Morning woke up the city in a warm shake. By the time the sun had risen above the horizon, Katrina had been up and out of her queen sized bed and checking her phone to find out what happened since 12 am last night. She heard Sara rustle in her bed next door as Elibeth, their housekeeper, woke her up with a jolt of EDM on full blast from a Bluetooth speaker.
Her phone read off 158 new messages as she flash-showered, put on a cute outfit and colored her face to look a few years older. By the time she slipped on her new flickback heels, she had been caught up on all of the drama and problems surrounding her friends and had even added her own opinions to the multimedia chatroom they all shared. Some of the advice felt evil to give, but she always gave herself reasons for it. It was a popular-eat-popular world at her high school, even if she had inherited the chaos; she still had to earn it, even if it meant pruning the tree here and there. Yet there was one friend she truly loved. Her younger sister was a treasure Katrina would never give up. Sara was good and very resourceful, but Rhonda... Rhonda was too precious, too innocent, to allow others in. The thought of her being hurt in any way shook her bones in the worst kind of chill.
On a different note, her phone gave an exciting notification beep. Her favorite media-cast updated with a new episode!
He called himself "The Ballroom Philosopher" and he gave insights on things she would never catch by herself. He sounded pretentious and overly complicated, but that was what drew her to him. Not that she had a crush on him -hell, she never even saw his face!- but that he spoke of truths only a 20-something year old guy could make while living in a one-bedroom apartment, wearing the same clothes more than once a week, and eating eggs and toast 2 meals a day. That lifestyle didn't interest her except in the chance that she might be able to learn more about life through him. So she listened to his 35-minute long daily podcast while oblivious to the beautiful world outside, on the way to school.
However, there was one thing she always did, even if she was running late and skipping breakfast to hop into the limo to school, not even to grab her homework...
...
Rhonda waited patiently as her best sister Katrina gathered up her knapsack, tablet and head-buds before saying goodbye to her. She kissed her gently on the forehead in the shape of an 'O', her favorite letter, before whispering her favorite words in her ear:
"I love you"
It was the only words Rhonda could say clearly. Yet they meant more to her than being able to say the whole dictionary.
The door closed behind her with a small click as she wobbled down the rest of the wooden stairs, her legs flailing underneath her. Elibeth helped hold Rhonda's fragile body as they slowly descended to the kitchen.
It had taken her only 30 minutes to get dressed to show Katrina her new favorite blouse-and-skirt, the one she had bought for her. Rhonda was so proud that she couldn't wait to wear it.
The youngest Gevra sister had to keep her eyes closed as she had woken up. The light of the morning stung her eyes like sharp needles and her lack of balance caused the world to spin around her. The only remedy she found best was to shake her head up and down while grinding her teeth. Sometimes it was too hard for her to violently shake that much, so she stopped and allowed herself to try and handle the pain. This would go on while Elibeth shut the blackout shades and dimmed the lights in the room.
As they lumbered into the kitchen, she knew to strap herself into her specialized high chair, complete with steadying gloves and gel-leg rests to help her erratic body calm down. The moment she felt secure inside of its warm embrace, she no longer felt like she fell through the air, constantly tumbling past clouds as the ground whipped across her view. Now at least she felt like she sat in a roller coaster- at least she felt protected. Elibeth prepared her breakfast as Rhonda practiced her breathing exercises and reviewed the day's plans. She was going to finish learning how to say those words and how to cut out and paste shapes onto their correct spaces so she can finally start learning other things.
But she was trapped. She could barely say anything. She could barely control herself. She wanted to scream out to Katrina, to Elibeth, to Sara, to her parents, that she wasn't weak. She wasn't out of control. That she was normal like everyone else. But she just had a few more roadblocks to deal with than others, a few more kinks in her system that needed to be fixed.
But when her head wasn't spinning, the light piercing her skull, sounds ringing in her ears, the feeling of the ground overwhelming her legs, she tried to practice her basic ABC's. She couldn't get past "Q", no matter how hard she tried.
Maybe that will change today.
If only she could make a way for her mind to speak for herself, instead of needing a mouth...
Even with all of those problems, she still enjoyed her oatmeal, no matter how plain it was, trying as hard as she could to keep control of her hand from feeding the bib tied around her neck. She gulped down her strawberry-banana smoothie, even though most of it missed her mouth, and grumbled as best as she can to say "Thank You" to Elibeth.
"Drrrnku"
Thank you.
"'Mrtgonuuuu."
I'm ready to go now .
Thankfully, Elibeth learned how to help people like Rhonda, especially when the youngest Gevra was just a young girl. She lovingly unstrapped her and held the little girl safely to her chest, as she slowly led her to the classroom next door to continue their lessons.
No comments:
Post a Comment