12
Written By Kaylee Powell
I worked for hours and I'm finally ready. I've waited for this moment for years. To ride my homemade go-cart, for years my parents wouldn't let me ride. Well until today. Today was the day I turned 12, which according to my parents was old enough to ride a homemade go kart. It was finally time for me to drive it myself, nobody else just me. My dad once told me that I would find out why I couldn't do somethings tell late in life that I wanted to do, a lot of things that I dreamt to do I would have to wait but the wait would make it worth the wait.
I share a room with 3 older brothers. They all talked about riding and racing go-carts . I asked if I could ride with them, the looked at each other then back at me, smirked then ignored my question. I wasn't meaning to be funny it was a valid question in my opinion.
The next morning I decided, I was going to show them that I could ride faster then them so I wouldn't be a laughing stock. I was ready, I have been waiting for this moment for so long but of course my dad wanted to talk to me before I was able to ride. He kept asking if I was sure I wanted to ride and kept telling me how dangerous it was. I then stormed off and walked in front of the go-carts to try to prove myself. At that moment I knew that they would see me differently, instead I got ran over by 3 go-carts. I was taken to the hospital.
I was in the hospital for 3 days. I left with a teal arm cast on my left arm and a leg cast to match. I felt so bad I never meant for this to happen, I was just trying to prove a point. I was just going to talk to them for maybe 5 minutes.
Later that night I was laying in bed staring at the shadows of trees blowing in the crisp night air dancing around on the ceiling when I heard the weirdest noise. At first I ignored it figuring it was just a wild animal. Then it got louder and sounded like an animal was getting hurt. I tried waking up my brothers but they just brushed me off. I slowly crept downstairs, which was quite a struggle being in the condition I was in . I slipped on my dads oversized slipper, my brothers musty jacket, grabbed a flashlight from under the sink and grabbed the home phone just incase and crept outside making sure I wouldn't get caught going outside at this time of night. While walking outside with the cold fall breeze and the light from the full moon glaring down on me I got a chill down my back. I started thinking to myself that maybe I should go back inside and we could investigate in the morning when it wasn't so cold and dark outside. Then I heard it again, a cry for help. I had no idea what it could be but I proceeded towards the noise with caution. All I saw was a black blur with 2 specks of light. I heard rustling in the bushes as I crept closer. I could feel my heart starting to race and started breathing heavier. I didn't want to shine the light directly on it and scare away the mysterious creature so I pointed the light next to the creature so there would be a shadow so I could try to figure out what it was. I saw shriveled up ears and a shaking body.
It was a deer, a baby. No mother insight. I slowly went up to it trying not to frighten it. As I crept closer I noticed there was something in the tree above me. Petrified I slowly backed away to be able to see what it was. To my surprise it was a bob cat which was ready to attack at any moment. At that moment I remembered something my brothers learned in boy scouts, if you see a wild animal they are more scared then you are and to make as much noise as possible. I then grabbed the flashlight and started banging it on the grill. To my surprise it worked, it actually worked.
I turned around suddenly to see the kitchen lights turn on. My dad was standing in the kitchen in his pajamas wondering what all the commotion was, I then proceed to wave him over, he then came over and proceeded to pick up the fragile wet body. I had a sigh of relief knowing that everything was going to be okay.
We made a small bed for her in the kitchen and decided to name her Catherine, that was my mom's idea. We got a warm bowl of milk warmed up and grabbed some old torn towels then warmed them up in the dryer to warm her up. we got her to drink some warm milk and then it was time to head back up to bed for the night. There was no way I was falling asleep with all the excitement from that night. My heart was still beating out of my chest.
I laid in bed until I saw the sun come up, I was to excited to sleep. I could finally have some leverage to use against my brothers so they wouldn't think I was the wimp of the family. I had defeated a bobcat to save a helpless deer and I knew for a fact that nobody in my family could have said the same so with that I happily hobbled down the stairs with a huge smile on my face.
She was so small, her nose was dry and ears where curled. I kept thinking to myself what kind of mom would leave her baby behind. My father then explained that the mother most likely hid her in the backyard for safety while she went off to find a safe place with plenty of food and water when she was shot by a hunter and wasn't able to come back to care for her. My heart dropped knowing that this little being was waiting for her mom to come back and would never see her again. Knowing she was probably terrified I slowly moved my hand towards her face so she could smell me and know that everything was okay. She was very skittish at first but once she realized I didn't mean harm she warmed up to me quite quickly.
We continued to feed and care for her threw the following months. She was a hoot to be around. She got more and more comfortable around us and before we knew it she was part of the family. My parents hated that we were getting so attached since they knew we weren't able to keep her forever.
After months of watching her grow and become one with the family my parents sat us all down to have a talk with us. I had this weird feeling in my gut like someone was tying my stomach into a knot. I knew what they were going to say, they didn't have to say I word I could see the hurt in their eyes. The told us that they had contacted a wildlife rehabilitation center and they would be coming later in the day to pick Catherine up so she could live her best life. We were all pretty broken up about the news knowing that within hours she would be out of our lives. She had changed our lives forever, we would never forget her. I had even stopped thinking about go-carting, which was a first for me. My brothers had stopped picking on me and Catherine really brought us together as a family.
My parents told us we could go see her whenever we wanted she was only going to be a 30 minute drive, with that I had a glimmer of hope that my relationship with her was not completely gone. She would always hold a special place in my heart and I would never forget her. We go visit her often and man has she grown up yet she never seems to forget us which makes us all feel better. Knowing that she is being able to run around with other deer and being able to live her best life but us all at ease. I would say that turning 12 really did change my life.
