Legs

His sparkly golden name tag reads Fred Obes, Principal. Most of the kids at George Washington Middle despise this man.Some people call him Mr. Obese, because of his need to eat Chinese takeout had not been well, i'll say, PROGRESS for his health.He looks startled now. Shock is written on his face as Mrs. Lock tells him what happened. Me, I just stand over Ashley , trying to process it all. NO it is not real. I think of how it all happened.So quick, so fast.See, my name is Angelina, or just Angel. I come from a family of 20 children. Ashley is my twin sister. Just two minutes ago she was up in the highest tree in the school. Even though wer'e twins sometimes mother calls us a mouse and a cat.We are egzact oppisites.Ashley is defintely a tomboy. Even now she is wearing a soccer jersey. Me? I'm wearing a new dress from Justice and flats.She was up in the tree, 15 yards in the air on a medium sized branch. Then a wind came. Ash lost her balance and would have been fine(she could have landed on the branch below her like a cat)If the branch hadn't broke.Her small 4'5" body flew through the air like a paper doll. She bounced from branch to branch her hands clutching the air to find something to get a death grip on. It never came. She landed hard on the tar.A scream, a cry, of pain, a plead for help .An SOS signale. And through the midst of it all.. I didn't act didn't try to help. Maybe I was to shocked but still, I could of put out an arm, cried for help.But I did nothing. Nothing.A huge salty tear streams down my face. Then another .More and more, till I'm full out sobbing .I flung myself on the ground next to my best friend and cry a ocean.An siren wails and a ambulance screechs up the street. Right behind it a school bus. My family.(I told you we had a big family. Dad said 5 cars would cause the death of the envoirment and his wallet. He was more concerned about the wallet. So he and Mom got a license shned it up and that was that.) The bus screams to a halt and dad and Mom get out. The two baby twins Bonny and Johnny are on her hip. Jane,(5) drags behind her wailing. Dad makes the triplets (Jim ,Tim and Flynn all three years old)get out. Then they see Ashley. Quickly they rush over with a doctor handing off children to nurses. They reach me and Mother gives me a squeze."I didn't help her Mom." I sob.

"It's okay, it happened to fast."

Dad asks the Doc "Is she.."

" No, she still has a pulse.But it's shallow. We need to get to the hospital stat if she is to survive."

Nurses rush out of the ambulance as if on cue. The rest of my family was told about the accident and everyone stands around watching the nurse flurry back and forth like show poodles. Among us are Alex, my 16 year old brother, Lexi, my 13 year old sister and her twin Lainey(Can you tell mother is big on haveing multiple children?)My 22 year old sister Mary drove from her college 30 minutes away and is just pulling up, then come the quadreplts Flo, Moe, Joe and Boe from kindergarten(yes, we were on 9 news stories when mom had them) running from their teacher sobbing and flinging their arms around me.(they adore me and Ash)Here's my 15 year old sister Emily from driving school.Here come the quinuplets, all sixteen and popular(they make up half the cheerleading squad) and 15 news stories welcomed them into the world. Polly, Molly, Dolly,Folly, and Tolly. The fabulous five. Suddenly the Ambulance gears to life and mother jumps in. "Everyone! Bus! Now!!!!" Dad shouts sand we we speed out on the road leaving principal Obese coughing on black exhaust.

***

We jump out of the bus and rush into the hospital single file. The receptionist’s eye’s grow bigger and bigger as we march, all the girls sobbing, and the boys silent and dull. Dad stops at the desk long enough to ask “My daughter, Ashley Adams, where is she?”

The nurse gasps and looks ill. “You mean there’s another one?” she cries.

“Yep, twin to her “, he says and points at me.

“Room 300 and they can’t go in, except the twin I suppose; you’ll have to keep the rest in the kid’s room.., if it’s big enough.” She groans and promptly faints.

