Good Deeds

There I was, 17 years old, dreading the tasks ahead. You see, I had dislocated my knee during a ballet class and was put in a leg splint and crutches. The teacher had us doing some stretches and had pushed me to stretch further, thinking that I was going easy on myself. My supporting leg gave out and my patella dislocated onto the side of my knee. I got treatment from a paramedic, which included a Green Whistle and woke up in hospital with my patella back in place. This made my going about daily tasks especially difficult. Everything from putting my shoes on, to navigating down the hill to the bus stop to get to school; and to top it off, I could no longer participate in any sporting activities, at least not for now, I was doing regular physiotherapy and taking as many supplements as I could afford (as a 17 year old high school student) in an attempt to boost my recovery rate.

I fumbled out of bed, like a new born deer trying to find its legs, moved to the shower, which was a mission to get into; it was one of those bathtub showers, so I had to almost completely weight bare on the bad leg at some point of navigating over the wall of the tub. I begun my morning routine. I had to wake up an hour earlier than I normally would, because I now had to take into account the extra time it took to get dressed and ride the bus, instead of riding my moped. Today was different though, and it seemed like everything was going perfectly, I had studied hard for these exams and I woke up feeling assured that everything would be fine.

I start making my way down the hill with my 15kg bag over my shoulders and finally arrive to the bus stop. I sit down and take out my phone to reply to a text message. On this particular bus route there is only one bus, so it is unlikely someone is just waiting at the stop for no reason. I don’t see it until it is nearly at the stop, but again, this is an open air stop with no shelter, so I wasn’t hidden from sight.

The bus went straight past me, despite my flailing with crutches and hurling abuse towards the driver. At this point I am freaking out, I don’t know what to do; today is the day of my exams, I can’t miss them. There was a red, beat up car that was maybe 50m behind the bus and I guess they saw what had happened. The driver slammed on their brakes and came to a stop in front of me, rolled down the window and asked if I wanted a lift. I walked over and peered in through the window. It was my dance teacher. I accepted and she drove me all the way to school (about 15 minutes).

This act of kindness not only ensured that I got to my exam on time but also solidified our relationship, you see, she felt horrible about my leg, and hadn’t seen me since I had dislocated it. We talked about it all and she apologised for pushing me during the stretch, I held no feelings of animosity towards her and let her know that.

That was the last time I saw her, I ended up getting the opportunity to move to Melbourne shortly after graduating and it just slipped my mind to say goodbye to her. Now that I’m back, I might some day reach out, maybe to even start classes again.