One Step to Success

“One Step to Success” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Vaishnavi Hujare, Montgomery Upper Middle School, New Jersey, USA.

One Step to Success

‘’Sweetie, are you ok?’’ Mom said with a worrying voice. I opened my eyes to see where I was. Opening my eyes, I saw my parents beside me with a worried face. Nurses and Doctors came through the door with a bunch of papers in their hands. The Doctors took Mom to the side to talk about something.

Chit, Chat was what all the adults were doing in that corner.

‘’ Mom can you please get the blanket off me because I’m getting really hot.’’ I said adjusting myself on the bed. Mom was way too busy with the doctors so I decided to remove it myself.

‘’MOM, WHERE IS MY LEG?’’ I said so loud that almost the whole hospital could hear me.

‘’What happened hon- ohh.’’ Mom looked blank.

Everybody in that room looked Blank. Very scared I covered my leg with the blanket and the room went into a silence.

‘’ I was going to tell you but now that you now, yesterday when you were driving to college a car crashed into you and because of that situation you lost your right leg.’’

Tears were dripping down her face, she quickly wiped them away and came to me and gave me the warmest hug.

‘’Hey, Mom I’m just going to sleep for now, I’m really tired.’’ I couldn't tolerate Mom crying, so I had to find a reason to get away from it.

After a few days, the doctor suggested that I can go home. They discharged me, so I got out of the hospital but I changed a lot of things in these few days. I am really scared about living without one of my legs. It is going to be the biggest challenge yet.

When I went home everything was same and nothing had changed. Mom suggested to sit on the couch, but I wanted to go to my room and sit on my comfortable bed.

My room was clean and just the way I remember. My bed had my huge teddy on it, my study table was filled with paper and my laptop was sitting on my window couch. I went to the window couch picked up my laptop and saw all the homework and test which we had.

Before the accident, walking everywhere was easy but now that I don’t have the support of two legs I get tired very easily when I walk.

Days and weeks passed by.

Today was my first leg checkup. The doctors said that they wanted to see if the leg was recovering and if it was, they had a surprise for me which will change my life.

‘’Are you ready Catherine?’’ Mom said from her room.

‘’Yep, I’m ready and I’ll go downstairs too.’’ I said while I was in front of the mirror looking as the best as I can.

When I went to pick out my shoes and took the pair of two I just realized that I don’t need two since I have only one leg left and I don’t even have magical Powers to bring my leg back.

Mom came downstairs in a flannel shirt and black jeans and her favorite sky blue purse. She wore her boots and we both headed to the car. The car ride was very silent and I think we both know why. The surprise.

When we were at the hospital, Mrs. Sally came up to me and was very proud to see walk.

‘’Oh Catherine, I missed you a lot, and you are rocking that outfit!!’’ Sally said in a buoyant mood.

Sally leaded us to the room where I was going to get my leg checked up. In the room the doctor was ready for my checkup.

I sat on the bed with my crutches beside me, Mom was talking to the nurse how I’ve improved walking with my crutches. The doctor checked my left legs reflexes, took an x-ray to see how my right leg was doing.

‘’Well Catherine your right leg is…’’ the doctor said with a sudden pause.

‘’Awesome, your leg is recovering and since your leg has recovered I can now tell you the big surprise.’’ The doctor said with the biggest smile ever.

‘’Catherine, I have decided that maybe we could add an artificial leg so that you will be able to walk around without crutches. But before you can walk normally you have to take some training so that you can get used to it.’’ The doctor said when he was bringing the artificial leg.

‘’YAY, I can finally stop using this annoying crutch and I can even wake up in the morning with two legs.’’ I said hugging my Mom with a lot of excitement.

It took them around 3 hours to put on the leg and when they were done I felt weird since I was so used to have a real leg that having a artificial leg felt weird.

‘’We’ll start your training from tomorrow.’’ With enthusiasm the doctor said.

‘’I’m so proud of you honey, I’ll finally see my daughter walk just like you use to.’’ Mom said while adjusting the rear-view mirror.

The day went by really quickly since I was just trying to walk with the new leg. Every time I stood up I felt strong and got that quick sense of pride in myself.

I woke up early the next day. Stumbling towards the closet I picked out my outfit and then all of a suddenly a book fell on my head. On the cover of the book it said in the most horrible handwriting Catherine is going to be.... Looking at the book brought back old memories. I remember when I used to sit on my bed for hours and write all the things I wanted to be when I grow up.

