: 2019-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

I am the world’s most pathetic Cinderella.

13

It’s a long time before I work up the courage to look at my leg.

I prepare myself for the worst-case scenario, visualizing every possible horror. Bone that pokes through skin. Flesh rippling over pink meat, flush and ripe in its exposure. An intricate network of stretchy tendons and veins, recoiling from the harsh bite of air. By the time I roll up the bottom of my jeans, I know that whatever I find there won’t be worse than the carnage I’ve imagined.

The jeans get stuck above my ankle— I’ll have to take them off to investigate the wound. I know better than to wear skinny jeans on a camping trip, but it was my first vacation with Mike, and skinny jeans are the only things that make my boyish butt look curvy.

Before this trip went off the rails, I envisioned a picture-worthy, idyllic romp in the woods— hence the logic behind wearing my ass-lifting skinny jeans. I even thought we’d recreate that much blogged-about photo series where the girl with impossibly perfect hair leads her boyfriend around the world by the hand.

Now— as I strip off my pants and try not to cry out at the way the denim peels off the meaty, searing wound on my leg— that vision seems like something from another lifetime. I’m not a perfectly coifed catalog model leading Mike through the forest in pristine, romantic bliss. No, I’m a raging lunatic chasing him down the side of a mountain, screaming in terror, my hair matted with soil, my face streaked with dirt. Appearances are last on my list of concerns, and the fact that I ever worried about what I looked like strikes me as the kind of random factoid you’d find in a trivia book.

Did you know that elephants are the only animals that can’t jump?! Also, Zoe used to worry about what she looked like!

My breath crystallizes in the air. Today is the coldest I’ve experienced in the valley, and my skin can’t be exposed to the elements for too long.

My jeans land in a crumpled pile as I toss them aside to look at my leg. The wound isn’t deep— there’s no bone visible— but the length of the injury takes me by surprise. Most of the pain up until this point has been focused on my shin area, but the cut wraps straight down my leg and around the left side of my calf. The rock must have slammed into my shin first, then scraped its way toward my heel. My shin is black and blue, but my calf looks worse— the skin has been stripped away, revealing the pink, bloody flesh underneath. It’s begging for an infection, but Sue has taught me well. I open my pack and remove a few of the leaves she salvaged, laying them on top of the wound like garnish on a steak. The rest, I place gently back in my pack, saving them for future injuries that now seem inevitable.

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