Dad sighs, and when he does he sounds old and tired, like a man that’s walked many miles. “Well,” he nods to us “Here’s the kids room… enjoy.” I look at the flashy green walls, big TV and huge playground. If we all weren’t so sad, it might be, well actually fun, but the girls sit down in chairs and cry and the boys are so sad about the fall of they’re sports playmate, they don’t even try to play a game of bloody knuckles. Little Flo stops crying long enough to grab my neck and say sadly, “tell Ashwey that I wuve her so very much, ok?” The rest of the group nods a solid aye, and then I’m off. Maybe to brave the worst, maybe celebrate, to feel pain, or forgiveness. If Ashley dies, I’ll never forgive myself. But she WON’T, she can’t be. Were getting closer as we walk down the bright,blue, golden sunny hall. I don’t get it. Our situation is hardly cheery. 294,296, 298, 300! We are finally here! Goose bumps shiver up my skin as I think of my sister. Why didn’t I help? WHY??

I push open the chocolate wood door and it squeaks. I look at the room. There is a large TV in the corner and the walls are orange. Sitting atop a high metal bed with a pink sheet is my sister. No, it’s not my sister. My sister would never allow them to take off her soccer jersey and replace it with a DRESS. A hospital one no less. A tray of food sits by her. That’s another thing. Ashley hates being waited on. She can’t stand it. She can do plenty for herself, she would have said to the smiling nurses with a sniff, and she doesn’t need anyone to take care of her, or undress her. Especially not boys. Girls have just as much rights as them and she can play soccer better than anyone in the 5th grade. Finally, she’s limp. An IV is attached to her wrist. Her face is ghostly pale and her eyelashes don’t even flutter when the heavy door slams behind me. If that was my sister, she would be up and about, asking questions, like demanding to get up out of bed and find a soccer ball because she has a game tomorrow and she bets Mia Hamm’s nurses would have let her practiced.

I rush to my sister and want to cry,“ Ash, wake up! You have to get better, I’M SO SORRY!!” Tears pour down my face like a waterfall. “Wake up, no, it’s all my fault. I feel my dad kneel beside me. He looks at his daughter, so feeble, so helpless. A single shiny tear dots the carpet and he bows his head. Oh, Lord! I cry, make her well!

Suddenly I hear a clip-clop behind me. A Doctor in a stiff white coat walks up to my Dad. “ What’s the verdict?” he whispers. The doc’s face is grim. “Not good.” He sighs, “ She has a broken lung and a fractured spine. She is in a Coma right now.” I gasp. ISN”T THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN DO? “ I burst out. He turns to me. “ I’m sorry.” He says,” But your sister is very unsteady. We’ll need to operate if she is going to live at all. She’ll be lucky if we accomplish that, and there is a 1% chance she’ll be able to walk at all. “No! NO!” I wail and run to Ashley. “I’ll never forgive myself if you die!”
***
The surgery. It’s going right inside that room. Please ,please God! I pray, let the doctors help my sister. Please. I shuffle up and down the hall. Pacing, waiting. I’m not the only one either. Flo, Joe ,Moe and Boe, all have their thumbs in their mouths and are suckig unhappily. Emily paces up and down, faster and faster. Like she does for her big tests at college. The quintuplets are so sad that they haven’t pulled out their phones for hours. Alex isn’t even hungry.


Hours after surgery the huge door opens and a Doctor steps out. He sighs and we all look at him expectedly . Out spoken Jane looks at him easily.”Let us in!” she declares like a queen. “I want to see Ashley NOW!!” The Doctors stutters, a little taken aback. “Yes, o-o-ff course.” No sooner are the words out of his mouth than we all trample him in a sea of heads. We ran into the room. Ashley was sitting up in bed looking groggy but happy to see us.Every one talked to her for a minute then went quietly out. I needed to talk to my sister.

“Ash?” I crept closer to the bed. “I..” I began to cry as I poured out my whole story, starting with how I should have helped her, and ending with, “Can you walk?”

Ashley shook her head. “ Not now not later. Never.”

“It’s all my fault!!”

“ No it is not!!! You listen to me Miss Angelina Marie Jokerson!You were not the wind that knocked me down. You were not me, who should have been more careful. You could not of helped, or you might have gotten hurt worse. You are my SISTER! I love you! I’ll even apologize if it makes you feel better! I’ve been looking up wheelchair sports, and Dad will sign me up for wheely b-ball when I get a little better. I know you’ll help me make a cool wheelchair and if anyone makes fun of me you can be my feet and I’ve still got to good fists to knock ‘em out with! I ain’t gonna let a tree make me surrender!

“No,” I whispered, “In the words of John Paul Jones,I have notyet begun to fight!”