Pause

I couldn’t imagine the lengths she would go for me. Maybe it was my lack of faith or maybe I thought she’d had left by now. It was this one day that changed my perspective on her. We decided to go out to North Vancouver. We usually plan out where we go a few days in advance due to the six wheels attached to my body. We’re at this market and we’re both bored to death. I can't count how many times I’ve been to the quay in North Vancouver. There’s just water and boats sailing around. That’s cool and all but all I crave these days is an adventure. I want to swim in the water even though I can't actually swim. Does that matter? If I drown, I know you’ll jump in to save me.  I want my body to become messy and disgusting by the powers of nature. You start looking up “what to do in Vancouver” as if we’re tourists in our own city. As you make suggestions, I laugh at the fact that we aren’t prepared for many of these but maybe I was being a tad dramatic. Could you blame me?

She is the ice to my fire as she calms the wild thoughts in my mind. She seemed fiercer than I could ever be. She had bright green hair and ripped shorts on her body. I can’t recall the top, but I can surely promise you that it was funky just like her personality.

We were still in North Vancouver, surrounded by water when she suggested English Bay. She quickly mentions that it has a wheelchair path before I shut it down. I couldn’t deny the beach, and she knew that out of all the people. She knew I could spend hours staring at the ocean and never get bored.

We got to the beach and my breath was taken away. It was such a clear day with the mountains visible and the sun reflecting upon the ocean. There are families with their kids, couples and platonic girlfriends, like Amber and I.  She leads me to the path because she knows I always get lost – thank god for her. I give her my phone and I don’t even have to tell her what to do. She takes a video of me rolling down the path, both screaming and squealing and not caring that people around us are staring. She finishes taking the video and hands my phone back to me. Then, she helps me get down from my wheelchair and onto the sand which is something she has never done before. I begin to realize this friendship is meant to last a lifetime.  All my life, I expected people would enter my life, get to know my deepest darkest secrets and then take off. She hasn’t and gotten through the worst part which is, ironically the best part of it all.

            She was in the water, not too deep because that shark tattoo on her thigh was still tender. She’s kind of a nature freak too but not as much as me. I will gladly accept that crown. As she was standing in the ocean playing with the water, I was taking pictures of her. As I’m doing so, I try to recall what I did to deserve her. It was just two years ago when I chose her as my chemistry partner just because she seemed cool. At that moment, on the beach with beautiful weather and a gorgeous girl by my side, I couldn’t fathom what I had done to deserve this. The sun is bouncing upon her green hair as she is walking towards me with that look on her face. You know, the look which you feel a comfort of love in.

Could someone be at such peace by looking at the ocean?   I realize that she’s in the ocean and I am not. I see all these people in their boats or with their kids and I frown. Not in public of course; no one wants to see that at the beach. She finally looks at me after five minutes, so then I waved at her to come back.

            “I want to go in the water as well,” I said with my eyes glimmering and my voice sounding more hopeful than I expected it to be.

            “Of course,” she said as she took the things from my hands and got ready to walk me towards the water.

            This was the first time any friend had ever physically helped me more which was an amazing feeling.  I stood in the water with her arms around my waist so I wouldn’t fall. There it was; the most beautiful thing you can imagine. The breeze going through my hair as it was late-August, so it was a bit chilly.  I found it funny, you know? I die for what people take for granted.