The Mangler

Y’all remember this story by Stephen King? It was pretty good in a far out kind of way. Granted, I think I would probably have a heart attack if one of the machines in my house suddenly became possessed and stalked the streets looking for prey. Which machine would do it though? The vacuum cleaner (like Jaws in Mr. Mom)? Or the washing machine? What about the dryer?

Anyway, I thought about this because Friday afternoon, my godchild had an accident at work. About a month ago he got a job at the ice house down the bayou. He loads trucks and stuff. That’s about all I know. So my sister sends me an e-mail:

“Bryan got hurt at work. They’re bringing him in for stitches.”

Full panic Nanny mode:

“Do you need me to meet you at the hospital?” Never mind the fact that I work 40-45 miles from the hospital. Nothing will come between me and my baby!

I didn’t need to go, his boss was bringing him and he’s 18 now…he would’ve been mortified if his mom and aunt showed up. I had to find out exactly what happened via my eldest nephew (my godchild’s older brother) who has no sympathy for his younger brother. It went something like this:

“Bryan Edward’s an idiot. The ice bags were backed up in the machine leading to the conveyor belt and like an idiot, he stuck his hand in the machine to knock it loose. It grabbed his finger, ripping it open and fracturing the bone up to his first knuckle.”

And then my brother-in-law sent me the pictures of my baby’s finger before it was worked on. *turns green* It’s still on my phone. No, I won’t share with y’all. Mostly because I’m not sure how to get it from my phone to the computer. If I figure it out, I’ll share…but only if y’all want me to.

This isn’t the first time my baby decided he needed to document his injuries and hospital visits with the phone. About two years ago, he was injured playing football. The clip on another player’s helmet slashed an inch wide, six-seven inch gash in his arm during a game. We (his mom, dad, me,and his principal) were crowded in the ER with him while he got his stitches. But before that, he had his dad take a picture of the wound. Granted, it was pretty fierce and left a wicked scar, but was that really necessary?

My poor baby. He met his own mangler and after being at his job for only a month! I hope he does well in college because I don’t want him doing manual labor for long. He’ll lose all his fingers!