Broken Birthday by Courtney Sheinmel

Author:Courtney Sheinmel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press

Someone was speaking. I didn’t recognize the voice, but she knew me. “I think Stella Batts is awake,” she said.

“I know I’m awake!” I said. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell everyone!”

But my voice wasn’t working and my eyes were closed. It was hard to open my eyes. Why was it so hard to open my eyes?

I tried my voice again. “Mmm mmm,” I said.

“What was that, sweetheart?”

There were sounds all around—beeps and blips, and footsteps, and things being wheeled around, and more voices.

I tried talking again. “Help me! Help!”

“There, there,” the stranger said. There was a cool hand on my hand. “Your parents will be here soon. Don’t worry. You’re fine. Don’t worry.”

“I didn’t fall asleep yet,” I said. I opened my eyes, just a crack. Everything was fuzzy. “Don’t let them start yet. I didn’t fall asleep.”

I tried to lift my other hand, the hand that wasn’t being held, to wipe my eyes. But something hurt and pulled me back.

“Help!” I said. “I’m tied down!”

“Stella, it’s okay,” the voice said. A hand was on my forehead now.

“What’s happening to me?” I cried.

“You still have the IV in. But the operation is all over. It went great.”

“But I thought that . . . What happened to the doctors?”

“They did a great job on your leg.”

Someone patted the corners of my eyes with a tissue. I blinked and blinked. “You’re . . . ,” I started. “You look just like . . .”

“I’m Joshua’s mom,” she supplied.

That was it! Joshua from my class—it was his mom! Mrs. Lewis! What was she doing there with me, after my operation? I wanted MY mom. And my dad. And my house, and my room, and all my things. And maybe also some fudge from the store.

“I’m a nurse,” Mrs. Lewis told me. “And you’re in the recovery room, where everyone comes after their operations. Another one of the nurses went to get your parents. They’ll be here in a minute. In the meantime, I won’t leave you.”

My eyelids felt so heavy. I couldn’t keep them open. I closed them again. Mrs. Lewis kept her hand on my forehead, smoothing back my hair. “The hard part is over,” she said.

Then I heard my mom’s voice. “Oh, Stella!”

And my dad’s voice. “Hi, darling, we’re right here.”

I opened my eyes again, and I cried some more when I saw them. I don’t think I’d cried so much in one day ever in my whole entire life. Well, maybe I did when I was a baby. Marco sometimes cries the whole day for no reason.

Unlike Marco, I had a reason. A big reason. I’d just broken my leg and had an operation and it was almost my birthday!

But I was tired again, so I went back to sleep.

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