FINAL DRAFT of "Trouble Breathing”

Final draft

By Athrun

“Trouble Breathing”

Friday, August 28^th 2010

            “Hang in there…” I heard something, “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” it was Mom’s voice; she was running toward me as I was whirling and splashing in the water. All I could see was an endless blue sky. “What happened? Where am I? Why couldn’t I speak up?”I thought to myself. Everything went black.

***

            I woke up and realized that I was laying my head on my desk. “It’s the dream again” I thought to myself. I looked at the clock, it was 11 o’clock already. I swiftly finished my homework as my Mom called me up to bed. She said it was too late to do homework.

            It was another busy Friday night. I had brought the temperature down as I was going to sleep and for a few hours later, I woke up, I was wheezing. I couldn’t breathe for a few seconds. The room was in darkness. I stared at the ceiling for a while. I felt like it wasn’t me anymore. Perhaps, it was just a dream so I could get over it, but it wasn’t just a dream. I wondered what to do. I stood up and switched the light on. My lungs felt squeezed as if they were balloons. I coughed hard and tried to breathe normally. Every time I inhaled, my throat would almost pop out of my neck. I drank a lot of water but it didn’t help. Then I went to get a cup of milk and drank some medicine pills and hoped that it would work. Afterward, I went to mom’s room, which was across from my room, and told her about it. I could hardly speak even a single word; it hurt my throat.

            I have had asthma since I was a year old. I had an inhaler that was useful sometimes. I had to bring it to school every day when I was seven, just in case there was an accident. I couldn’t swim or run or be too close to furry stuff like dogs, cats, teddy bears, and so on. It was a hard time for me to survive. Some people must carry this illness for the rest of their lives, but some didn’t have to. I really don’t like the fact that for my entire life, I must carry that sickness. First, there’s a chance that people might avoid me. Second, I like to travel around the world; traveling is my favorite thing to do. There’s still hope that asthma would pass away.

            “Death” is the only thing I was thinking about after I took my first step into mom’s room. “What if I pass away tonight? What if there would be no future for me? Am I hopeless?” Death was coming nearer and nearer every second. Mom then called dad up from the living room, he always stays up late. Dad ran up and asked me a bunch of questions in a flash. I couldn’t even open my mouth. I was so tired then. I lay on Mom’s bed and quivered. I closed my eyes for a while then dad took me to the hospital.

            I could barely remember what happened on that day, the day which had changed me. It was a really sunny day at Ky Dong swimming pool. I was in a float floating around in the water. I didn’t know how to swim yet. I was only 8 months old. As I was playing in the pool, I felt something got stuck in my nose. The first thing I know was crying. Then I was whirling and splashing in the water. After that day, Mom took me to lots of hospitals and clinics. “He’ll be fine; it’s just a little fever. Nothing would happen.” That was what all the doctors and nurses said. Sadly, that wasn’t the truth. A doctor in district 3 found out that there was a kernel in my nose.  Since then, I had asthma.

            On the way to the hospital, I was finally awaked. Everything seemed blurry. The street was empty. A few motor-riders passed through us. Some street lights were blinking at me as it was telling that everything would be alright. I could felt the cold air of the mid night hit me on the cheek. There was a quick breeze.

            We arrived; there was a guard who was staring at me as I was some kind of strange creature crawling toward him. “Sit there on the bench and wait. He’ll be back in a second” he said to me in Vietnamese. I didn’t say anything. I sat there and thought about what happened on that day. If I wasn’t in the water, none of these had happened. I spent my life mostly alone. I didn’t have lots of friends. I always talk to myself as my only friend. Most of the people think that asthma could spread but it doesn’t.  For me, there were no true friends back then.

            Dad and my Dad took a stroll through the empty aisle. I didn’t say anything, so did my Dad. “Area C” I read the sign and followed my Dad. There was a female doctor sitting there after we entered the room. I told her about what happened tonight and how I had asthma. Then she told me to breathe the inhaler machine. It was then 2 o’clock in the morning. It was all happened so fast. I just finished my homework a few minutes ago.

            My Dad and I headed home after then. I could feel the fresh air again. There was a light rain when we left.

            Back to where I began, on my bed. Everything was calm. I could hear the crickets in the back of the house chirping. The sound of the air conditioner was monotonously. I was regular breathing again. Under all of the sadness, there was always happiness. Under all the pain, there was always comfort. Under all the depression, there was always “hope.”

“Hope never abandons you; you abandon it.”