I remember July 4, 1995 as if it were yesterday. The weather was really hot, sun was blazing, and it was ninety plus degrees outside. I wore new a white tee-shirt short set. In the front of my shirt was a black bear. My hair was frizzy from the heat, and I was eager to jump in the pompa, as I call it.

My mom, newborn sister at the time, and me had to meet my grandmother at her house to then go to my aunt's house. By then I was so tired, I did not want to walk. My aunt did not live faraway, but still, I did not want to walk in that blazing heat. After an hour at my grandmother's house, we left to go Forrest Projects, where my aunt lives. It felt like it was going to take forever to get to my aunts house. Every time I saw a sprinkler open, I wanted to run in the water and stay there. When my mom saw me running, she said, 'Estelle don't even think about it, let's go.'� I went to my grandmother, thinking she would back me up and let me run into the sprinklers. Boy was I wrong; she told me to go away.

Around an half and hour later, I was at my aunt's house. I could not be any happier. Oh my god, I thought I was in heaven. My mother and grandmother said hi to my aunt, and then we sat on the sofa. As happy as I was to be sitting, I wanted more than anything to be in the sprinklers. It felt like time was going so slow. After some time, we went downstairs to the park right next to my aunt's building.

The sprinklers looked so cool. I did not waste any time. I ran into the sprinklers and played with my cousins. We played everything from tag to hide and go seek. I never had so much fun. About three hours later, the worst thing happened. The sprinklers abruptly turned off. I ran to my mother and said in concern, 'What happened to the sprinklers?'� My mother in turn said, 'I don't know, go play with your cousins.'� With that, I asked her to give me my empty glass Arizona iced tea bottle and ran back into the park.

After I ran into the park, I did something really stupid. I took the bottle and swung it into the sprinkler. The reason I did this was to in some feeble attempt somehow turn the sprinkler back on. Again, boy was I wrong. On the contrary, the glass bottle shattered into the pieces and I ducked in desperate attempt to be hit by the falling pieces of glass. After the all the pieces fell onto the floor. I got up and started to walk away. Then I noticed all the kids, including my cousins, staring at me. I said, 'What are you looking at?,'� and one boy said that I was covered in blood. When I touched my nose, my fingers and my white outfit were drenched in blood.

My mother came running, and believe me, she was not too happy. I remember her running to me, saying what the F did I do and screaming that we had to go to Lincoln Hospital. My aunt was screaming, 'Estelle needs stitches.'� Then my older cousin came walking with her best friend and she said, 'See, I knew we should have gave Estelle the bottle.'�

A nice woman named Lisa offered my mom to drive us to Lincoln Hospital. My mom graciously accepted her offered, and before I knew it, we were on our way to the hospital. Honestly, I was really scared about going to the hospital. Deep down, I knew that I was going to need stitches. I was holding a blue towel to my nose, and I saw the blood soaking the towel. One of the only thoughts running through my mind was the new outfit, and how it was ruined.

It was not to much later when we got to the hospital. We ran to the emergency room, and the nurse went straight to attend to me. She put me in a room, all by myself, and asked me if my mom had something to do with it. I said 'No'� as if the nurse had asked me something stupid, and she asked me to explain what happened. I told her exactly what happened, and she took me back to my mom. A short while later, I went with my mom into the doctor's office. I was really nervous and also felt bad because I put my mom through this. Doctor Matthews told me to lay down. I removed the towel from my face and he began to look at my severe cut.

''I'm very sorry, but you're going to need stitches,'� Doctor Matthews said. At first, he said that I needed two, but then he said that I needed three stitches. Right at the moment he said those words, I started crying. The worst was yet to come. He took out a really long and thick needle. I gulped nervously as the doctor told me to calm down and he put the needle in front of my face. Then he put the needle through my cut, and I saw the needle itself through both eyes. I started to scream for my mother, which was the first and only time I had done so in my life. She ran to me and held my hand tightly. She cried too, as she did not like her child going through such pain. Doctor Matthews then took out the materials for the stitching and literally began to sew the cut. It felt as if it was an eternity. Afterwards, Doctor Matthews told me it was over. As if things were not bad enough, he said that I could not wash my face until the stitches were removed, which would be in a week. I was really disappointed because the day after, I would be going to the beach, which meant that I could not get all that wet in the water. I was really sad. My mother said to me that it was good because this is my punishment.

As my mom and I went back to my grandmother's house, I thought of how stupid I was. But of course, I would be paying the price. I learned to be patient and to think. The day was not all that bad though. I watched the fireworks on television, and the last thing I watched before I went to sleep was Michael and Janet Jackson's music video, 'Scream,'� which was my favorite video.

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