Dressed in my yellow, power ranger t-shirt with the red stain just below the collar, I felt rather invincible that summer’s morning. My mother, acting as my chauffer, parked the car and got out. I waited for her to walk around the car and let me out of my car seat. The extra safety precaution was necessary to protect such an important member of mankind’s future. She tried to lift me out of the car but it is wise to never be seen as overly dependent, so I screamed and cried for my autonomy and climbed down all by myself. I remember at this time I was this many… and just starting to take William Ernest Henley’s words to heart.
I grabbed my mother’s hand. I was no fool. I had much to learn about the world before it could become mine and I didn’t want to be swept away into greatness too soon. So me and my human cane, strolled through the parking lot of some droll strip mall and into a Kid’s Cuts.
It somewhat sterile looking with bright lights and white tiles. It was filled with tired women feigning zeal for their new arrivals. I started to feel slightly uncertain. Yet on the walls, a delightful mural of a city was painted. Someone had the thought to juxtapose a fantasy world into this urban environment by painting big-eyed dragons and other mystical creatures throughout the skyline. I never expected to find such genius in such a place. I couldn’t stop searching the walls for new and colorful characters.
After my mother was finished with the dreadful, clerical side of things which I couldn’t be bothered with, I was hoisted up into a chair that was made to look like an ambulance. Another dash of brilliance in this hidden gem. In fact, all the chairs were made to look like something other than what they were. I found myself envying a dune buggy down the aisle and I reached out, trying to will it to me with all my might and tears. They told me it belonged to some absentee and that I would be graced with Becky’s services today.
I had no serious objections until Becky draped a rainbow tarp around my neck and flung me around to face a mirror. It created an infinite loop of reflections. The inability to view my body was also extremely unnerving.. I was just a floating head in space and time, my physical self was canceled out. It would not be needed. I was told to stay very still. The fake soothing voice of this flea bag Becky shook me to my core. I could sense her anxiety.
She walked up to the mirror and unsheathed a pair of surgical scissors from a mysterious blue liquid. I was merely an experiment of her Kevorkian agenda. I turned to my mother to beg for aid and to condemn her for allowing this. She smiled at me from across the room and I knew death was near.
Becky tilted my head to the side to expose my throat for the final blow. *Snip* I opened my eyes to face the much harsher reality. The sharp scissors could be seen out of the corner of my eye, one slip and I would be blind. Becky and her cigarette stained hands, revolved around me. She was like one of the Fates toying with my life line. Every snip erased a day of my life that I held dear. Gone were the joyful walks upon my father’s shoulders and the times he would carry me to bed and I would awake in a new world, thinking I had teleported myself. Gone were all of my drawings that attempted to capture Picasso’s brilliance. Gone were all of the times I had watched the Lion King, memorizing every line and color. I looked down at the ambulance chair to try and sound a siren. Hopefully someone would come to my aid. No, not even doctors and all of the world’s medical advancements could cure me know.
She snipped three times straight across my brow and my eyes were revealed to me. I gazed into my own tears and my own soul. From within me, the purest cry of pain found its way out into the world. I faced in that moment, my own mortality. Pieces of my greatness could be tossed aside by some half-wit sadist named Becky. My destiny which had always seemed so secure, was now constantly in danger. If my fabulous mane could be tossed aside and forgotten, any piece of me could. I looked down at my power ranger's shirt. It was bespeckled with pieces of my life. I no longer felt invincible.
Becky spun me around and out hell to face the world again. But when you’ve seen hell, you cannot face the world in the same way. She twisted the knife in my back and said, “There you go.” My mother, my betrayer, lifted my limb, nearly lifeless body out of the emergency vehicle. We walked back to the car and she buckled me into the car seat like it mattered.
“Now we get to go to the park! Just like I promised,” proclaimed my mother.
A flood of light entered my heart.
“Yaayyyyyy” I yelled and bounced to show my approval. My pain and anguish were washed away, almost as if they had never existed. I was filled with joy. I was going to get to feed the duckies.
