Recall

It was December 10 1996 in downtown san Francisco. My brother and I went to get a Christmas tree with my mom. As we walked down the street from our apartment downtown I could smell the streets. The donut shops were closing, so they threw out all the donuts from the day the street smelt good enough to eat. There were lights everywhere making nine o clock feel like the middle of the day. My brother and I were always playing games to make the time pass by faster, whether it was not stepping in cracks or in this case we were playing in the steam rising from under the street. We were almost there; I could smell the pine needles as we got closer to the Christmas tree lot.
The owner was a tall thin man with a bushy grey beard; he had gloves with the fingers cut off. I think it was so he could light his cigarette, the smell coming from the smoke overpowered the pine needles causing my brother and me to relocate our self’s in a less polluted environment. As we walked along the rows of pine trees we stopped to check each tree for any imperfections in our search to find the perfect tree.
After many attempts and many rejections from my mother we finally gave up, leaving the tree picking for my mom. Naturally my brother and I needed to think of a game to pass the time while mother pondered each tree row by row. The game we chose was to see who could run the fastest from one end of the lot to the other, ducking under each beam use to hold up the trees. My brother went first, going slow as he ducked under the two by fours. I could hear the dried pine needles crunching under his feet as he hurried across the parking lot. Just as he finished my mother shouted, “You boys stop that before someone gets hurt!” My mother was always barking orders at me, so I paid no attention and started running as fast as I could across the lot. Feeling my ears and nose get colder as I breathed in the cold city air, a rush of air blew past my face as I ducked under each beam; I was going to beat my brother. Just as I passed under the third beam I slipped on a thick later of pine needles, as I fell forward I smacked my head against the beam, lucky for me there was a nail sticking out of the board. It entered right above my eye and exited through the top of my head.
I don’t remember much after that; I blacked out and woke up three days later in a small hospital room with just a dull blue curtain separating me from the guy in the next bed. My mom and dad were asleep on the hard plastic chairs next to my bed; I could see that they were tired and scared. I felt awful knowing that all this was my fault, my mom told me not to and I did it did it. I learned that even know I may think I can do anything and nothing can hurt me, mama always knows best!