Speaking Of Knives

A few days ago I suddenly felt an itch in my left forefinger.  I absently scratched it, then realized there was a small cut, looking as if it had been made by a knife or razor.

I had no idea of how it came to be, though.  Actually, this sort of thing happens to me fairly often;  I may be a physical coward who tries to avoid taking risks unnecessarily, but it so happens I'm also a klutz, and I'm always bumping into things and knocking things over, so casual minor damage is not unexpected.

Here is a photo of a somewhat more serious-looking cut in the very same place(weird!), from a few years ago;  it looks rather gruesome, and you would be forgiven for thinking I would remember an incident like that -- but no, I have no memory at all of that cut, either.

Kind of odd, in light of the fact that I still well remember the incident from my fifth or sixth year, when someone spilled hot porridge over my foot, tried to wipe it off, and peeled the scalded -- cooked! -- skin right off my foot!  I ended up being carried to the nearby emergency room for treatment. 

EDIT:  While re-reading this post much later I remembered that this incident was actually the third time I was injured in the same spot (in fact, you can see the aftermath of the first cut in the top photo;  I don't know why I didn't recall the incident before).  Years ago, during a period when my mother was weak from illness and couldn't get about much on her own I got her a wheelchair.  On one occasion, having helped mom into the passenger seat of the car I was loading the folded-up wheelchair in the back, and somehow I managed to get the same finger caught on something and tore open a triangular flap of skin.  It didn't come off completely, but instead had opened up like a hinge or a page in a tiny book.

I gingely put the flap of skin back like a boxtop, wrapped it up in some tissue and drove mom home.  Surprisingly, there was little pain.  It healed with little to show for it, except the edge of the cut is now slightly thicker than the surrounding tissue.  Is third time really the charm?  In any case, I'm going to have to exercise extra caution with the finger.