Puncturation

Connie stood one step from the entrance of the shop. There was no reason in the world not to go in. Everyone was doing it. Absolutely everyone in school except for her had done it. And most of them had done it years ago.

"Well," Nicole asked. "Are you going in?"

"Sure," Connie said. "Why not?" She walked into Peggy's Piercing Palace and looked for a salesperson.

A woman came over. "Can I help you?"

"I'd like to get my ears pierced," Connie said.

"You came to the right place," the woman told her. "Have a seat."

Connie sat and waited while the woman marked both ears with a red pen. "How's that?" she asked, handing Connie a mirror.

"Great, I guess," Connie said. She looked up at Nicole, who nodded her approval.

"Here we go," the woman said. She leaned over, humming, and put the piercing gun next to Connie's right ear.

Connie gritted her teeth and waited.

KATCHUNG!

With that, her right ear was pierced.

The pain was sudden and sharp, but it wasn't too bad. I can take it, Connie thought. She closed her eyes for a moment. She felt dizzy. For the slightest fraction of a second, she felt like she was falling. But the feeling passed quickly enough. Connie took a deep breath and opened her eyes. She was halfway done.

That's when the woman said, "Oops."

"What's wrong?" Connie asked.

"Nothing," the woman said, but she stepped away from Connie.

"What is it?" Connie asked. She looked at the woman. Then she looked at Nicole.

"Oh my gosh," Nicole said. She backed away from Connie, too, but she kept staring at Connie's head. Her eyes were open so wide it looked like her eyebrows were trying to hide in her hair.

Connie grabbed the mirror. She looked at her ear. For a moment, she just stared. What she saw was so unexpected that she had a hard making sense of it. Around the pen mark and the tiny hole in her ear, something was growing. It looked like a fungus. It looked like the icky white fungus that grows on trees in the woods.

Must have been some crud on the gun, Connie thought. She reached up and brushed at the thing on her ear. Her whole earlobe moved with it. The stuff didn't come off.

She looked back at the woman. "What's going on?"

"Sometimes, there's a infection," the woman said. "I'm terribly sorry."

"Fix it," Connie said. "Do something."

The woman shook her head. "I can't."

Connie stared back in the mirror. The fungus was growing. It was spreading over her ear and across her neck. She dropped the mirror and grabbed at her ear, wanting to rip the fungus away.

It wouldn't pull free. As Connie removed her hand, she stared at her fingers. They were covered with the fungus. Connie tried to scream. But her mouth was covered -- sealed by the growth.

She looked at Nicole. Her friend was cringing back against the counter, obviously terrified. Connie reached toward Nicole. Then something grew across her eyes. She couldn't see.

She stumbled, trying to find her friend. Seconds later, she struggled to breathe air through her nose as the fungus spread over the rest of her face.

The world grew dim. Connie felt herself falling to the floor.

She lay in darkness.

All was calm and quiet.

A sharp smell cut through the peace. Connie jolted and tried to turn her head away from the biting odor. She heard the woman's voice. "Smelling salts. Works every time."

Then Nicole's voice, "Hey, you okay?"

Connie opened her eyes. She was on the floor. Nicole and the woman were bent over her. "Just stay still, honey," the woman said. "You'll be fine in a minute."

"My ear..." Connie said. She reached up and touched her right earlobe. Something small and cold met her fingers -- an earring, just an earring.

"You should have seen yourself," Nicole said. "The second your ear got pierced, you passed right out. I tried to catch you, but you dropped right to the floor -- just like one of those ladies in the old movies."

"Ready for the other one" the woman asked.

Ready? Connie wasn't sure. But what was the harm? She stood slowly and got back on the chair. "Go ahead."

"Brave girl," the woman said. She leaned over and pierced Connie's other ear, then told her, "All done."

It was over. This time, Connie didn't faint. She paid the woman and left the store. "Glad that's finished," she told Nicole.

Nicole didn't answer. She was staring at Connie's left ear, her face filled with a mix of fear and disgust. She pointed. She opened her mouth.

"What?" Connie asked. She reached toward her ear, but was afraid to touch it.

"It's..." Nicole paused and swallowed. "It's..."

"What?"

"The hole. It's not quite centered," Nicole said.

"That's okay," Connie said. She stopped to look at her reflection in a store window. "It could be worse. It could be a whole lot worse."

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