Happily Ever After?

• Evie Salt, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2019

I was once a normal girl, but that's history. I was five when it happened. Mum was driving me to school and I was having a tantrum. Eventually, I stopped.

I can't remember the details now. But everyday reporter comes in and ask me about it. It's horrible.

Now I'm alone in the room, hoping for my mum to come in and comfort me. The nurse quickly gets me ready for bed; my lower-body paralysis preventing me from doing this alone. I drift into an uneasy sleep and have the same old dream, the face, my mum, the car, the fall.

I stare at the clock waiting for visiting hour to end. All the parents come and make a fuss of their children. Uugghhh. The whole time I just sit there waiting for it to end.

The next morning a nurse arrives. One that I've never seen before. I don't question her as she fusses around me, taking more care of my appearance than any nurse before her. Surprisingly, I then get wheeled out onto the porch, the place we go reading time... but I'm starving! I always have breakfast at 7 on the dot!

Rich, elegant people start to arrive, I'm confused. Why are they here? Who are they? Why are they looking at me?

The nurses wheel me into the ‘waiting room'. The nurses tell me. I have never thought about it before. Where I will go when I get better.

I sit there and think. I make up my mind that I'm just never going to leave! The hospital can't run without me. I wash and care for the babies, talk to the oldies, make gifts for the nurses...

Plus, if I move to this stranger's house I won't be able to move around! I need a lift to get around and no houses in England have a lift. It's a ridiculous idea.

They tell me to start packing?! I'm not going.

I am going. They tell me firmly and then end up packing everything for me as the top half of me gets held down. The lady I am going with is called Mini. Ugh. Anyway, it's okay because I won't be living with her for long anyway. I'm going to make so much trouble that way they'll have to send me back.

They move me into Mini's car and I make a huge kerfuffle about the seat belt. When we get to her house I see that it's okay. Oh, who am I kidding, it is amazing! Apparently, she does have a lift. It's pretty small but it's still a lift; that is pretty cool. It is a start.

Mini isn't too bad. You can tell that she worked hard to get me here. I definitely prefer Mini's house to the hospital and I'm not treated like an invalid anymore.

The other day Mini asked me if I wanted to call her, ‘Mum'!!!! I said, 'Yes'.