Amelia was just 5 when she got these skates. The second she put them on she felt good and since they had a little key that would allow her to lengthen them as she grew, she had this particular pair until she was eight.
A year after this photo she had to have her father repair one of the wheels and he was not happy about it. Having just returned home from work and wanting his scotch and time to read the paper, he’d brushed her off to their yard man. Martin, who had the tools and the time and more importantly had the desire to fix it for her so she could skate again.
Amelia was quite proficient on them as you can see by the stance she is taking. None of her friends was as good as she was and she took great pleasure in this fact, although she’d been taught it would be rude to show that outwardly. She would glide past her friends who were slower and wobbly and she would say, with a smirk on this inside, “You can do it! Just do this! And this!”
One day distracted by her friends and the sun, she tumbled on a crack in the sidewalk that was lined with upper middle class houses. She saw blood and she screamed and cried. She couldn’t move her leg and her heart was beating so fast she could not catch her breath through her cries. Her hands were dirty and each time she wiped her tears the dirt would move comfortably from her hands to her face.
Martin, who was tending to the yard when he first heard muffled screams, rose his head from the hedge trimmers and stopped cutting. He listen again, realizing it was Amelia he took off towards the noise. By now Amelia’s friends had joined in the chorus of pleas for help and there was no mistaking where they had landed. Running towards the corner to fetch her and bring her home his heart raced, too.
When he reached her he realized that her skin revealed a bone but Amelia was in shock and this was not something she had realized. Martin picked her up gently but swiftly and took her home to her mother. They were able to get her to the hospital where doctors would perform miracles over weeks instead of letting the knee heal that way, making it impossible for her to walk properly or ever skate again.
Luckily Amelia’s mother felt fine about taking her to the hospital that day and during the subsequent days she was there, because she didn’t feel okay about it for a time not so long ago. She thought to herself, “Thank God we have health insurance.”
Written by Julia Roberts, Kidneys and Eyes
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