Out of My Heart: Chapters 27–36

Wednesday started off kind of weird and wild. When we got to art, we were told to take off our shoes. Huh? Trinity laughed, teased me about stinky feet (I'm sure they weren’t), and explained that we were going to make footprints.
For somebody who had never walked before, this was intriguing.

“You okay?” Karyn asked Jocelyn, concern in her voice.
“Yeah, all good now,” Jocelyn replied, looking over toward a swath of yellow daisies decorating the edges of the grassy area by our cabin.

“It’s like we’re little kids!” Jocelyn added.
We were all scowling now.
Athena picked up some grass and tossed it around her head. “They just expect us to do what they say—”
“Like we’re babies!” Karyn added, huffy.

Then...we just left! As quietly as we possibly could. Chipmunks skittered in front of us as we rounded the first bend.

She and Jocelyn got on either side of Karyn’s chair and pushed. And heaved. And pushed some more. Karyn’s face was red with exertion from trying to roll the wheels with them. Even I managed to give Karyn’s back wheel a kick.

Lulu: “Do you have any idea how upsetting it was to come back and find you all gone? We were terrified.”
Jocelyn: “We weren’t lost.”
It went eerie quiet again. My friends had to be wondering what was going to happen next.

Then Trinity spoke up again. Her voice was gentle and kind of blue-sounding, but the edges were bright orange. She was still mad. “What were you thinking?" she asked again, sounding honestly perplexed. “You all could have gotten hurt!"

Athena responded, her voice sullen, “Nobody got hurt. We had fun.”

“But first, if you girls don’t mind,” Sage said, “can we have lunch now? I’m famished.”
The chicken noodle soup had gone stone cold, but somehow, it was especially delicious.

“Two points for a great catch!” Athena cheered.
“Huh?”
“Fiery Falcon rules,” Karyn quipped.
All right then. Two points for me.

I glanced over at my friends. As if they’d choreographed it, they all gave me a thumbs-up.

After a smooshed spaghetti dinner, a nice cool slushy drink—ah! strawberry! I drank three—and the inevitable change into orange shirts—yep, that box was truly bottomless—it was Fire Time.

“This seat taken?” Noah asked when he reached me, rubbing his hands over his head.
I waved my hand, hoping it translated into It's all yours. I guess it did, ’cause he stopped there and leaned into his walker like he was leaning against a wall—all nonchalant. He stood there for a minute, then plopped into the chair as if he’d planned to all along.

Dark in the city and darkness way out in Penny’s “forest” were two different things. Here, it was like the dark had sucked all the essence from the day and taken hold, and like they said in horror movies, Darkness Rules! From a distance it was hard to distinguish trees from bushes, branches from brambles.

Dark in the city and darkness way out in Penny’s “forest” were two different things. Here, it was like the dark had sucked all the essence from the day and taken hold, and like they said in horror movies, Darkness Rules! From a distance it was hard to distinguish trees from bushes, branches from brambles.

Hopefully, no skunks. They’re nocturnal; it was pretty rare that we met our stripy buddy yesterday. They had their business to do, and so did I—I wasn’t out looking for introductions!

“I’ve never rumbled in my life!” I tapped.
Everyone cracked up. And yeah, I pretty much loved that I made everyone laugh.
Trinity rolled her eyes at me half in jest and went on.

“I can run faster, faster, faster than anybody I know,” Jocelyn asserted.

“Well, Balloon Ball is a little like soccer, but not really,” Sage explained. “The object of the game is to get balloons across the field and into the goals, and..." She thrust her hands with a who knows? kind of shrug. ‘See, balloons are notorious for not following any rules at all! They just float and glide and drift on the air....”

A minute later the Blue Badger guys showed up. They’d gone the streamer route too—blue metallic—plus banners.
Only the Purple Panthers hadn’t arrived, and yeah, I felt a twinge of worry. I’d really hoped Noah would be there.

When Malik rolled in with Brock, I couldn’t believe it—not only did he have purple streamers flying from the back of his chair, but his hair was purple!
Athena was thunderstruck. “How’d he do that?”
“Red and blue food coloring from the kitchen, probably,” Sage said, sounding impressed.

With a purple-striped bath towel wrapped around his neck like a superhero cape, Noah strutted forward on his walker.

Jeremiah brought up the rear, toting a massive plastic bag of purple balloons.
“The Purple Panthers are in the house!” he announced through a megaphone.

Devin, with his electric wheelchair, could maneuver on his own, and Santiago, with Noah behind him to help, lined up at their start, looking all kinds of smug.

Cassie double-checked that they all had a balloon, then bellowed, “Are you ready?” Fist pumps said YES! So she rang a bell—an old-fashioned, ding-a-ling school bell like you see in movies—and Athena, Jocelyn, Devin, and Santiago were off!

But neither of the Panthers could keep up with Athena. She ran full speed down the field. She kicked, and ran, then kicked again and ran, so focused, connecting with her balloon over and over, but the balloon seemed to have other ideas. Her face was flushed, and her forehead sweaty. I hollered so loud for her my throat got raspy.

Then Athena, who had steadily worked her way back to the goal, went to tap her balloon in. It got caught on a wisp of air, and, oh no! It floated right into the guys' box! Arghhhhh! Everyone froze—how was that counted?

My wheelchair actually has straps on the footrests that keep my legs from kicking out involuntarily.

“My dad delivered me like he was some kind of professional, or so he tells me. By the time the medical folks had rolled out a gurney, I was already here.”
He paused. “But there were complications. The doctors tried to convince my dad it wasn’t his fault, but I know he still kinda blames himself that I wasn’t breathing when I came out.”

Noah continued, “I ended up with what I call a ‘brain fart.’” He breathed out in a sort of wistful way.

So here I was, a girl sitting there in a wheelchair at a stable. And hulking over me was a six-hundred-foot-tall horse. Okay, maybe six feet. But IT WAS A HORSE!

My chaotic brain was working overtime, but the Let's do this! side was winning.

Trinity held up a hand as if to say, Calm yourself. She was right, I did need to calm myself! “As for you, you get airlifted into place. See that machine by the stable hands over there? It’ll lift you up, place you in a specially designed saddle right in front of me. I’ll buckle you into place, and off we’ll go!”

She fit a black riding helmet on my head—just like the ones that real equestrians wear. I hoped those picture-taking people were catching all this!

Jolie moved forward, and I gasped and lurched forward, but then I was okay.