Emily

Chapter 3

"C'mon Mom, we have to hurry! I don't want to be late!" I shout excitedly from the doorway.

Today was the day I would hopefully be getting my left leg cast off. I had already gotten my arm cast taken off last week, but this was different. If my leg was fully healed, that means that I'll be able to finally walk around. I won't have to push around in a stupid wheelchair anymore. I would be freer than I had been for the past few months.

I could feel a big smile display on my face as I wheel out of the door and towards the driveway. The excitement that I was feeling right now was indescribable. I was happy. I would be able to walk for Hannah's graduation that would be in a couple of weeks. Well, not necessarily walk, but I would be able to stand up for it at least, and that was enough.

I hear my mom laugh as she walks out the door after me, "Slow down Maggie. We still must wait for your dad to come outside so he can lift you into the car. We don't have to be in such a hurry."

I scoff, "Yes we do. The faster we get to the hospital the fast I can get this stupid cast off."

"If it's fully healed."

"It will be. I've waited this long, it will be," I say with confidence.

••••••

"Welcome back, Maggie. I'm glad to see you again," Doctor Camille tells me, and I show a big smile. Doctor Camille smiled back, clearly just as excited as I was.

"Me too. Now let's get this thing off of me," I say nodding my head towards the cast on my leg. Camille laughs slightly and nods her head.

"Alright. Mister Emsburg, could you help your daughter onto that table while I get the little saw?"

My dad nods, "Sure thing," he tells her and turns to me. "ready?" he asks before picking me up.

"Fuck yeah!" I say which makes my mother give me a glare, but Dad just laughs and picks me up with his strong arms and then sets me gently onto the table.

When I was smaller, the nurses used to give me crayons to color on the paper that was on the padded table while I waited but I would always end up ripping the thin paper and I would throw the crayons onto the floor. After that, I wasn't allowed to color at the doctor's office. I wasn't complaining though, that shit always annoyed me.

I hear the high-pitched sound of the saw start and Camille turns around holding the saw in her hand. The first time I had seen the saw and heard the head-achingly high pitch sound of it as it was coming closer to my arm, it made me a bit nervous. Then I thought, Maggie, this is stupid. You have literally survived death and yet you can't even face a stupid and tiny saw, and I then sucked up some courage and let her cut the cast off my arm.

Camille then puts her free hand on my left leg to hold it still and then begins to cut off the cast. Relief fills me as the tension on my leg that was once there, and really agitating, was now gone. My leg could finally breathe again, and this time permanently.

After my doctor gets rid of my cast, she then sets the saw onto the small little table that was in the room, "if you don't mind, and I'm sure you don't, can I move your daughter to another room to get a few X-rays of her leg? I need to make sure it has healed alright," Camille asks my parents and they nod eagerly with huge grins.

I take a deep breath and Camille takes hold of the wheelchair and directs me to the X-ray room. It was a dark room, with a metal table and a giant machine that was above it. The machine reminded me of the lamp from the Pixar animation, just bigger and bulkier, more enhanced, and with more buttons. Camille helps lift me up onto the table and my I tense at how cold the metal table was, but then regain composure.