A Danger to Herself and Others

by Alyssa Sheinmel

I was lying before.

If a heart stops working, doctors can even replace it with another one, a transplant from a stranger’s dead body. When a heart won’t beat, EMTs can perform compressions or shock it back to life with electricity. But once a person’s brain-dead, there’s no coming back.

Maybe I’ll be in some kind of cage forever.

Alexandra—Alex—was my best friend then.

Hey same

We’re lucky to have caught Hannah’s disease this early. (Caught it. As though it were running and hiding.)

I’m not a magical girl whose brain needed more stimulation. I’ll never play Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board again. Agnes Smith’s life will never be the same. Neither will mine.