Cut to the Quick

Sid could see “meat.” Instinctively, he grabbed his leg and began applying direct pressure to the wound. [More]

This makes me think back to when my father was declining, confined to a bed in the memory ward. I was opening a box in his room with a knife and he looked up at me and motioned with his hand to cut away from myself -- there was enough of him still inside there to know and to want to communicate that to me.

To this day I cannot cut open a box without playing that scene in my head.