Wishes

Chapter 3

I wish my head would heal. I wish the pounding would just stop. I wish I could just do a giant around the bar without wiping out. I wish everyone would stop babying me. I know I don't feel fine, but I'll say or do anything to get back out on the floor. It's a gymnast's instinct to want to be out there.When we can't, we feel like a plane with stoppers on our wheels, preventing us to fly. I wish my stoppers would come off so I could fly.

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I wake up from my nap and stare at the clock: 4:55. I rest my head back down and do a double take. I been asleep for 5 hours!!! I sit up and groan. It's been four days since my injury and I'm still not allowed to practice.

The doctor said that I wasn't allowed to do anything for at least two weeks, and I have to take my medicine every six hours. I tastes horrible! The flavor is "bubblegum" but I highly doubt that.

I stand up and walk to the kitchen for my medicine but before I can get there all can see is black. Luckily I am right next to the counter and I grip it. The color starts to show up in spots and eventually I can see fine. I start towards the kitchen again, but end up in the bathroom. Lean over the toilet and puke my guts out.

My mom hears me from her bedroom and rushes in. She holds my hair from my face. I half turn around to say thank, but before I can, I'm puking again.

***

After I finally stopped throwing up, my dad came in and carried my out to the couch. I lie there beside him while he strokes my hair. Everyone says I look just like him. We have the same blonde hair, the same deep blue eyes, and the same perfect smile.

My mom makes chicken noodle soup to bribe me to take my medicine. I down the slimy syrup and almost gag it up. I pour myself a bowl of soup and waft the smell into my nose. This is my favorite comfort food of all time. "I have a surprise for you," my dad says. I give him a puzzled look. He grabs the remote and turns the tv on. 'USAG Gymnastics! Florida vs North Carolina'. I give him a smile and kiss him in the cheek.

My mom joins us to watch the meet. Florida is up on vault first. During warm-up one of the girls doesn't complete her full rotation and lands on her neck. I cringe and look away into my dads chest. I turn back towards the tv. Three paramedics surround her. She is crying uncontrollably. They put her onto a board that rises and push her out of the building to a hospital. The audience is standing. Some dads have their hats over their hearts, some are praying, and others that are close to her are crying.

"If that ever happened to you, I don't know what I would do. We are very lucky that you only had a minor concision. It could have been much worse," my mom says. I lie there thinking about what she said and slowly drift off to sleep.

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Only time can heal my head, but at least my family is there to comfort me through my recovery. They will be there to hold me down, even though I want to to fly, but if they weren't I might just die.