Rewriters [Completed]

Caesar: One Wish

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Every person was probably asked this question at least once in their life. I was asked this question many times, and my answer would always be the same.

"I want to be a firefighter."

When I was a child, the teachers would smile and say it's a great job to save people. As I grew older, they gave me a mixture of stares, some worried and the others... not so nice.

I knew what they meant. Being a firefighter was a dangerous job. Since Vale highly regarded its firefighters, the requirements were harsh to prevent just anyone from joining. There has even been rumours that the training was very brutal.

My answer is still the same.

The famous firefighters of Vale's history were not born with talent. Duke J. Dale, Bertrand Roussel and Erin Dale all worked hard to earn that position. Even with the emerging age of superheroes, I admired them the most.

I admired Alexander Dale most of all, because he was an ordinary person, with a set of ordinary friends. People liked to say that he's a legend, but to me, him being a human resonated more with me.

I wanted to honour his memory by following his footsteps.

"Why do you want to be a firefighter?" Seth asked me.

I gave him a smile. "Oh, I just want to help and save people. Like Alexander Dale. I want to be like him, the kind of firefighter who also saves kittens."

"Then I want to be a firefighter like you too!"

I laughed, giving him a good rub on his head. "I want you to choose for yourself what you want to be. I'm happy you admire me, but I want you to live your own life, okay?"

He nodded seriously. "Okay."

I worked hard for my dream. When I finally graduated, I thought I was one step closer to my dream.

They say a true hero is one who could move in times of crisis. In that rainy day, when that car slid uncontrollably towards us, I moved and saved my brother.

But I wasn't fast enough to save myself.

When I woke up in the hospital, they told me that I was paralysed from my waist down. I didn't react to the news, too numb to cry or anything.

My family, on the other hand, broke down. Seth, in particular, was distraught and blamed himself for landing me in that state. I smiled and told him it's not his fault.

It was only when they left did reality finally hit me.

I couldn't be a firefighter anymore.

Even though that news tore me apart, I forced myself not to cry. If Seth saw me cry, he would continue to blame himself for the rest of his life.

So I pushed it away and continued to smile.

No matter what, I had to smile.

I had to.

As time crawled past, my body grew weaker. The strength I used to have had all but vanished. Sometimes it felt as if my whole body had been paralysed. During those times, when I was alone, tears would flow out of my eyes.

Despair is a scary thing. Once you dipped into it, you might not be able to turn back. It was so easy to think, why am I suffering for? Wouldn't it better to stop hoping when all it did was to cause more suffering?

I would then think of my family crying by my hospital bed when I was told I could never walk again. How they spent everything to help me become better again, in spite of not being a rich family.