The Wake-Up Call

by Beth O'Leary

I feel like I’m walking several inches off the ground. I can’t remember when I last exercised really hard – did it always leave me feeling like this? It’s as if someone’s just given me a massage, but like, inside my brain as well as every muscle of my body. Obviously when the exercise was happening it was largely quite horrible.

At first, after the accident, I missed my parents with an awful, gulping pain. The sort of pain that scoops all the breath out of you. It’s not like that now – the ache is duller, and I’ve adjusted to the emptiness, so it rarely catches me off guard.