G4+Group+3

 Cannon, Rachel, and Camilia Mrs. Gardner Period 4 Language Arts October 20, 2008 Twitch //Nine seconds left and the game’s on the line, down by one. All the team has worked for, all year, comes down to this, this one moment. Coach calls timeout. First he gives the players a moment to catch their breath, and then the winning play is spoken for Anthony to score the winning basket. The ear-piercing cheer from the crowd vibrated the court. The players are ready and lined up to convert the winning play. The ball is inbounded, at half-court. Anthony dribbles the ball up to the foul line making an ankle-breaker cross-over to get by his defender. Right after, he accelerates to the basket. Clock winding down, 3… 2… 1… Anthony makes a beautiful step-back and gets a shot off right before the buzzer sounds. All was frozen as the ball made its flight to the basket. Once it came in contact with the rim, it bounced twice, then falling right through the net with a// //swoosh // //sound. The crowd jumped to their feet, screaming and cheering with joy! Anthony stood there calmly in his crimson red uniform, as if nothing had happened, he was so used to making the game winning shot. They team came running on the court and picked Anthony up, carrying him to the locker rooms, chanting “Anthony! Anthony! Anthony!”//
 * I tried formatting it into paragraphs, but it didn't change when I saved it...

He awoke to the sound a beeping EKG machine and mechanic breath of the respirator. Everything was so white. For a moment he wondered if he was in heaven, but the cheap painting and the fake leather chair in the corner gave it away as a hospital room. The air was filled with a sterile smell of cleaning fluid and hospital food. Looking down he saw the IV’s protruding from his veins and wires all twisted all over his still body draped with the sterile white sheet. A wave of confusion crashed into him, leaving him drenched in questions of how he had gotten to that uncomfortably thin mattress in that uncomfortable hospital. Minutes passed. The plain clock that hung above the door ticked painfully. He scoured his memory and looked in every dark corner of his mind in search of an explanation. Then suddenly it him- the car. It had crashed into him, so hard, so fast. The wheel took over for his hands, swerving the car off the road. The car had been catapulted down the sandy bank in a blur of headlights and pine needles. His father’s silver Toyota crashed into the tree, crashed so hard. He grimaced as he reflected upon the pain that had overwhelmed every part of his muscular body. He only remembered the pain - and then nothing…

He thought, "This darkness could not be it, there has to be something more." He strained to remember before the crash, before he got in the car. The game - he had made the winning basket! He had been on top the world. Nothing and no one could touch him, he was infallible and untouchable. Anthony had always being cocky, but it was in sports that his true self-centered ways and over competitiveness shone through. Broken memories returned to him slowly as he remembered stepping into cold air. He remembered seeing his pale breath dancing in the night air like paper dragons on Chinese New Year. He could almost feel the polyester warm-ups he had been wearing that night as he lay in bed. He had drawn the key out of his sports bag and dug it into the ignition. The car revved…

His train of thought was broken when an attractive nurse with bouncy blond hair stepped into the room. Her thin eyebrows went up in obvious surprise as she noticed that Anthony’s eyes were open and watching her.

“Oh, you’re up,” she exclaimed. Anthony tried to nod his head in response, but it ached too much. Her eyes startled as she glanced in the direction of his legs. The nurse proceeded to check his IV and inject more painkillers into the line. When she had removed the latex gloves from her tiny, nimble fingers, she turned to Anthony once more.

“The doctor will be in to see you soon.” Anthony was confused, and her weak smile at the door did not answer any questions.

It was only a few moments before an older man wearing a white lab coat over pale blue scrubs walked into the room. His graying hair made him look experienced and wise.

“Hello Anthony,” he spoke in a torn voice that sounded worn and serious. Anthony tried to respond but when he moved his lips, no words came out. The doctor spoke once more.

“Don’t try to speak, Anthony. Your condition is very serious...,” he paused and gestured to his torso, “I’m Dr. Heinz, I took care of you when you first came in, a while ago.”

Anthony choked out feeble words, “How long?.”

"Only 3 days, but with your condition time is crucial," Dr, Heinz said gravely. Anthony tried to interrupt, but Dr. Heinz was too quick in his deliverance of the news. "There's been a lot of damage."

Anthony tried to cut him off with a "what," but Dr. Heinz continued to speak softly. "The crash damaged your spinal cord," he took a long pause. "We fear that the damage might be irrevocable." He paused for a long, long time.

"You might never walk again." The doctor's voice was so quiet, that it was almost a whisper.

Anthony heard it loud and clear; it rung in his ears like a church bell clanging over and over. Dr. Heinz did not linger much longer; he left the room silently. Anthony lay silently in his bed waiting, for what he was unsure- but he was waiting.

Anthony lay there thinking how his life could go on. He had lost everything that he loved. Loneliness overtook him, creeping over him like darkness before the night. No one cared for him, no one thought about him, no one even cared that he was paralyzed. He had no hope in him; nothing could be made of his life.

He twisted his aching neck to see the surroundings of his new “home” for the rest of his life or at least a long, long time. Then suddenly there was a mutter to his right. It was a boy. He looked around the age of 15 - very slim and short, just over five feet.

He muttered “What’s your name?” It was as if he had just finished a marathon. He was completely out of breath, with his bagged brown eyes, a pale white face, and dark black hair. He did not seem to be in good health by any stretch of the imagination.

Anthony replied, “I'm Anthony. Anthony Bowden.”

The kid groaned, then stared deeply into Anthony's eyes looking, like he was drowning in the deep blue of his irises and paused for a moment. Then he spoke gravely “What’s wrong with you?”