While I was flipping through the book something caught my eye, my picture of climbing the Mount Everest. I’ve always wanted to Climb Mount Everest to make my parents feel proud for me.

Somewhere in me I felt that idea growing of climbing the Mount Everest but then with stumble I fell and very angrily I screamed ‘’ Why did I lose my leg all of my dreams are shattered like a broken window.’’

Mom came running upstairs to see what happened. Looking at my crying face she came sat next to me and stroked my head and said something which encouraged me.

‘’ Listen if there is one thing that I know is that when something stops us from succeeding we should push it out of the way and fight our battles with trust, hope and positive thoughts.’’ Mom said showing me Mount Everest drawing and helping me stand up on my feet.

‘’I’ll see you downstairs already for your first training.’’ Mom said closing the door behind her.

My coach emailed my Mom the address and with the help of the GPS we reached the the training center around 8:00 in the morning.

The coach was standing at the entrance. The coach came towards me and helped me walk gently.

‘’Bye Mom, I’ll see you in 2 hours’’ I said.

‘’Don’t worry Catherine’s Mom we’ll take good care of her.’’ Coach Steven said waving goodbye to my Mom

We both went inside and he gave me mini tour of the center.

‘’ It’s nice meeting you Catherine, first things first you need to stop using this crutches and start walking with your new beautiful leg’’ Steven said helping me stand up straight without the crutches.

After an hour or saw I felt as if that idea of climbing the Mount Everest which was growing is now just falling apart. I gave up multiple times and tried to walk very less time.

Coach Steven was competitive but also a patient and kind person. After a couple of days I could walk and and jog slowly but jog.

ONE YEAR LATER!!

‘’Ready for the biggest challenge in your life Catherine?’’ Coach Steven said giving me my hiking bag.

‘’I’m so ready for my challenge and you even coached me fantastically, so there is no way that I’m failing this task.’’ I said putting on my safety equipment.

Buzz. Buzz.

My phone started buzzing in my purse. It was Mom, she said she would call me before I start the journey.

‘’Hey Honey, Good luck. I’ll wait for you!!’’ Mom said as soon as I attended the call. The tune of Mom’s voice seems worried but she put on that happy voice for me

Talking to mom made me more confident and courageous.

After talking to Mom, it brought back old memories. I remember the first day I started to walk with my crutches.

I wanted to climb Mt. Everest ever since I started to walk with my new leg, I Found the right coach, a supportive Mom. If I had given up before then I wouldn't be here ready to climb Mt. Everest.

‘’Time to go champ, make sure you have everything and I’ll see you at the North ridges from Tibet.’’ Coach said wishing me best of luck.

I gathered up the rest of the other people who were also climbing the Mt. Everest and started our journey.

Walking…...Walking

After walking for hours and hours we made it to our first base camp. When we were setting up our tents a very strong breeze went by and that meant only one thing. Snow Storm.

Everybody took their bags and went to a safer place to avoid the storm. When the storm was over we took out our tents and started building them again. We all ate not too much and not too little but just perfect for tomorrow's journey.

Days went by and we finally made it to the middle of our stop point.

The temperature was dropping every step of the way and when we checked the weather at the mid-way point it was -33° F. We decided to settle down there to rest and also add a few layers of jackets because it was freezing cold here. Our first base camp was 17700 ft from ground.

Thoughts came running in my brain This trip was harder Than I thought it would be. I just hope that we make it to the top of the mountain.

STOP. stop thinking of negative things Catherine. STOP, STOP.

‘’ Listen up, we’ll start tomorrow's journey with a lot of energy and positive thoughts’’ I said grabbing everybody’s attention.

People started getting weak and with them so did my artificial leg but we continued with hope.

Days and Days of hard work we made it to the top and everybody their felt pride in themselves.

In the past many famous people made it to the top and put their flag representing their journey and their effort.

Happy tears started dripping down my face because in this journey I saw another side of the nature then I did before. I used to see the nature in a calm and beautiful site but now I know that there is a different side of the nature.

I also saw a different side of myself because before I was a sad, no energetic women but today I saw that I’m a young courageous and strong independent woman.

Then I decided that other people around the world also lost some part of their body just like me and I’m going to motivate them to start seeing life in a positive angle and to accomplish their dreams.

I may have lost my leg in an accident but I know that when we push away the wall which is stopping us from succeeding we can do ANYTHING.