She decided to find the nearest emergency room. It was ten blocks away, and she made sure to keep her finger elevated all the way there.
She arrived to quite a frightful scene. People were bloody, moaning, semi-conscious. Sirens wailed, hospital personnel raced in and out. Those who were attending to their bandaged or semi-conscious loved ones eyed Mais (whose finger was no longer bleeding) suspiciously.
She was beginning to feel idiotic, but she reasoned that she had already come this far. And who knew what kind of diseases that mangy beast was carrying? Mais took a deep breath and timidly approached the front desk.
"Can I help you?" The staunch woman behind the counter asked.
The girl was lost, most likely. Took a right when she should have gone left.
"Uh, my name is Mais," Mais said. "And I was attacked by a... uh...."
The word had suddenly escaped her. Fox? Pigeon? No, that wasn't right.
She began to rifle in her purse. She hoped she had brought her English dictionary.
Meanwhile, the woman behind the counter was shaking her head. It was despicable, that's what it was. The poor young girl.
A rape. And on Obama's inauguration day!
Mais was feeling frantic. The English dictionary was nowhere to be found. She was considering simply turning and leaving the hospital when she remembered. The video!
In a surge of hope Mais swept her camera from her purse, pressed open the viewfinder, and proffered it to the woman.
"Look!" Mais said.
The woman wasn't sure she wanted to see this. But she looked.
And looked again.
Then she gave Mais some forms to fill out, and while Mais did that, she took the camera down the hall to show her colleagues.
When the doctor came to collect Mais, the first thing he asked was to see the video. Then he stepped out of the room with the camera for a while.
When he came back, he cleaned and dressed the tiny wound.
While he did so, a variety of hospital staff came by the room; some who were looking for something, or needed to speak to the doctor, or just lingered by the door and peeked in.
"Is it... ah... is it too late to see the video?" One male nurse inquired.
The doctor had just finished with the wound, so he took the camera out for a second round. While he was doing that, a specialist came in to talk to Mais. She gave a brief presentation on Animal Safety.
Her presentation took on a reprimanding tone when she impressed upon Mais that feeding creatures in the wild was a danger to both humans and the animals themselves, and that by trying to domesticate these creatures, one could throw the entire eco-system out of whack!
Mais had certainly not intended to do any such thing. She had just wanted to share her m&ms.
She left the hospital with a bandaged finger, a few dozen Animal Safety leaflets, and an antibiotic prescription, feeling increasingly ridiculous. She wished she could just hide herself away somewhere, but first she needed to get her prescription filled.
The nearest pharmacist seemed baffled by why he was giving out that particular prescription, and in so low a dosage. So Mais had to show the video all over again. By now, she was tired of being laughed at.
Which is why I thought she was such a good sport to tell the story to me a few days later, when she returned home.
"I just don't get it," she said at the end, as I was wiping my eyes with a tissue. I had just seen the video myself, and then read the leaflets, and it was taking a while to get my breathing normal again.
"Are you just never supposed to feed any animals anything? Ever? At all?" She looked at me pleadingly with her brown and wide eyes.
"Well," I conceded. "Of course there's some times that it's alright. Like at a petting zoo. Or with ducks. Ducks are good to feed."
"But ducks hurt when they bite," Mais frowned. "Even worse than squirrels. It's those sharp beaks that do it."
I regarded her. I tried very hard not to laugh again.
"Mais," I said, very seriously, "Exactly how many animals have you been attacked by?"
"Is it... ah... is it too late to see the video?" One male nurse inquired.
The doctor had just finished with the wound, so he took the camera out for a second round. While he was doing that, a specialist came in to talk to Mais. She gave a brief presentation on Animal Safety.
Her presentation took on a reprimanding tone when she impressed upon Mais that feeding creatures in the wild was a danger to both humans and the animals themselves, and that by trying to domesticate these creatures, one could throw the entire eco-system out of whack!
Mais had certainly not intended to do any such thing. She had just wanted to share her m&ms.
She left the hospital with a bandaged finger, a few dozen Animal Safety leaflets, and an antibiotic prescription, feeling increasingly ridiculous. She wished she could just hide herself away somewhere, but first she needed to get her prescription filled.
The nearest pharmacist seemed baffled by why he was giving out that particular prescription, and in so low a dosage. So Mais had to show the video all over again. By now, she was tired of being laughed at.
Which is why I thought she was such a good sport to tell the story to me a few days later, when she returned home.
"I just don't get it," she said at the end, as I was wiping my eyes with a tissue. I had just seen the video myself, and then read the leaflets, and it was taking a while to get my breathing normal again.
"Are you just never supposed to feed any animals anything? Ever? At all?" She looked at me pleadingly with her brown and wide eyes."Well," I conceded. "Of course there's some times that it's alright. Like at a petting zoo. Or with ducks. Ducks are good to feed."
"But ducks hurt when they bite," Mais frowned. "Even worse than squirrels. It's those sharp beaks that do it."
I regarded her. I tried very hard not to laugh again.
"Mais," I said, very seriously, "Exactly how many animals have you been attacked by?"
She had to think about it. I told her she didn't have to tell me if she didn't want to.
She grimaced.
"Is there something wrong with me?" She asked. "That whole day it just kept going and going until I felt like something even worse than an idiot. Like a... a cartoon! Has that sort of feeling ever happened to you?"
I thought about it. I smiled.
"Well," I said.
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