the ice pick

by Bob Crawford
(Ontario, OH, USA)

I remember a campground I used to stay at on the Savannah Highway outside North Charleston, SC. It was a beautiful campground with all these majestic live oaks with beards of green gray Spanish moss.

I was tent camping one night when I came upright to the sensation of someone stabbing a white-hot ice pick into my right eyeball. I rubbed at my eyelid and felt a bit of crud and then another lance of pain. I was still groggy from sleep, but I rubbed more furiously at my eyelid and felt a small insect body disintegrate under my friction.

I finally realized that a fire ant had strayed into my tent and stung me twice. It hurt, but being manly I toughed it out. In the morning I awoke and realized something was seriously amiss. I couldn’t focus my eyes and my depth perception was shot.

I seemed to stagger a bit and trip over ant lion pits. It wasn’t till I got to the restroom that I realized I didn’t have brain damage, only some swelling on my left eyelid which caused it to droop over the pupil.

I bought a trailer right after that.