Injected

It all began with an injection.

The little girl was scared. The first time she was getting an injection at school in front of all of her peers, she was scared. Scared of the long thin but sharp needle that was waiting on the table beside herself to prick into her pale delicate skin.

Her mother had specifically stated to her earlier that morning that she had nothing to fear, that’s what they all say, her friend had informed her outside in the playground what really happens is that your arm falls off! The little girl believed her little friend and had began to cry. He was sat quietly on the other side of the playground as he watched the little girl intently, with admiration.

Blonde hair tied neatly into a long French plait with a small fringe covering her left eye – the little boy noticed. Big electrifying blue eyes, he remembered from the previous day he had stood close enough to her to take notice of her eyes. She was an enthusiastic one, never running out of energy – but today it was a different story. She appeared to be weak and sad. It hurt the little boy to see her like this; he searched his mind for a way to see that stunning smile of hers again.

At last, he came to a solution.

Getting up from the rough grey ground he gradually made his way towards the little girl, and stopped in front of her. She stared back at him with confusion written all over her eyes, she opened her mouth to say something but her slightly annoying little friend began to pull her away inside. The little girl began to protest but failed to convince her friend that she needed to stay outside a little longer.

The little boy grunted Your name? He mouthed at her.

Bekki, the little girl mouthed back and disappeared inside into the dark. The face of the little boy began to haunt her mind continuously as she yearned to speak to him. To hear his voice out in the open air, but now there was no turning back. It was her turn to take her step towards hell – in other words the injection. Relax, the pretty nurse kept on repeating herself. Close your eyes, the nurse ordered Bekki and so she obeyed.

There was only one way of getting through this stage and that was picturing the little boy’s face in her mind again and so to Bekki’s wish he appeared again. The sharp tip of the long needle touched her skin lightly and slowly pricked its way inside into her veins. To her surprise, Bekki did not seem to feel the pain at all, as she opened her eyes she searched the whole room for that little boy again so she could thank him because according to her he was the reason why she had not gone through the pain that she had feared the most.

To her disappointment, the little boy was nowhere to be seen, feeling defeated she curled herself into the corner of the room and rested her head in her arms thinking of that face that had helped her.

[forward nine years]

Not another one! Bekki moaned to herself as she sat outside the waiting room of the doctor’s surgery waiting rather impatiently to be injected again. She just wanted to get it over and done with. In the period of the last nine years Bekki had received many injections and to her disgust they had happened to be agonising. She could only find one solution that could help her through this but that happened to be out of her reach, to her annoyance.

It was the week of her sixteenth birthday and to everybody’s surprise she didn’t seem excited at all. Whenever she would be asked about what she wished to receive as presents, she would simply shrug her shoulders and walk out of the room. There was only one particular thing on her mind that she could not get rid of, that she begged and begged God for her birthday present each year.

The owner of that face from nine years ago when she was about to receive her first injection at school. The same face that took all the pain away. She needed to see him again, she needed to speak to him, she needed to hear his voice, she longed everyday to listen to the sound of his voice and above all, she needed to thank him.

Please do not disappoint me this year, she prayed in her mind, all I ask is to see his face! Please? She slowly opened her eyes as she heard the receptionist call out her name. Taking in a few deep breaths she tried to picture his face again and began to make her way to the nurses room. She sat herself down upon the hard wooden chair and closed her eyes waiting for the pain to hit her.

Two minutes, three minutes, four minutes, five minutes – six. The clock ticked by and Bekki forced herself to open her eyes so she could see what was taking the nurse so long. The nurse sat there laughing and staring back at her as she explained that Bekki had already received the injection, she just didn’t notice. How is that even possible? Bekki questioned herself over and over again. She did not picture the little boy’s face in her mind then why didn’t she feel any pain? This seemed highly unlikely for her to understand.

Thanking the nurse, Bekki made her way outside – the icy cold air hit her bare face as she stepped outside into the autumn air. Her mind still racing in confusion. Turning around the sharp bend of the corner Bekki came to a halt as she let out a loud scream as a muddy football made contact with her face. For a moment, she had seem to forgotten her whereabouts and had started to panic, her eyes felt too sore to open. Whoever was the owner of that football was going to get a piece of her mind.

Opening her eyes gently Bekki fixed her gaze upon the face she had been begging to see again for many years. “Are you okay?” the little boy who had now grown into a tall slim figure asked her, “It’s Bekki right?”