These aren't just four knives, they're not knives at all ... you don't peel apples with these. A switch-blade is a small quick and quiet weapon. At different times different kids have given me these stickers because they weren't going to use them anymore. PTL! Each with a story.
One afternoon I was in the city and on a little rather isolated hill there were three partially burned out houses. A handful of street kids using drugs adopted the area and lived in the empty parts of these old houses. I called this area "Campamento Cemento. (Camp Cement) These street kids would be huffing glue in a plastic sack and it sustained a 24/7 mellow high. A high on cheap rubber cement.
I was up there one evening when a kid about sixteen came up to me "Hey, Von, would you check my back, I got hit last night." And he pulled his shirt up. I didn't really know what he meant or what to look for. The boy was pretty well stoned. "What do I look for?" I asked him. "Last night a guy hit me with a blade." I looked around his back and found where he had been stabbed by a switch blade. A little slit in his skin, less than an inch wide. Fortunately the wound didn't go deep enough to tap into his lung. I told him this was serious and that I would take him to the hospital. "No way, he said!" "Well then, I'll bring our doctor up to check it out." "NO! NO DOCTOR!!! You do it!!!" All the kids were standing around watching the show.
I always carry a small tube of antibiotics with me, along with a topical fungicide. So I moved the slit in his skin around until I found the puncture in his muscle, then I squirted the antibiotic cream deep into the hole. I put some cream on the skin slit and that was it. He was stoned but managed to thank me for "fixing him."
Yeah, I hate these switch-blades ... at least these four blades aren't being used any more.
