The Gift

Waiting until my throbbing heart slowed a bit, I sat on the edge where I jumped on. Everyone waited patiently while my heart slowed, and I was ready to do it again.

“Alright everyone, back into positions,” I announced. “The train is ready to leave the station.”

The three kids got back into their positions. Each facing outwards, up against the upside-down U-shaped bar, so they could let go and let centrifugal force hold them up against it, putting their arms up in the air and not fear falling off or going flying.

I start to run and as I get up to speed, I stumble and let go a second too late. If I had been able to let go a fraction of a second sooner, I might have been able to run it out and stay upright.

Instead, the inertia overcomes my balance, and my feet fall behind my upper body as I start to go face first into the somewhat protective mat covering the ground. As fate would have it, I didn’t think ahead and was running counterclockwise, which means that my right side was the first to hit as I tried to twist so my face would be spared.

Now, the mat is here to absorb quite a bit of impact, but not all of it. Add to that I fell directly on my right side where my central line is, well, just say I bounced and rolled onto my back and couldn’t see the ceiling due to the black haze and bright white stars that blocked my vision.

Holy Mother of All That’s Good, that hurt, I think unable to do anything but lay there. Thankfully, I was able to repress the urge to barf.

The black haze started to lift a little and I could vaguely make out Ben’s face looking down at me. I wonder where his glasses went but couldn’t ask. I was having a hard enough time just breathing.

“Amanda are you alright?” he asks. I can hear he is scared. “I’m so sorry. I should have seen that. It’s all my fault. Please tell me you are alright.”

I either moan or groan, I’m not sure which. Pain is lancing its way through my whole body, starting at my collarbone, and radiating out to my fingers and toes.

Even through all the pain I feel tears slowly making their way down the sides of my face. I hear Ben tell someone I can’t see to call for help and a minutes later I’m lifted onto a gurney.

Ben has a hold of one of my hands. I know because it’s my size and I hear him refuse to let go. “Is it really worth arguing with a blind kid over?” I hear him yell.

I guess he wins as the hand doesn’t let go of mine as I’m taken into the emergency room and examined. In X-ray, I hear him tell someone that he’s due for radiation treatment anyway, so what’s a little more and his hand stays in mine through the x-rays.

Several times he says he should have seen this, and I wonder why, since he’s blind, duh, but for some reason I’m unable to talk.

I think I either pass out or am given mediation because the darkness returns, and I no longer know if Ben’s hand is in mine or not.