One of a Kind

Chapter 10: When Life Hands You Crutches

It started out as an enjoyable weekend spent in the south of the country along the coast. The sun was shining bright in the sky and the Roberts family spent a good few hours in the traffic. 'The world and his wife are going to the beach today' Jennifer puffed fanning herself with a magazine, 'Mummy, I'm hot!' Elsie wailed. Jennifer fanned faster and her little girl smiled when a gust of cold air blew on her face. 'Sea! Sea!' Rachele burbled excitedly as a shimmering blueness became visible on the horizon. They all cheered as they pulled up in the packed car park, 'I know how vegetables feel in an oven now' Alex grumbled, grabbing the suntan lotion and pulling the keys out of the ignition of their black Lexus.

They meandered down a narrow path that they hoped led to the water front and when they reached the bottom, the beach was packed, as they expected, so they walked a bit further until they came to a quieter section of the beach. Jennifer and Alex laid down the towels and while she sat down to get out the sun cream; he offered to take first watch. She called Charlotte and Elsie over, putting on a layer of the stuff and slapped some quickly onto Alex's legs before he could protest. 'Hey!' he yelled as she squirted the cream onto his bare chest playfully but encouraged her when she rubbed it into the creases of his abs. He flexed his arms and picked up his youngest daughter and running into the sea followed shortly by Charlotte, who screamed as the ice cold wave hit her legs. Jennifer laughed and turned to her youngest daughter who she had left sleeping in the shade of the parasol, she rubbed some sun cream onto her baby's bare belly and then turned and put a thin layer over her own skin.

At around lunchtime, Alex and the children came back complaining of being hungry. So she stood up, tucked a £10 note into her bikini, handed her baby to her husband and set off down the beach. When she returned she had four plates of chips cleverly stacked up in one hand and a voucher tucked into the other one. 'What you got there babe?' Alex called as he went to carry some chips for her, 'rock climbing' she said triumphantly 'rock climbing?' He repeated curiously, she nodded. 'Have you ever been rock climbing before?' She asked him and he nodded slowly before shaking his head in defeat, 'I can't lie to you' he answered giving her a kiss on the cheek. 'How would you like to go rock climbing?' She asked setting the chips down, 'yeah' said Elsie 'great' said Charlotte and Rachele just replied 'what it is?' 'Yeah' added Elsie 'I'm not sure either' 'then why did you agree?' Charlotte retaliated. 'Whoa!' Alex said firmly 'rock climbing is where you get clipped to a harness and climb up a fake wall with rocks for you to hold and stand on' 'oh' Elsie said quietly. 'I can show you how to do it!' Jennifer said encouragingly and she jumped for joy when the children agreed.

Alex relaxed a little when he saw the wall, it was secure looking and the harnesses seemed strong. They watched first to see if they were safe and after a while, both parents were convinced. 'Who wants to go first?' the children looked first at their dad and then to the tall grey wall that loomed above them; they all shook their heads. Alex laughed and stepped up to the man holding the harness, he strapped him in and up he climbed. Up and up until he hit the top, he cheered and abseiled down again, 'okay' he said breathlessly 'now do you want a go?' They all shook their heads again so Jennifer went forward; the man was talking to his colleague as he clipped her in and he seemed almost careless as he waved her up the wall. She started to climb, but her section of wall began to shake rather violently as she approached the top and with a loud groan the supports slid away and the wall fell back towards the families who were waiting. Alex's jaw hit the ground as the wall came crashing down and as the dust cleared, Alex could see the men trying to prise the wall up. He ran towards the scene shouting at people to move and feared the worst as the heavy wall cracked and fell into pieces. He quickly turned his children away as he caught a glimpse of his wife but she was conscious and sat up carefully in the rubble. A large lump of rock was crushing her left knee and when the men went to lift it, she cried out in pain.

When an ambulance arrived, they had the awful job of removing the stone and Alex was almost sick when he saw her knee. It was flat and there were shards of bone sticking through the skin. The muscle was torn and her knee-cap was completely shattered. Her x-ray at the hospital was almost as bad as the injury itself, and Alex was almost relieved when the doctor wrapped her leg in a hard cast to keep it in place. She had to have minor surgery to replace her shattered patella and she was woozy when she woke up from the anaesthetic. When she was much less wobbly, a nurse helped her onto some crutches and they sent her home. 'Can I go back to work?' She pleaded as she left 'maybe not tomorrow' the doctor suggested 'maybe in a few days time?' She sighed but then suddenly brightened up and cried 'tomorrows Sunday!' 'Ah yes, so it is. Well then you may go back on Monday' she smiled and thanked him.

'Oh my God' Lynn laughed as Jennifer hopped into work on Monday 'what have you been up to this weekend then?' 'Don't get me started!' She exclaimed as she plunged into the chair wincing as she hit her leg with her crutch. 'I went rock climbing and the bloody wall fell over!' the staff gasped and the murmur of disapproval filled the air. She eats snippets of conversations; 'She should sue them!' 'I would have taken him to court there and then!'

Her form was filled more with sympathy for her than anger for the stall owner. Once she had explained the story 20 times over she stood gingerly and called for her form to sit quietly. 'Right girls' she began 'I'm going to need your help for a while and I know that I can count on you because you are always very well behaved'. So she explained this to all of her classes and soon she had girls actually offering to hand out or collect books in or to write answers on the board instead of the usual groans of 'you always pick me' or 'I don't know the answer'. She was getting more out of her classes than ever before and she was starting to enjoy being helped a bit more.

One day, she had to use the lift to go up to speak to her italian friend who now worked in the languages department and needed a bit of help controlling her classes. So when she had a free lesson she went up there to help. She could hear the class shouting as she hopped out of the lift and expected to arrive to a low year 9 or 10 set. She knocked tentatively when she got to the door, and she was very surprised to see one of her own year seven groups messing around and causing havoc. She came in quietly and suddenly snapped 'Va bene che cosa sta succedendo?' (What's going on here?) They all stared at her with fearful eyes 'bene?' (Well?). Her friend looked at her thankfully 'Grazie Signorina, stavo cercando di impostare alcuni compiti a casa' (thank you miss, i was just trying to set some homework) she replied. 'It that so?' She asked changing back to English, 'I hear that your teacher was trying to set you homework? I expect better from you year seven! I would expect a year 10 maybe even a year 9 class but never a year seven class' she said scornfully 'sono insegnati i comandi ancora?' (Have you taught them commands yet?) 'sì' 'well then' she said turning to the class 'tutti voi avete una detenzione classe domani all'ora di pranzo' she said and hobbled out as they all began to shout in protest 'I will make a longer detention' she threatened and they quietened down.