The Splinter

When I was a kid, I got a splinter in my left foot. It hurt a lot, so I stopped using that leg.

If I put any weight on it, the splinter would burn and scream, so I stopped putting weight on it. The less I used the leg, the more sensitive the splinter got. So I used it less and less until I learned to barely even touch the ground with that foot.

Instead, I learned to walk on one leg.

I got good at it. Pretty soon I could run on it! I started racing and did quite well. I even won a few races. Nobody noticed I was only running on one leg.

Over time, my left leg got smaller and weaker and that whole side of my body shrunk. It didn’t matter, I was avoiding the pain. It worked pretty well for me.

Until one day I broke my good leg.

I couldn’t use it at all. And so I was forced to step on my weak and painful left leg… Every time I tried, I collapsed in pain. But there was no way around, so I kept on limping and collapsing every step. It was a pathetic kind of dance.

People loved it!

They wanted me to do it for a show. So that became my new life. Limping and collapsing for money. Oh how they cheered!

One day I met a woman and she saw through the performance. She touched my shrunken left side and she slid her palm down my leg, following an invisible line of sensitivity, all the way to the splinter.

She showed it to me and I pulled it out!

The left foot stopped hurting. I could just walk on it. Slowly, the strength came back to it. And I could no longer perform my dance. I lost everything I had built.

Now my dance is different. And nobody wants to pay to see it. But damn it feels good to walk on two legs!