rebecca's pocket

.: rambles --> glass

glass

I might have eaten some glass.

I was warming my lunch in the microwave when I heard a weird thud. Opening the door I discovered that the plate on which I was warming my pasta had broken. I cried "drat," transferred the pasta to a bowl, and began to eat.

Crunch. Crunch.

It took me two bites to realise that pepper doesn't crunch that way.

I quickly spit out everything in my mouth, but I could still feel crunchy bits in there. Teeny weeny smaller-than-salt bits. I rinsed out my mouth. Several times.

I brushed my teeth. I thought I tasted blood, but there was no blood in evidence. Examining my mouth, I noticed how odd my teeth look under the gums. Surely this is the way they have always looked. Surely the dentist would have alerted me if there were an irregularity. Unless it just changed.

I looked at my tonsils. They looked reddish. How do they normally look?

I rinsed again. Then I threw away the toothbrush.

I am sure that I ingested no glass, but I find myself acutely aware of every throat tickle. Every sensation in any area that could even remotely be mapped to my esophagus puts me on high alert. Am I bleeding? Internally bleeding? How would I know? Would there be pain? Swelling? Or just an eventual weakness, after it was too late to do anything? Overwhelming sleepiness, unable to fight it, slipping into darkness....

Would there be a sudden sharp pain at the end, perhaps just in time to be rushed to the hospital, pale, tragic. "Always remember that I love you...."

If you think about it hard enough, can you die from glass that you did not ingest?