THE BLEMISH

By Scott E. Power

Sarah stood outside the door, looking through the window. Inside the room, huddled in the corner, was Rick Reese, her doctor.

Rick stared outside the barricaded window. Beads of rain shimmered on the glass pane. From inside the asylum the world appeared separate, disjointed, as if it was another reality, another world. He could not believe what had happened. Gently, he stroked his cheek. He tried to forget it. but the memory was like a demon, always torturing him. Spiders would forever crawl upon his flesh. Life would never be the same.

Sarah opened the door and walked in. Her cheek was still covered with a small bandage. The wound was healing nicely. She didn't know what to say, but knew she should visit. It was, after all, her fault the doctor was vexed. It was hard to tell what ramifications something so ghastly might have on the mind of a person. Sarah didn't understand why she was sane. One month had passed since the operation.

The whole trauma was traceable to one night two months before. Sarah had been camping next to her favorite lake. She was with some friends and it was very common that they camped together. She loved to camp and the lake was very special to her. It was where her father used to take her as a little girl and teach her the names of birds and plants. After her dad had died, she said the lake made her feel close to him and help alleviate any loneliness.

The camping trip went very well. Everyone enjoyed themselves and were reluctant to return home and to work. But they did, vowing to return soon.

Sarah was washing her face one morning a couple of weeks after the trip, when she noticed a small, red, pimple-like bump on her right cheek. She was disgusted to see it. Normally, her skin was clear and smooth, but then again, nobody like a zit. So, she put some ointment on the bump to help dissolve it.

After a week or so of treating the red bump with the ointment, it looked no better. In fact, it was even bigger, redder and looked like a boil. It was too gross to look upon and even hurt a bit. Without hesitation, Sarah picked up the phone and called her doctor, Rick Reese, to schedule an appointment. She would remove the pimple one way or another.

The next day she went to the doctor's office just in time for her appointment. She had to wait in the lobby as Dr. Reese was running late. Finally, her name was called. She followed the nurse to examining Room B and waited for the doctor. When the doctor arrived he had her chart with him and was quite friendly as he entered the room. Sarah told him why she had come. He didn't waste any time examining the swollen, red bump on her face. The bump had grown to the size of a quarter and looked grotesque.

Within a minute the doctor made his diagnosis. It was an abscess. Sarah was relieved to find out exactly what it was. Dr. Reese prescribed some special medication and speculated that the abscess would clear up in about one week.

After leaving the doctor's office, Sarah went to the pharmacy and picked up her prescription. She immediately applied some to the sore. She thought about how relieved she would be after the disgusting cyst was all gone.

Religiously Sarah applied the medication, twice a day, just as the doctor had said-even more often when she felt anxious to have it gone. The sore was getting too much attention from people, who kept asking, "What happened to your face, Sarah?" Finally, she put a bandage over it to keep people from reminding her how gross it was.

After nine days had passed, Sarah had used all of the medication and the sore was still on her cheek. But now it was even bigger. It had grown to a width of two inches and sat on her cheek like a rubber ball. Even worse, it had blackened and was purple around the edges. When she touched it her whole head throbbed with pain. It even was causing her right eye to swell shut. She panicked and began to cry. Sarah was certain it was a cancerous tumor. Hastily, she got in her car and drove to her doctor's office. She knew she was supposed to make an appointment, but this was an emergency.

She entered the lobby and approached the front desk. By now her whole body seemed to be swollen with pain, like it would explode at any moment. Behind the front desk sat the nurse. When she looked up from the desk and saw Sarah's face, she gasped with horror. Immediately the nurse told Sarah to follow her. The nurse took Sarah to the room she knew Dr. Reese would request, examining Room A. It was there that the doctor performed minor surgery to remove stitches, boils and cysts. Sarah had laid down on the examining table and the nurse went to summon the doctor.

Exactly one minute passed when Dr. Reese came into the room. Upon seeing Sarah's face he knew what had to be done. The abscess would have to be lanced and the tumor inside removed. He told Sarah what he was preparing to do. She asked if it would hurt. He said no, because he would numb the area first before removing the sore. Sarah asked if he thought it was cancer. The doctor answered honestly that he didn't know what it was and wouldn't until he had the laboratory test results. In reality, the doctor was worried. He had never seen any thing so absolutely hideous and disgusting in his whole career.

It took fifteen minutes for the numbing agent to take effect. Sarah was still awake and could talk to the doctor as he performed the procedure. After putting on sterile surgical rubber gloves, the doctor picked up the scalpel blade and positioned it in his hand for optimum control and a graceful cut. The blade was razor sharp. As soon as her face was numb, Sarah told the doctor to proceed. From that moment on, the doctor would forever regret the procedure.

The razor edge of the scalpel blade pressed firmly against the swollen black skin of Sarah's cheek. With an even piercing cut, the blade moved through her skin and across the tumor. As the length of the knife's cut grew and the edges of the laceration opened wide, crimson blood spewed forth and ran down Sarah's cheek. But at the same moment the cause of the tumor came pouring from the cut.

Over the crimson carpets of Sarah's blood came thousands of baby spiders, crawling from inside her face. For on that innocent camping trip with her friends just weeks before, a female spider had laid its eggs beneath the skin of Sarah's right cheek as she slept, with Sarah never knowing it. All over her face and all over Dr. Reese's hand the spiders crawled forth, looking for the life that their mother's care had promised.

Dr. Reese collapsed, vexed by the horror of tiny, creeping, crawling, spiders that the cut of his knife had given freedom. That night Sarah went home, but Dr. Reese went to the mental hospital in a straight-jacket.


STORY OUTLINE

I. A woman is visiting her former doctor at a mental hospital for he has had a nervous breakdown and she feels responsible.

II. The whole incident is traceable to a camping trip the woman, Sarah, went on a few weeks before.

III. Soon after the camping trip, she develops a red-pimple like, bump on her cheek, for which the doctor prescribed some medication.

IV. The bump gets much worse despite the medication, and she returns to the doctor for an emergency surgical removal of the cyst.

V. He cuts the sore open, and out of the wound come thousands of baby spiders, crawling all over his hands and her face.

VI. Sarah goes home, but the doctor is taken to a mental hospital in a straight-jacket.