The Dart

I was bored. I went down to the basement and found a dart. It was made of a heavy brass with a shinny metal tip about three inches long. Its point was sharp despite having fallen to the concrete basement floot after not sticking to the many intended target around the basement. The body of the dart and fins were blue plastic. Tyoical of a dart manufatured in 1969. As I was wandering around throwing it into the wood columns supporting the joists of our house, the warped doors of old closets, and anything else that was about eight feet away, I wandered into the workshop. 

I tied about eight feet of twine onto the tail of the miniature projectile and went outside.

In the breezeway connecting the house to the garage, we had a small basketball area. The backboard was a sheet of plywood. I threw the dart, it stuck, and I pulled it back, using the twine.

The second time I pulled dart out of the backboard, I had to duck, as it nearly hit me. I was no longer bored. This was some real excitement.

The tird time I pulled it out, the dart hit me in the collar bone. As I looked to my left shoulder, the dart had pierced my t-shirt, and was sticking straight up inbedded in my collar bone. I stood frozen for a couple of second, not really feeling any pain, but aware that something needed to be done rather quickly. I thought about all the cowboy and indian movies I had seen, so I reached over, and yanked it out. Just like the settlers did when hit with a comanche arrow. No need to break it off, and push it through, the dart was not protruding through the back of my shoulder. 

As I pulled it out, and a small trickle of blood surfaced. It quickly coagulated in the hole in my skin, and stopped bleeding.

I felt a little bit of pain, really not much. The realization struck that I could have been pulling it out of my eye, or my throat, or my heart. I figured I should probably not throw it anything high like tha backboard again. 

Instead, I threw it at a tree. Again, I had to dodge, as I pulled it away from the oak bark, and it nearly got me in the thigh. 

I wandered back into the house, untied the dart, and settled in for some TV. A much safer way to spend a lazy Saturday morning.

12/9/08