Kyle was sitting in his wheelchair when Karen came storming into the house. 

"I’m never speaking to you again as long as I live!" she cried.

"Promises, promises," Kyle muttered. 

"Do you know how embarrassing it was to open my flute case and find it filled with bananas instead of my flute?" she asked. "Luckily, Mr. Simmons is giving me a second chance to audition." 

Kyle scowled at Karen.  It wasn’t fair. Why was she always getting second chances?  It was Karen’s fault he was paralyzed.  If she hadn’t insisted on riding the Ferris wheel that night, they wouldn’t have been on it when the cable broke.  As Kyle rolled by Karen’s room that night, he could hear her inside sobbing.  "She’s probably crying about that stupid audition," he thought, pushing open her door. Karen looked up when he walked in.

"Kyle, I’m so sorry. I know the accident was all my fault."

But suddenly, Kyle knew that it wasn’t. "It could have happened on the roller coaster," he said, "and riding that was my idea."   

"Do you wish it had been me instead?" she asked. 

"I used to," Kyle admitted. "But now I just wish it had never happened."

© 2008 Suzannah Hayes. Original for CCF  (Hayes grants CCF  first electronic rights for one month; CCF may archive the material indefinitely and include it in an eBook anthology).