Ghost Boy by Martin Pistorius

Author:Martin Pistorius
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2013-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

31 THE SPEECH

I can hardly believe I’m here. It’s November 2003 and I’m sitting on a low stage in a huge lecture room with my colleague Munyane, who has just addressed the audience in front of us. There must be more than 350 people waiting for me to speak. I’ve been working at the communication center for four months and have been chosen to address a conference of health professionals.

First Munyane gave an overview of AAC, and now it’s my turn to talk. Even though all I must do is press the button that will make Perfect Paul’s voice boom out of the sound system to which my laptop is connected, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it. My hands are shaking so much I’m not sure I’ll be able to control them.

Somehow I’ve become an accidental public speaker in recent months, and my story has even been featured in the newspapers. While it has surprised me that a room full of people at a school or community center want to hear about me, I can’t think why so many have come today. I wish Erica were here to give me a smile. She’s gone back to the States, and it’s in moments like this that I miss her most. The friendship I treasured so much must now be contained in emails, and the door she gave me into the world has closed.

I should have known this was a big event when Mum and I arrived and were offered lunch from a table covered in more dishes than I’d ever seen before. The prospect of picking exactly what I wanted to eat was almost too much for me, and the sticky toffee pudding I’d finished my meal with rolls uneasily in my stomach now as I stare out into the audience.

Munyane smiles.

“They’re ready when you are,” she whispers.

I push the tiny lever that controls my new electric wheelchair and glide to the center of the stage. Just as Professor Alant predicted, it has made me far more independent. A month before my twenty-eighth birthday, I was finally able to control where I went and when for the first time. Now if I want to leave the room because the television is boring, I can go; if I decide to explore the streets around the house where my parents have lived since I was a child; then I’m able to.

I got the chair after writing an open letter on a website I belong to asking for any suggestions about how to get one because I knew my parents couldn’t afford the cost. Over the past few months I’ve made friends in countries like England and Australia by joining Internet groups and meeting more people in the AAC community. It’s a strange but reassuring feeling to know that I have friends in so many places now. Getting to know people via my computer feels liberating. I’m exploring the world, and the people I meet don’t see my chair: they just know me.

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