Magick Adventure

Out With the Old

It was a bright clear sunny Wednesday afternoon and Saahira Rose was sitting in the same classroom she did every week day and had been for 5 years now, and while in the beginning it had been fun, learning how to read, write and count, it was now stifling and boring.

She had long known that no one had any kind of belief in her and so consequently they had no decent or even reasonable expectation of her. They all saw her as dumb, incapable and never going to succeed. She hated it because she knew she wasn’t dumb like they thought she was, but she was also frustrated because she couldn’t let them know that she understood what they were saying.

Mrs Philips, her class teacher, was droning on about the letters of the alphabet again, for the millionth time. Saahira was sick of it, so she was staring out the the window while daydreaming about the clothes and outfits she'd seen, like on TV, when she could catch it, which wasn't a lot; in magazines, when she saw their covers or on the rare occasion when she got to look inside them; but mostly from the clothes she saw in stores or on people on the street. She loved fashion. The idea of using your body as a canvas and what you wear as your paints to express yourself fascinated her. But the idea also bore a great amount of pain, because as much as she wanted to be part of that world, it was likely to never happen. Why? Because Saahira was unable to talk.

Saahira had autism and was nonverbal, which meant that no matter how hard she tried her mouth just wouldn't form words. When her parents were informed of her diagnosis they were told that she would always be dependant and wouldn't be able to do a lot of things, because she wouldn't understand. Her parents had spent the last 8 years trying to keep her comfortable, but could never see what was hidden just below the surface. Then 4 years ago, she was in a car accident. While no one died, the other car had crashed into the side door where she was sitting. The impact, while it didn't take her life, it did injure her back, leaving her with difficulty walking. This resulted in her needing a wheelchair. This had made her parents even more protective.

Saahira was lost in thought about how she'd love nicer clothes than the basic pink tshirts and plain purple pants that lined her closet at home when she was suddenly jerked back to reality. A woman was walking past and had caught her attention. Clearly the woman was not dressed as a teacher, but was obviously a parent or guardian come to pick up her charge. She turned to look at the clock on the wall above the board. While she couldn't read it , she could tell that the short hand was where it needed to be, pointing at the 3. While the long hand was pointing at the 9. She didn't know what the time was, but she knew that meant it was nearly home time. Almost time for relief from this boredom. Almost time to do something more interesting than sit and listen to Mrs Philips drone on about the same old things.

The next 15 minutes felt like an eternity as she stared at the clock watching it tick down the moments to home time. As boring as this was, it was the most interesting thing to do and something Saahira was accustomed to, because she did this nearly every single day.

Finally the long hand pointed straight up at the 12.

"Ok everyone. That's it for the day. It's time to go home" Mrs Philips announced to the class.

"FINALLY!” Saahira thought turning her wheelchair towards the cubbyholes where her school bag sat in her cubby. She raced over and went to grab her bag when one of the class aids, a woman by the name of Mrs Franklin stopped her.

"Ready to go home?" she asked taking Saahira's bag out and putting it on the back of her wheelchair.

Saahira glared at her.

"I want to do it myself" Saahira thought to herself wishing she could tell Mrs Franklin.

Mrs Franklin was standing there smiling at Saahira while she was glaring back when Saahira's mother walked in.

"Hi honey. Did you have a good day?" she asked Saahira pulling her into a hug.

Saahira hugged her back, thankful her mother was there so she could leave.

"We had a great day, didn't we?" Mrs Franklin responded for her, still smiling.

Saahira didn't agree but she didn't respond. What was the point? It's not like they'd listen or understand her if she did anything to contradict her.

The two women thought her non reaction meant that she didn't understand. They gave each other a sympathetic smile.

"Okay, let's go home" Mrs Rose said and started pushing her out.

Her Mum pushed her out to the car and loaded her in. She didn't let Saahira do any of it. Then drove home. The whole time she was chatting away thinking her daughter couldn't understand her, but she did, more than her mother knew.

What she didn't know, what neither of them, or anyone else knew was that this day was about to become a day no one would forget, and their world was about to change forever in ways no one could ever imagine.