Thorns in my Thighs

December 22, 2022 • Written by Emma Leone

Junior in Communication Design

I can’t remember exactly how old I was when I first removed the thorns in my thighs. I can remember the explosion between my father and brother. And the cool spring evening I sought refuge in. The gravel road was pitch black, any sight of the moon was covered by a thick layer of fog.

I hadn't always been afraid of the dark. I used to brave it for my brother. Then he grew up, learned how to lie. He would tell me stories of the monsters outside our house at night. Petrified, I would stay up those nights, listening to any rattle from outside the window. I used to hear their footsteps. My nose would bleed on nights where I could hear murmuring outside my window. Now I live in the attic and haven't heard much in a while. He was probably taking the piss out of me.

Yet, in the dark I walk to the end of my road. To shake dread boiling in my stomach, I play music too loud to hear anything. My hand is barely visible if I put it in front of me. I can't hear, I can't see, but I can touch. Thorns that have grown from my thighs chafe terribly.

Each stride the needle points tugs painfully across my skin, tearing deeper and deeper. It feels like someone was dragging their nails across a chalkboard. I walk a quarter of a mile like this, blood pooling down legs to my sandals and man, it stings like a bitch.

I suppose by instinct I find myself at the tree fort where the kids on the street used to play together. They had all moved away by now. This fort has become my secret sanctuary. No one else has dared enter in years. I spend my nights here smoking pot. I would invite my brother if for once he could just zip it. It all seems quite pointless now. I should’ve invited him, it was his fight. How selfish. But my legs had left so fast I didn't even have the chance to bring my pipe with me. I am not going back home. 

I start pulling at those thorns with my bare hands. My mom once warned me that body hair always grows back more vicious and darker when you shave. I pulled every damn thorn out anyways, so be it.