Two Years Slip By, Mostly Blank

     The next two years at school are almost blank. I remember I had two dresses, homemade, and I alternated between them. One was red corduroy, and the other pick salmon. I liked it, the red one I hated, I stuck out like a sore thumb. But they were all I had and I felt others in their variety of clothes looked down at me. I often played alone. There is not much more to say about it. 

     Home was more exciting, Wally was working on his Eagle Scout badge. He and dad made snow shoes from scratch in the back yard. Smelly as they cured the hide and boiled the wood to mold it. They waxed skis and went skiing. They took me. That was a trip. We all skied from Paradise to Longmire at Mr. Rainier, ten miles. I accidentally went over a snowy slope that to me was eternity long and I figured I would never be found, death was something I was use to figuring in. I do not even remember crying. I was amazed there were people at the bottom and my father soon was there to take me back. 

     Wally even cooked us all dinner in the backyard. That was a weird concept for me. I do remember vegetables, potatoes, and meat. I guess you could say Wally was my main world. He also had disabilities but did amazing things, and he was nice to me. He never put me down. Looking back I know that I could do things he could not, mainly social skills, even if it was just with family. So in his own way he respected his little sis. That meant a lot to a kid who could do almost nothing. 

     But my life was soon to take a big step forward. I was going to have a second chance. I would not get back what I had lost but I was going to find someone who could help me more than another child eight years older. I was now eight years old and we were going to move to another house across the highway. The highway was a small one, but I could not cross it. I could not comprehend the cars coming. I would too easily forget they were there. I was half blind and half deaf to the world, not by eye and ear tests but by functionality, you can not see it if you do not remember a split second later. But my world was going to expand. I was going to move forward and learn new ways.