Vignette

One Moment in Time

I smiled as I glided over the water; I looked up at the sun as it bathed my body with rays of light. Suddenly I felt my board slide from under me, and my smile faded from my face and I felt a searing pain shoot through my body starting from my left side until it reached my right shoulder muscle. I blacked out.

I awoke to a rumbling of metal against metal. I realized I was in my mom’s car, and by the direction of the road we were taking I guessed we were headed to Scripps hospital. I wondered why might she be driving to Scripps? Then reality hit me like a bull made of led! I had somehow injured myself during surfing badly enough to be sent to the hospital. I blacked out again.

My vision blurred as I gained a perception on what was around me and I noticed I was in a bed in a hospital. I glanced out the door at the people passing by outside that I’ve never seen before, why was I here? I thought. I noticed a figure standing across the room from me, with a grin on his face; hmm I wonder what he could want? But I didn’t have time to give myself an answer before I drifted into blackness again. As I regained consciousness I heard someone whispering my name, “Mitch, Mitch?” I realized who it was, it was my mom and my aunt and my cozen. I saw that my brother wasn’t there, I wondered why? But now was not the time to care I had others who wanted to be with me in my time of need.

Soon after I got settled I kept track of how long I had been in the hospital and what my schedule was. First my doctor would come in and see if my blood transfusion was in my arm properly, then every night at around one AM people would come to me and draw my blood from my right arm like vampires. I would black out, and wake up to the sound of my dad or my mom coming in and resting on the bead next to me, and I would try to get up but they would tell me to stay lying down until the doctors said it was ok for me to walk. This cycle repeated until I was ready to go home for the first time in weeks.

This was a time covered with pain and it is full of questionable topics and sadness. But if there’s one thing I remember from that week is that from that point on I had to eat healthier than I had recently.

Metal, Roar, Shrieks and Mumurs

It begins as a loud scratching noise, like a broken record set on repeat until it's batteries die. then a crash interrupts the scratching fingers with abrupt rudeness. As if a great beast is ripping its kill apart, while someone who appeases violence watches. Then the reverberating sound of the pitter patter of a high pitched sound comes into view along with a brushing sound much like that of human begging for water but his mouth is to dry to talk. after you settle into the constant hushing voices, you are struck my a helicopter taking flight right outside you bedroom window. You try and sleep but the "slam, slam" of someone closing the doors to your cell wakes you and stimulates your nerves. a wave a sound hit you as you imagine your in a graveyard at night and graves are shaking
and the gates of the tomb where wealthy people stay are opening and closing, for no reason but to scare you. Something hits your eardrum, its the faint sound of what seems like a bird, it calls to its master but the master can not be found. grief and sadness overwhelm you as hear the beat of ghostly construction workers, working on a time consuming job that can never be finished. the yell of a gargantuan hits your ear as you fade into oblivion. blackness overwhelms you and fall into nothingness.

The locker problem (Mitch's way)

Mitchell gill

                                                                                                            10/2/09

 

                                                The locker problem

 

The order of the lockers is, open, closed, closed, open, closed, closed, closed, closed, open, closed, closed, closed, closed, closed, closed, open, the pattern of closed lockers goes on and on, adding two closed lockers for every open locker. Open lockers are perfect squares, because they have an odd # of factors. Closed lockers have an even # of factors. Factors = 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 are factors for locker 16, that’s an odd # of factors.

Factors = 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 18 are factors for 18, that’s an even # of factors. This leads up to 31 lockers being open and 961 being closed.

 

 

Locker 1   Open   odd	Locker 2   Closed   even	Locker 3   Closed   even	Locker 4   Open   odd	Locker 5   Closed   even
Locker 6   Closed   even	Locker 7   Closed   even	Locker 8   Closed   even	Locker 9   Open   odd	Locker 10   Closed   even

Odd = odd # of factors                     even = even # of factors