Kyle sat in his wheelchair watching the other kids swimming. He felt sorry for himself since his parents said he couldn’t swim anymore. He had Multiple Sclerosis and was confined to a wheelchair.
He watched Dylan dive into the water from the high dive. "I wish that I could do that," Kyle thought. "I know M.S. hits everyone differently but why did it hit me so hard and fast?"
Grabbing a towel, Dylan got out of the pool and dried his face off. He noticed that something was troubling his brother. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing really,” Kyle replied. “You dove really well!” He tried his best to sound cheerful.
“Kyle, what’s wrong,” insisted Dylan.
“I’m fine. I just wish I could get in the water again,” Kyle confessed.
“Maybe you can. I don’t see why not and it might even do you good! We’ll have to look into it."
The next day, Dylan and Kyle called the M.S. Society. It turned out that getting in the water was good for M.S.! The water would even help strengthen his body. Kyle started the aqua-therapy program the next week at his local YMCA.
"I can actually do this," Kyle thought. "Sweet!"
Deb Hockenberry [Altoona, PA] is 56 years old and has M.S. herself though it's not as bad as Kyle's. She writes children's articles, non-fiction and fiction stories for magazines. She is currently working on a childeren's chapter book.
© 2008 Deb Hockenberry. Original for CCF (Hockenberry grants CCF first electronic rights for one month; CCF may archive the material indefinitely and include it in an eBook anthology).
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