| Source: Children Come First http://www.childrencomefirst.com/leaving.shtml Contests Of all the things to happen on Memorial Day, I thought as I clamped my knee hard to my chest and writhed on the ground, trying not to scream. "Get up, Nelson," begged my brother, Ian. He leaned over me, his wide mouth hanging, his small eyes squinting in distress. "Get up, Nelson, before the ambulance comes here and takes you away from me. Get up NELSON!" he shouted in quick, panicky tones. "It's okay, Ian," I tried to say gently, but what came out of my mouth was closer to a grunt. "I'll be back. This time's not forever. I promise." "No!" he shouted and stamped one awkward foot on the compact grass. "No!" he shouted again, when the paramedics strapped me to the board. "NO!" he pleaded, as they took me away. "It's not okay." And of course, he was right. Ian was retarded, but that didn't make him stupid.
© 2007 Kathleen Dougherty. Original for CCF (Dougherty grants CCF first electronic rights for one month; CCF may archive the material indefinitely and include it in an eBook anthology). |