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*I'm sorry it's so long I wrote it for an english grade and I just wanted to put something else on here sweatdrop You may still read it if you want to though.*

“It was a tough day today,” said James Wheelfield to the mirror, in a rough, old voice. Usually he would look at himself in disgust, but today he didn’t feel as bad. He had just put his granddaughter to sleep, and he finally rolled his wheelchair to the kitchen table where his wife, Mary, was sitting. She’s a little old woman, and a kind, smart one, too. As he came in to sit next to her, she slowly looked up at him with sad blue eyes. He knew she hated it when he acted disappointed and hurt. “I had a better day today. I met a few people that actually talked to me and didn’t stare,” He said, “This Harris Teeter job is fine, I mean, I get to meet new people and I get paid, while the boy is at his job making his own money. Oh, and his little one is finally asleep,” he said in an exhausted voice. In the silence he suddenly heard little feet pitter pattering and coming quickly down the hall.
Then he heard that little, angry voice coming from around the corner. “I want to know!” said Persy, his son’s eight year old daughter and his only granddaughter. The only hard thing to deal with when you watched over her was that she never took no for an answer. She stuck to what she wanted, whether you told her no or not but she wasn’t mean about it. She thumped into the room and collided with a chair that she slowly dragged up next to him. “Please, just tell me how your accident happened.”
Ever since she became older, well, since she turned five and started to notice the world around her, she always wanted to know the accident that made him be in a wheelchair. She had always asked her dad, his son Wes, in a quiet voice when he would take her to bedroom to go to sleep or when they were in a separate room, but Wes always wants his father to tell her the story since it is his story.
He gave a big sigh and glanced at Mary, who was looking at him with an anxious look. He looked back at Persy and gave one last sigh, “Fine, I will tell you…”
“Back then, I was a tall, lean, and tough boy,” He smiled at Persy and at himself, thinking of his words as he began the first part of his story and thinking of those days when he was younger made him furthest away from depressed. He went on and said, “I played basketball, I loved that game with all the passion that seemed possible, and I didn’t think it would end so soon…” Suddenly he was back to his younger years.
“Come on! It’s one race! If you do this, I won’t ever ask you again,” said Terrance.
James had known Terrance since his freshman year in college and Terrance had always thought that James was too crammed into his books and stressed to ever have a real “exciting and reckless” life, but that’s because he was practically the opposite of what James was. Terrance was a rebel, he always liked to live life on the edge and was never serious about anything, but when it came to school he was surprisingly smart. “No! Give it a rest,” James said.
“But, it’s one little race,” Terrance urged. “All you have you do is go up this road and around that turn,” he pointed to the turn up ahead, “You’ve never done anything fun in your life or at least not when you were in college. We have just graduated college and now, I want you to have a fun experience that you’ll remember for the rest of your life. I’ll never ask you to do this again.”
James stared at the turn trying to find out what the point of this race would be, and sure, it’s not too far, he said to himself. All he had to do is say the word the one word. “Fine,” James said in a sigh, mumbling the word under his breath so only Terrance could hear it. As soon as he said the word he got a cold chill down his spine. He had a VERY bad feeling about this, but Terrence doesn’t let anyone back away from their words and James couldn’t back down now.
“Finally,” Terrance cheered, as he ran to get into his red sports car that he got from his parents.
James gradually got into his little, white used Mercedes, which was about five years old. James had always thought that his car was an old man, not being able to get on their feet very easily and slow, with a slight stumble, but that day James was proven wrong. He turned back to see his friends before he closed the door. When he glanced back at them, looking at their excited faces, one face stood out and caught his attention. It was a girl’s face, Mary’s face, and unlike the others she looked nervous.
A clank of a glass on the rough wooden table brought him back from the memory, it was Mary. James knew she could never stay still when he tells the story of his accident. It always gives her chills and flashbacks of the terrible day. He glanced at Mary who was staring into her, almost full, glass of water and then he glanced to Persy. Persy was leaning toward him with her chin in her palms, trapped and being pulled in by every word he said. He slowly cleared his throat and went on, going back to his younger days. When he went back it felt like he was watching the memory, watching it like a show on TV.
The darkness of the night was slowly dragging in and the road seemed to get foggy. He turned the car on and stared at the steering wheel. When he pulled his thoughts together he looked over to Terrance, who had a “ready when you are” look on his face. James nodded his head and heard Terrance honk the horn of his car once. Then James heard a responding honk from one of his friend’s car’s coming from behind them. James knew the honk meant that the third honk they heard would be the “Go!” One honk sounded, then another, he was practically counting the seconds until the third honk. In those last seconds, he noticed that he was on the side where the ditch was. The ditch didn’t have a huge drop, but it could do some damage if I went into it. He prayed that I wouldn’t. Suddenly, he heard the third honk, and they were off.
It seemed like a thrilling blur past that point. The most that he can remember was the fog that seemed to have piled up as soon as they heard the third honk, but James also remembered the jerk of speed in the accelerator, which surprised him.
