Another bonus to living with my grandparents was that the neighbors also had a little girl. Her name was Matilda, she was one year younger than me but her mother often babysat me and we enjoyed playing together.
One particular day shortly after I had moved in with my grandparents I was at Matilda's house playing with my shiny new red ball (seriously, I was really excited about this ball). Matilda's mother asked me if Matilda could borrow my ball, but I told her no because I had just gotten it. A fair response I think. You don't give your new ferrari to your teenager to drive! Anyway, myself, Matilda, and her mother were sitting on the living room floor taking turns rolling the ball back and forth between each other when for some reason her mother had to go into the kitchen.
What happened next still makes me cringe almost twenty years later. Matilda started yelling at me about not letting her keep MY ball and then she started chasing me around the living room in circles while I clutched the shiny, beautiful ball in my hands. And then she pounced, jumping onto my back and knocking me to the ground (she was younger, but I was very short). And then a pain like no other ripped into my back. She had bitten me right between the shoulder blades.
I don't know if she drew blood, I don't know if it even left a mark- though I assume it did. But, her mother came racing into the room as I screamed at the top of my lungs. Even as she carried me back home I screamed. And then my mother and grandmother and what felt like a whole other group of people put me in the brass bed on my stomach while they iced my very sore back. I screamed and cried for what felt like forever- IT HURT!
Later on Matilda's mother brought Matilda over to apologize and return my ball. I begrudgingly accepted her apology because I had to, but for some reason the ball was never the same. Probably because it probably wasn't worth having my flesh torn out over.
To this day if someone rests their chin or makes a fist against my back I get goosebumps and feel a shiver of fear go down my spine.
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