The Freak Accident (standard:drama, 1194 words)
Author: ak	Added: Jul 29 2003	Views/Reads: 3574/2438	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Marty falls from a ladder and is paralyzed. How can she make others understand how she feels about life?

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understand what life was like in a wheelchair.  She didn't want pity; 
she just wanted people to feelcomfortable around her.  She hated 
feeling like some alien in a metal spaceship who was visiting from 
another planet. 

“Well, I've tried to explain, and that gets nowhere,” Marty told her
best friend, Sasha who had a sister who was also in a wheelchair.  
“People still look at me like I'm sick or weird.” 

Sasha, thought for a minute about what her friend had said, “Hey, I
know, why not make a video about what its like to be in a wheelchair?  
I have a video camera, and we could write a script, you and me. What do 
you say?” Sarah enthused. 

What did Marty say?  This is what she said, “Sasha, you are a genius. 
We could make a video with your sister and me, and give it to the 
public library.  They could show it to people so they could see what 
people in wheelchairs can do.” 

By the next weekend, the girls had finished their script.  Dr. Epstein
had even drawn a diagram of the spinal cord.  It showed how messages 
went from the brain down the nerves along the spinal cord.  The 
messages ended where Marty's spinal cord was broken. That was why when 
her brain told her legs to move, they couldn't. That message never got 
to the legs.   It got as far as the break in her spine. 

The video also showed how Marty could get into cars, and into her bed. 
There was even a part where Marty got on her horse, and took her dog 
for a walk, and weeded her vegetable garden, and fixed a bar b que for 
the family.  The girls decided to leave out the stuff that showed how 
she went to the bathroom.  Although, they did explain it, and showed 
diagrams of the colostomy and catheter. 

Marty and Sasha went to the Children's Hospital rehab ward and filmed
the children who were undergoing rehab.  They wanted others to see what 
it was like to lift weights and swim, and learn to dress yourself. 

The preview was held in the community center events room.  All of Marty
and Sasha's class mates, their parents, the teachers, and the school 
principal came.  The kids from the children's ward and the doctors and 
therapists came too. 

Marty had a lot of fun acting as Master of Ceremonies.  She even had an
auction of art work done by the children in the spinal cord ward.   In 
all the proceeds were $1,000 which she donated to the spinal cord 
research. 

That night Marty thought about the “freak” accident.  She thought how
being in a wheelchair made her different, but it also had forced her to 
make her life special. She had been elected to represent other disabled 
people and educate them about disabled people.  The freak accident had 
given her the chance to change the world.  It had also made her into a 
pretty good film maker. 

Her video won the children's video award, and she got another $1,000
which she donated the children's ward. 

The apple tree had been climbing to was in bloom again.   Sometimes
Marty wheels to her backyard and looks up.  She looks, not to feel sad; 
she just tries to figure out how she can pick apples from the highest 
branch.  If anyone can climb that tree, its Marty Epstein. 


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