Chapter 21 Never Reached Seventeen
I had a congenital illness from childhood.
I could not jump, could not run. Even walking a few extra steps left me gasping.
While other kids played wildly, I could only read and play chess.
Even though I took sick leave every few days—
I still loved going to school.
There I had the youth and energy that belonged to my age.
Not the lifeless hospital ceiling.
My classmates were friendly to me.
In private they called me the young miss.
They envied my family background, praised my manners, said I was kind.
But that was all.
They shoved and roughhoused with each other.
In front of me they were always careful, afraid of bumping into me.
I had no friends.
No one would be friends with me either.
Later my body grew worse and worse.
I had to drop out and live in the hospital.
Besides taking medicine and getting checked, the thing I did most was sit in a wheelchair and watch the big tree outside the window wither day by day.
Mom and Dad came to see me less and less.
They had a new child.
That was something to be happy about.
Only—I grew even lonelier.
Finally, after that big tree dropped its last leaf—
I slowly closed my eyes.
The tree could wait for next year's rebirth.
I would never see the spring of my seventeenth year.