I never believed in perfection: It just seemed too happy, too good to be true. If anything came close to perfect, it was bound to flip in the end.

My cousin tagged me playfully then leapt away. I chased after him, my sister at my heels. We were in China, honoring my grandmother’s death. I never knew her because she died when I was just a baby, so I wasn’t too emotional. The adults chatted quietly as we chased each other, and I never felt so free. The weather was ideal with just the slightest breeze to whisk our sweat away. Everything was perfect.

Perfect. There was that word again. The bomb that looks like a cake.

I slowed down to catch my breath, which puffed out in gasps. The wind whistled a lively tune as it snaked its way around me, and I remembered a parody of Row, Row, Row Your Boat from a creepy movie I watched long ago.
Run, run, little girl, running down the road
Then she trips and then she falls and whoops, she breaks her nose.
Run, run, little girl, stumbling along the street,
Then she trips and then she falls and whoops, she sprains her feet.
Staggering now, little girl, arms feeling like lead,
Then she trips and then she falls and whoops, she cracks her-
My body went rigid and everything around me went still. My cousin galloped over, lips still curled playfully, to see why I wasn’t chasing him. Not why my eyes were wide and unblinking. Not why I didn’t even flinch when he came face-to-face with me. He still doesn’t understand the English language but right then, he didn’t respond to my body language.
Then the trance was broken and I was dashing across the road like I had planned everything all along.
Like I had done that on purpose.
Like the chills that tickled the back of my neck did not exist.
I wish they didn’t.
I nimbly hopped over cracked stones and skidded around faded gravestones. I laughed and I ran faster and laughed more and spread out my arms, my sister and cousin far behind. And I felt so free, like it was my soul floating away and not my Granny’s. My surroundings blurred and my legs burned and everything seemed…
Perfect.
It happened so fast, I didn’t even realize I had tripped until my vision blurred and everything was smashed into a big, confusing blob. There was a smash. There was a feeling of hot blood. I caught a glimpse of the ragged, gooey, bloody mush that was once my knee. My stomach twisted.My whole being was trembling. I heard a shrill scream and looked a around widely until I realized the source was me. My heart pounded in my throat. I staggered over to the shadowed sidewalk and opened my mouth and my whole stomach dropped on the grit floor. Again and again until there was nothing more. And then I still spat and spat and breathed and breathed and breathed…
I have experienced fear but not the sheer terror, the heavy despair, that I felt now. Adults swarmed all over. There was a heavy silence. After that, I was probably in shock because I can only remember sitting in a maroon car and being driving to the nearest hospital.
I was glad of that misfortune that occurred that horrible day. Because although I had to go to the hospital, I was ok. Because I was still alive. Because there is such thing as a perfect day with painful events.
And that was a perfect example.