“I'm paralyzed, from the waist down, because of a terrible car accident." The sheer horror of it hit him for the second time. "What’s your illness?” Once again he did not reply for a moment. This time he lay there and stared up at the ceiling where his gaze bounced off the shiny white tiles and back to him. Eventually, he replied “I have leukemia. It's a type of cancer. I was diagnosed with it at birth.”

Anthony did not know much about leukemia, but he knew what cancer was and how deadly it is. He gave a gentle nod and turned over on his bed with his back facing the patient. But he was not in the mood to talk to people. He wished that everything could go back to normal. No more of this paralyzed life. He knew that nothing would go back to normal. This was his life from now on, this life in a hospital without the ability to do anything for yourself, the life to rely on others to do your tasks for you. No one was going to care for him. He was alone, with nobody but this patient next to him. This was his life. He thought for a moment. Then he decided if this was going to be his life, he might as well make a friend. He turned back to his right, finding the boy staring dead at him. Anthony found this a little scary, but got over it and said “I didn’t catch your name?”

It took him a moment to respond, but then the boy said “My name is Drew. Drew Godwin."

Anthony turned to him and raised my hand out for him to shake. He reached out, but could not quite reach my hand in between the two beds. His hand was weak, flimsy, and fragile- just like his chances of survival. “Where are your parents?” Anthony turned my head to the right to answer Drew.

“Well I’ve never met my dad, and my mom… well, she’s living with her new husband in California for a while. I don’t even know if she knows that I’m paralyzed.” Anthony answered slowly.

“Oh. I'm sor—“Drew started

“It’s alright” Anthony interrupted. “I get used to it. What about your's?”

“We live in a small town called Aurora, and they don’t have a good hospital there, so I have to fly all the way over here for my treatment instead. Man, they got a really good oncology program here. At first, they came with me, but now they just stay at home because of the travel costs.”

 The days that followed their first encounter passed slowly. The snow began to melt as the chill of winter faded into the warmth of spring. Usually the lengthening of days and the more frequent appearance by the sun would be cause for celebration, but for Anthony and Drew the days fell into a rather dull routine. Much of their time was set aside for rest, but too often neither boy could sleep, so they lay awake in the dark. It was in these dark silences that they bonded, talking quietly about sports and occasionally families or secrets. Many of their conversations consisted of their luck with the ladies! In the daytime, they filled the time with colorful children’s games that filled had been placed on the bedside stand between them. Both were mostly confined to the white walled prison; Drew was too weak to walk around much and it was a hassle for Anthony to get loaded into the wheelchair. The room had a view of the grassy bank that sloped down from the hospital to a tiny placid lake. Spring had brought an explosion of brightly colored flowers that bordered the lake. Sometimes the boys would wheel over to the window to peer out at the families visiting patients, eating picnics under the towering oaks with twisted branches providing them with shade. Both were filled despair at the thought they would probably never be able to walk out of the hospital onto that green slope.

One day, in the midst of their quiet thoughts, Dr. Heinz appeared. “Drew?” said Dr. Heinz from the end of the hallway. “Let’s see how you’re doing.” Drew pulled the worn blanket up and swung his legs slowly to the floor. His legs were pale and sickly like they had never been dirty or active.

“Good luck, Drew. I hope the results are good.” said Anthony sounding almost smug.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Drew feebly hobbled down the white hallway with much difficulty and he required the assistance a nurse to support each of his frail shoulders. When he almost tripped, one of the nurses gently pulled away from his side to retrieve a wheelchair to push him the rest of the way, but when he twisted his neck to look at Anthony one last time, there was a glint of hope in his dark eyes. They left Anthony alone with his thoughts in his bed.

As soon as Dr. Heinz and Drew came back from the examination room, it was apparent that something had changed. Dr. Heinz’s face was smug with satisfaction, and Drew was beaming as he walked through the door with much less difficulty than he had exited with. Just as Drew began to speak, Anthony collapsed back into his thin pillows. “The cancer went into remission. I don’t have leukemia anymore, Anthony!” Drew whispered excitedly, but Anthony just closed his eyes from fatigue. He would be left alone with no one to talk to in this over-sanitary and sterilized hospital, and while he would be lying there, paralyzed, Drew would be out in the real world and living his life to the fullest.

“I’m leaving tomorrow morning,” Drew whispered almost inaudibly after seeing the expression on Anthony’s face. He began to collect his few belongings from the desk next to the bed where he had been living in for the past few years hastily. Anthony nodded his head, and before he knew it, he was lulled to sleep by Drew’s continuous babbling about the friends he hadn’t seen in such a long time.

Anthony woke up to the sound of greetings and excitement, and when he turned his head to the right he recognized what was happening; Drew was leaving him for good. “Anthony! Finally, you’re up! I’ve been waiting to give you my number and this.” Drew slide him an electronic Scrabble game similar to the ones they had played with to pass the time on the long days of the past. Anthony pushed his upper body away from the pillow, reaching out for the game, and felt a twitch in his leg. He stopped, and then reached out further. He felt another twitch.

Anthony screeched in excitement, "Did you see that?!"

"See what?" Drew responded, as he packed his last items into an worn, brown suitcase.

"My leg! It moved!" Anthony yelled eagerly. Drew eyes scanned across the white room and rested them on Anthony's legs. There was a long moment of silence before there was another rustle from under blanket.

"Did you see //that //? 'Cause I certainly felt it!" Anthony exclaimed.

"Yeah, your leg moved. It really moved." Drew whispered, then broke the blank expression on his face with a toothy grin. He rushed to Anthony's side to wrap him in weak and yet still muscular arms. "You know what this means, don't you?"

Anthony nodded euphorically. The eyes of both boys returned to Anthony's legs under the sheet to watch intently for another twitch.