found drama

get oblique

dream.20100822: a hair from the eye

by Rob Friesel

There is a single hair growing out of the whites of my eye. It’s a short, thick, coarse black hair. Like a beard’s whisker two days after the razor. The hair is bothersome, irritating. Every blink is like passing a kidney stone, every sidelong glance a slash to the wrist. Fine pink lines radiate out from where the hair breaks pierces through the sclera. I lean in close to the mirror, get a good look at it. It’s an ugly thing–hideous and out of place and painful. So painful. I gather up some tweezers and slowly, delicately move them toward that short little stub of hair. It takes all of my willpower not to blink but I get the tips of the tweezers to pinch that very tip of the hair. I tug. Even the most gentle pull feels like it will yank the entire eyeball from its socket. But the hair itself is far more painful. I tug again, more forcefully this time. In the mirror, I can see the surface of the sclera cling to the hair. My vision blurs, distorts. The pain is unbearable. But then there is a soft slurping and popping sound and the hair rips free.

About Rob Friesel

Software engineer by day. Science fiction writer by night. Weekend homebrewer, beer educator at Black Flannel, and Certified Cicerone. Author of The PhantomJS Cookbook and a short story in Please Do Not Remove. View all posts by Rob Friesel →

2 Responses to dream.20100822: a hair from the eye

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*