You Had Your Eyes Wide Shut

• Marc Cetrola, Grade 3
• Short Story
• 2022

My name is Elijah! I am 12. Some children wish they got everything they wanted, anytime they wanted, whenever they wanted. That’s not me! Walking was all I’ve ever wanted.

I was involved in a bad car accident when I was just two years old. Mum and my little brother, Jeremy, were in the car too. Mum broke her wrist, Jeremy was fine, just some bruises, but I snapped my spinal cord. I suppose you could call it my unlucky day. It was from then that I became ‘that boy in the wheelchair.’

Mum and Dad love me and send me to school every day. Learning helps me be anyone I want. I didn’t play with anybody until I met two people called Quentin and Osvaldo. They didn’t criticise me, they were nice to me and we soon became best friends. I remember the day that Osvaldo and Quentin decorated my wheelchair for me with streamers, lights and rainbow wheel covers. My heart smiled that day!

Osvaldo turned to me one day and said, “Why don’t you enter the Community Wheelchair Racing Competition?” They believed I could. It was from that moment that I practised and practised at the local tracks till it was race day.

On race day, I noticed my class and teacher watching me from the sidelines with a banner that said, ‘Elijah the Great’ on it! I was fired up when the starting gun blew but when I did my first big push, I lost my balance and tumbled to the floor and fell from my wheelchair. Three of my classmates ran out and helped me get back on so I could finish the race. I came last that day.

In a flash the race was over but that day felt different. My classmates cheered me as if I had won! People saw me with their eyes open. They saw me for the first time. Before that day, they had only seen me with their eyes wide shut.