Page 149 - Student: dazed And Confused

"Hon, I'm not blaming anyone for it. It's just one of those things and you can't do
anything about it." She turned to go back down stairs and partly closed the door. "There's

nothing you can do about the wheelchair. You need it so you better get used to it."

Nice ! That was sugar-coating it.
There was no old college friend she could talk to, best mate to turn to for sympathy

and chocolate, no-one. They had all dumped her after college - they couldn't handle the

disability thing and just ran away. Why shouldn't she do the same?

Your legs work
You use them to run away
My legs don't
I never had the chance to

Why was this happening to her? Maybe it was a punishment for a crime in a past life
- karma and all that junk. Like that football twat said on telly. He said that disabled people

had all done something terrible in a past life and this was the payment for it. Cassie had a

favourite dream about smashing his kneecaps with a 5 iron for the crimes he'd committed in

this one. In spite of the chaos around her, she found a satisfied grin creeping onto her face.
The stirred up plaster dust caused a coughing fit and prevented the laugh that was coming.

"Cass ! " a male voiced bellowed up to her. "Come down here a sec." It was her

brother, Paul. Paul had the same condition as Cassie and their sister, Lauren. He'd started

using his wheelchair around 10 years ago, the same age as Cassie. At first, he had been able
to do pretty much everything she did but now he was having problems swallowing and

getting in and out of his chair. That was the scariest thing of all - knowing how things were

going to turn out and that things still had a lot more worse to get. It was just too much.

"Yeah?"
"You'll find the chair a lot easier, you know. No more praying for a rail to cling to or

something soft to fall on."

"Just the stunning lack of ramps, the rarity of disabled provisions and being
thoroughly dependant on some-one to push me around. No stress ! "

"I know it sounds stupid but a wheelchair will give you back your independence."

Did he seriously think any of these sound-bites would wash with her? "You're a smart kid - I