The day was young. The young lad known as Ut was helping his father unload the car filled with 2 by 4 wood blocks. At first, all seemed calm. Things went smooth. Take, slide, ship, stack. Then, on the second to last board...

SLICE!

Immediately, Ut dropped the block and gave a cry. The boy turned around to show his father a centimeter-long splinter, one that was deep within the skin. The boy ran inside, yelling for his mother. He asked for the means to remove the splinter, but the mother didn't know. As the mom ran throughout the house and out to the garage, looking for tweezers, Ut walked into his bathroom and took out a needle. After a few minutes, Ut's mother came back with a pair of tweezers from the neighbors, and with some rubbing alcohol to sterilize the needle with. After shouting to get his mother out of his bathroom so he could work, Ut did.

Slowly but surely, Ut probed the needle inside his flesh, just underneath the splinter. He slowly thrusted upward, trying to ignore the pain. Unfortunately, the splinter was too deep and the tip was too far inside the skin for the tweezers to work, so he had only one option left.

Ut took the needle, and began to pick at his skin. Minutes later, the hole was big enough for him to get the splinter out.

He took the needle and slid it under the splinter. Probe, pick, failed, probe again, thrust upward, (parry block, jab )...

After a while, he finally got a milllimeter of the head above the skin. He pressed down on his finger to make the splinter wave in the air a little higher. Then, with the tweezers, he grabbed the splinter. At first, he tug slightly, but the splinter did not budge. Then fed up with the piece of wood, Ut speedily pulled it out.

*Kisses finger*

Eh, I won't win any awards for this story, but still -- my finger hurt.

~U