I flew around the park, almost flying. My wheels felt almost like they hovered as I flipped and spun, the younger skaters gawking. I flew up a ramp...
Then... Nothing. I don't remember anything after that.
I woke... Somewhere... White. The ceiling was white. I was... Inside...
I blinked, trying to focus on the bright light. I tried to speak. My throat was... So dry...
"W4... W473R..." My voice was unfamiliar to me. Like I was not me and someone else was my voice. Someone's face came into my field of vision. I smiled... Or... I tried to smile...
"h3y b4b3, how 4r3 you?" Latula's face looks worried and I try to move my arm to pap her. She holds my arm down.
"WH47 R3 YU..." My voice. Not my voice. I don't know. So...
Confusion. Pain.
"shhhhhhh, 1t's ok4y." Latula's voice would normally be comforting and her presence even more so, but I was so confused... And the pain... Her voice. "you took 4 n4sty fall."
So that's what happened... "H3W GU7 HURR?" My voice... Why wasn't my mouth responding to my commands? I sounded so stupid... I tried again. "H0W H3R3?" A little better, but still not completely comprehensible.
Latula looks confused momentarily. "wh4t..." Then she realizes what I had said... Tried to... "1 took you h3r3 aft3r 1 found you 4t th3 p4rk."
"7H4NK5..." My pathetic attempts at speech are annoying me to no end. "W473R?"
"sur3 th1ng, b4b3." Tula tilts my head upright... I was laying down? The water dribbles down my chin as I try to drink it... It was... Cold...
I try to sit up. So... So dizzy... Tula gently pushes my chest back down. "tun4, pl34s3 don't try to mov3 4round y3t."
Tula, this is not.. This is so... Please! Let me move! I have to move!
"WHZFF 5HHHHHHT FFFFFFFK" are the garbled syllables that fly from my mouth at I move my arm to push her hand off of my chest. My arm... Time seems to slow as my clumsy appendage swings upwards, stiff at the elbow. I am powerless to stop it as it slams into Tula's head.
No! Tula! I am so sorry! I didn't mean...!
"1M... 5ORRY" My voice cannot... Absolutely cannot convey what I felt.
Her expression is shocked... Scared... I try again to pap her, but her face is suddenly withdrawn from my view. My flailing limb flops uselessly back to my side.
"7UL4?" I call her name. She does not reappear in my vision and I hear... A door, I think... Close with a terminal click.
"7UL4!?" My hoarse, rasping voice is grating on my ears. "7UL4!" She does not appear. I start to cry, now trying desperately to sit up. I hear the distant door open again. I don't hear footsteps, but I feel a hand on my shoulder...
"K... KURL0Z?" I flop my disgustingly helpless body around until I can see him. "K..." I am completely incoherent.
Kurloz nods, seeming to understand my garbled mess of a syllable. He helps me to sit up.
So... So very dizzy...
The world tilts sideways. Kurloz reaches out an arm, stopping me from falling sideways. "TH... THKZ..." My newest attempts at speech humiliate me again. Kurloz smiles. He wipes the tears from my face and pulls me into a hug.
I wish I could say what I felt at that moment. After the crash...
After the crash I became...
I became an invalid. I became a husk, a shell with little motor or communication skills.
I'm not any different than I was before! I'm still me! I never changed inside! I am still the same!
I am still Mituna Captor!
I'm still ME!