"Ask away." "Okay, but if you don't want to tell me, I can respect that." She paused for a moment and looked at me before asking, "How'd you end up in a wheelchair, Miles?" I knew she would ask someday, and I knew I couldn't keep it buried inside me forever. I took in a long breath and looked out at the ocean. "My biological family and I were driving back from a wedding. It was my dad, my mom, and my little sister. I was only 9 years old. My dad was carrying a bottle of liquor he snagged from the bar, drinking it on the drive home. My mom tried to stop him, telling him to stop drinking and trying to take the bottle away from him. But he was persistent, and while fighting over the bottle with my mother, and his foot slamming the gas pedal, we swerved into a telephone pole and the car flipped over. It killed my mother and father instantly. My sister and I passed out, but we were alive. It felt like we were stuck in that car for years until an ambulance arrived. When I woke up in the hospital, I couldn't feel my legs. They were completely paralyzed. I started to freak out. "Where am I? Where's my family?" I cried out. A doctor came in and sat next to my bed. And the words he spoke will haunt me for the rest of my life. He said, "I'm sorry, but your mom and dad died instantly in the car crash. There was nothing we could do." Tears were welling up in my eyes. "What about my sister, Katie?" I asked in desperation. He paused for a moment before replying, "No. She bled out quickly after we got her out of the car. I'm sorry." Everyone in my family was dead. I was put into a wheelchair, going to physical therapy often as I was transferred to an orphanage. I spent 5 years of my life there, watching adults choose the other kids around me. Then eventually, Tom and Susan came around, and adopted me. I really do appreciate and love them, but I will never call them Mom or Dad. That would just be too painful for me."
