The Forgettable Life of Delphine Clemens

Part 1

I had always known that I would be special but not that it would be so bad. I never knew that it would be so bad that I would have to drop out of school. Or so bad that I would get teased on the playground and forced into a wheelchair. Not so bad that it was almost certain that I would die.

    The sky outside the window appeared an azure blue and speckled with white puffy clouds. Sunlight forced its way through the glass of the hospital and into my room. I wished that I could feel the sand between my toes or the rush of joy as I went down a winding rollercoaster again instead of being stuck in a hospital, waiting day and night for a verdict.

    I wish the playdate could come now. I had been swinging back and forth on the swing set, surrounded by the colourful playground and the sounds of eight-year-olds laughing. She had stood next to the swing, never quite making her presence known. Like if she folded up enough, she would disappear. My sneakers screeched to a stop on the sterilised playtop. I had never seen her before.

"I'm Anne," she said in a soft voice.

She had mousy brown hair that was patchy and thin, with piercing green eyes.

I responded, "OK! Come swing with me! I'm Delphine."

Anne sat down on the rubber red swing and rocked her legs so she would swing like a pendulum. She looked at me curiously as if I was something that she'd never seen before. I looked down at her pale blue jacket and saw that she had a sky-blue sticker of Rainbow-Dash from My Little Pony.

"Oh!" I exclaimed looking at the sticker, "I love her!"

Confusion flashed in her eyes for a second and then she looks down at her sticker.

"Oh. Yeah I like her too."

We sit in silence for a few awkward moments and then she peels the sticker off her jacket and sticks it to my shirt.

She says, "Here, you have it. I have more."

She pulls out a sheet of rainbow-dash and pinkie-pie stickers. Her sneakers squeaked to a stop and she asked,

"Do you want to come over after school Monday?"

I respond happily, "Of course!"

    I was in the hospital's playground. My mum called from under the shade of the pine trees,

"Delphine! We have to go!"

I nodded and clamped the rubber soles of my shoes down onto the playtop. I stood up and faced Anne staring into her green eyes.

I said, "Meet here tomorrow?" Anne nodded and I said,

"Bye-bye! See you later!"

Anne waved from the swing and I waved back as I wheeled to my mum. My mum stood up and brushed the pine needles from her jeans. She took my small hand into her grasp and we walked up to the hospital room.

    I jolted up in bed, remembering that I had to meet Anne. I cried out from my bed,

"Mum! Can I go to the playground? Please please please take me!"

My mum showed up in the doorway, her shadow contrasting against the light in the room.

"Ok I guess," she replies.

I slowly shuffle down the stairs, ignoring the fact that I should be in my wheelchair--that would take longer. Each step is a stretch for my short, stunted legs. I lean on the railway and let out a breath. My mom holds my arm and I lean heavily on her for support. I slowly walk onto the colorful playground, no longer filled with kids running around and playing. I croak,

"Anne?"

But she is nowhere to be seen. I shuffle around the playground, looking in the little nooks and crannies, on the slide, by the swings, but I see nothing. No Anne.

    I wonder if Anne is sick, like me. Her hair had looked weird and patchy, like it had been torn out. I had seen other kids like that, but they always left so soon and never came back. I began to cry. What if she just disappeared like the other kids with the patchy hair? What if she never came back at all? Rivulets of tears ran down my cheeks, forming raindrops that plopped down onto the rubber playtop and dissipated. I ran my hand down my scarred and deformed face, wishing with all my heart that she was here with her Pinky-Pie and Rainbow Dash stickers, sitting beside me on the red swing.

    I sit on the swing, swinging my weak legs back and forth. My mum sits under the pine tree, reading a book. A sudden pain arcs through my head and seems to melt into every particle of my being. I scream out and grab my head and fall off the swing onto the playtop. The pain is soul crushing, like it is tearing my head apart into shreds. My mum jumps up and drops her book into the dirt and pine needles. She shrieks for a doctor, but I'm in too much pain to register what she's saying. I rock forward and backwards on the ground, tears running down my cheeks. The last thing I see when I am placed on a gurney is the red swing, rocking back and forth on rubber-coated chain links. Then, the world fades into grey and black.