I Ain't Gonna Give Up

Waking Up

  I heard voices blocked by a dark curtain whom I couldn't see past. Then came the terribly awful pain that throbbed through my entire body. My first thought is that I'm dying when I see foggy light. I try to run away but all too quickly I'm jerked to it, and to even worse pain.

  I let a moan that sounded like wounded death escape my lips. Then I heard terrible piercing squeals as I see a foggy version of my sister come towards me causing more deathlike sounds to come from me. next thing I hear is clicking and someone scolding Leyla. Then the bliss of darkness came again.

  When I woke up again, if you call this terribleness waking up, I heard nothing but the beeping noises of a machine next to me. As the world would have it my eyesight was a little clearer and when I looked across the room I saw my mom sleeping in a chair in a curled up position with pure dread written across her face. No one else is in the neat and sanitary room.

  I finally look down at my own body with a surge of bravery. The sight caused me to shut my eyes fast. One of my legs was broken with the other stitched up the entire outside of my left leg. My left arm was in a cast with each finger sticking out stitched up. I look in the mirror at the end of my bed and can't believe what I see.

  My entire face is bruised and it looks as if my face was shattered and then put back together by a two year old. Now I know why my visions so fuzzy, my eyes are open but I have a feeling they aren't quite right like the rest of my face.

  I close my eyes and think of how stupid I was to let my hand get tangles in the reins and the reins in the rope. Some would say it was nerves but I say it was a sign. A sign its time to hang up the rope.

  My mom starts to stir and sits up and rubs her eyes. She looks and sees me and is about to speak when I ask a question before she can even start.

  "How's Windshine?" My voice quivers as I say her name. The silence in the room was almost enough to kill me as my mother took her time to find her words .

  "When you fell of she tried to jump over you to keep from hurting you, but instead she kicked you, when she felt you against her hoof she borough up her front hooves just to trip over the reins and fall on her gaskin. When she fell on her gaskin her neck also hit the ground, twisted and broke. They made her misery go away with one shot." Tears are streaming down her cheeks as well as mine. Most would wonder what fourteen year old boy would cry, but I take no shame in my misery .

  "Where is she now?" All I wanted to know now was that my best friend was in a happy place so I could at least know she rested in peace.

  "Up on your Uncle Johns place. She's real happy there Will, it is where she grew up." She tries to make the illusion that everything is fine, but I know better .

  "I'm never gonna be in another rodeo, let alone ride another horse." Quietly but surely I say this, with emotions thick and doused with sincerity.

  "Will don't say that!" And hearing that I turn around knowing nothing will get her to stop except for me to stop talking.