He zoomed past Terrance and was blind of the turn coming up. All he could think about at that moment was that this race had brought a since into him, the feeling of power, and then he panicked. He forgot how to slowdown and the fog seemed to make him think that the turn was further away then it was. As soon as the fog slightly cleared and he saw the turn, closer than he thought it would be. His car rolled off the pavement, as soon as he hit the break to try to stop his car. When he hit the side of the ditch his car was smashed and he knew it. His head was spinning and when he looked over the air bags, he noticed the front window had shattered and the side windows were cracked. He tried to move, but he couldn’t, he felt like his muscles and bones were frozen tight and weighed a ton. When he tried to move his neck, pain rushed into his body like a swarm of bees and his head starting to throb. He heard Terrance’s car screech to a stop behind him and he heard screaming and an ambulance that had been called. Terrance ran to James’s window, but he couldn’t open my door. After James saw Terrance’s expression of a dear in the headlights, and slowly backing away, he became scared, but heard an ambulance. People were rushing and finally one man was talking to him and trying to get him to talk to him.
“Are you ok? Can you hear me?” He franticly said, but then tried to make his voice calmer.
James just stared at him.
“Don’t move!” The guy from the ambulance ordered.
Too late! James thought, almost laughing, as he waited for the guy to come back, I already tried, but that didn’t go so well, and then oddly enough with everything else going on, James only heard the rest. He guessed he blacked out because he heard the long, sharp pitch of the sirens and his friends franticly pleading and asking if he was going to be ok, the next thing he knew he was being put in a stretcher and then that was the last thing he remembered.
When he woke up he was in the hospital and surrounded by his family, Mary, Terrance, and a few others. They smiled at me and they all talked for a while. Terrance apologized a million times and wouldn’t stop; as James started getting annoyed he looked at my mom. She looked sad and acted like she was holding something back that was important. He tried to move so he could sit up and get a better look at everyone, but he couldn’t. He got confused and looked at his family. He moved my arms, they worked fine, his head, still on his neck, his fingers, bruised, but he couldn’t move his legs or his feet. He panicked and then suddenly a doctor came in. They took some tests and said that he had been sleeping for quite a while. He wondered what day it was, but first he needed to find out what was wrong with him. He tried to find the words but was too distracted, wondering why his legs wouldn’t move. “What’s wrong with me?” I finally said. Not knowing if I really wanted the answer to his question.
“Well,” the doctor said. “First thing’s first, I’m Dr. Hope,” She smiled at James.
James couldn’t help, but get angry. “What is wrong with me!” he said, almost yelling.
“Well, you have a concussion, some scratches, bruises, and stitches, and--” She slowly looked at James’s family.
Feeling uneasy and worried James glanced around the room, before he could collect his thoughts and make theories as of what was wrong with him she cut him off.
“James, I’m so sorry to tell you this, but by your accident and the records it looks like you are paralyzed from the waist down.” She spit out guardedly and then took a step back like she was going to get hurt by the news. She stared at James for a while.
James couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Wha—, What? What do you mean?” he said.
She glanced at James and said. “Well, you can do physical therapy, but it’s going to be hard.”
James thought over what she said. “OK, Okay! I’ll do it! When? Where?”
“You’ll have to talk about that with your family,” She said.
After the days in the hospital, a few months later James married Mary. He found out half a year after that, that she was pregnant, and I now he had a son that he could learn how to walk with while he was going through rehab. The great news that he knew he was proud to tell Mary came to his mind. One morning in their house, he looked at her and smiled and she looked at him puzzled. “Rehab’s again tomorrow,” he said with a smile. “I’m getting better at this walking business,” his smile brightened. She smiled back at him and gave me a hug in congratulations.
James came back from the memory and glanced around the table at Mary and Persy. “I was lucky that day.” he said. “I soon found out later that Mary had been the one that called 911. I will always remember that day, the feeling of speed was amazing, but the feeling of a life that might have been lost was terrible, especially since it was mine. I lost my job and game that I loved, but I could have died and I could have not been walking today if I didn’t work hard at what I set as a goal for myself.”
He looked at the two faces that were still mesmerized. Mary was glancing up at him and down to her hands and Persy was slouched back against her chair. He took a deep breath when he heard Wes open the door; he was coming back from work. Wes is a tall and lean man, and James knows that Wes is a man. His son is taking care of his father and his daughter with the help of his mom and he is the world to James. James took another deep breath and smelled the fresh air that rushed in the room when Wes closed the door. James could taste the sweet mist of the night air, and he could hear the animals, either coming out to hunt or settling in. He looked at his family again and he knew he had to add what he was thinking in his head. “Now, that race also made me lose the car that I did not appreciate before the wreck, but the worst thing that could have happened to me didn’t. I am not dead,” he said in a satisfied voice. Persy blinked at the thought and looked at her dad who nodded and didn’t know what to say. Persy slowly got up from her seat and hugged Mary goodnight. When she got to James she seemed to give him a longer hug then the other. James could feel the curiosity running through his granddaughters brain, but him and her both knew that, that story was enough for one night. James smiled and said, “Good Night!” as Persy was heading for her room with her dad at her heals, while Mary went to the sink to put away her glass, now empty.

leave a comment if you have any suggestions that you would like me to change in what i have written or if you just have a comment.