A Woman With A Bruise In Her Eye

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Now I'm not going to lie to you. I've deliberately altered some of the facts so that the woman concerned and/or friends/family will not be sure that it's her I'm talking about. In it's essence though this is completely true.

So at work yesterday. Saturday. Nothing much really happens except that I was doing my job.

Then I saw her.

A description of the woman is unimportant. She could have been eighteen or eighty, have an hour glass figure or take an hour to walk around it does not matter. All that matters was her left bruised eye.

I have been (and I'm not sure it's best word to describe this) fortunate that outside television or newspapers never to have seen a person with a bruise on their face. So it came as a shock. The eye itself was puffed up cartoon style. Eyelid was almost totally olive green and underneath the eye was a large smear of purple bruise. Nobody that saw her could have avoided looking at it.

Asked what happened. She must have been used to this conversation for the past few days,but calmly and politely responded that she'd walked into a door that was suddenly swinging open. A lot of swearing her story continued then took place.

Now I'm not saying that the woman was lying. I have no idea. I'm not a detective. But you could not help but recalling stories of people, particularly women, who have bruises on their faces and put it down to unfortunate "accidents" when asked. Either from fear or embarrassment. But then there is a final blow,punch,strike which results in severe long term injury and sometimes even death.

Of course there was nothing I could do. Her position was clear. It was an accident and for all I knew that's all there was to it. It did occur to me though (and I admit that this idea is not thought through) that should anybody (woman, man, child) have a bruise on their face that the police are aware of then it should be put on a database for a six month period. After this period the information is wiped off the system unless another injury to the face is noticed between that time when the police would automatically investigate whatever story the injured person gave.

Would such an idea stop people who physically abuse others? Of course not. But if one menace is off the streets because of this then it would be worth it.

Until the next time.