Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio

We’ve been best friends since we were five.But nothing’s as simple as it seems.Relationships change and so do people.Especially now.When innuendos and hints aren't enough, it’s time to confess.I’m in love with my best friend.…And I think I’m too late.Small Town Girl is created by Stephie Walls, an eGlobal Creative Publishing Signed Author.

This an autobiography of a man's childhood day, the horror and the dread that he went through, it also comprises of other happenings that made up his childhood day: both sad and happy moments.

Mom said I needed to toughen up, so she made me walk home alone. "You're ten. Everyone else can do it. Why can't you? If you were even half as capable as your cousin, I wouldn't have to worry so much." I shook my head and signed, [I can't hear. Crossing streets isn't safe.] She gave me that look. Total disappointment. Then she walked off with my cousin, Sadie. What Mom didn't know was that before school let out, Sadie had stopped me. Said she was helping Mom make me independent. Then she snatched my hearing aid. Now the whole world was silent. I followed the crowd down the sidewalk. At a small intersection, a car spun out, horn blaring. Everyone scattered. Everyone but me. I couldn't hear it. My spirit rose above the street. Below, my body lay in a pool of blood. Mom... Sorry. I couldn't do this independence thing.

Uprooted from her childhood home and thrown into a new life, introvert Irene has to navigate the ups and downs of a new neighbourhood, new school, and potential friends and enemies. Her world changes when her eyes fall on a pair of tantalising green ones and her heart falls for the very first time. Until one terrible night shatters all those hopes and innocence of first love, and Irene learns the hard way that she shouldn't have let her life revolve around a boy. But what happens when years later, when she has moved on and recovered from her scars, her past comes knocking once more? What happens when an old flame reignites her brokenheart?

For five years, I believed my future husband was the man who had helped me rebuild my life after the tragic accident that left me crippled. Until I discovered the truth. He was the one who caused the accident. Even worse, he had prepared an AI-generated sex tape to humiliate me at our wedding and keep me under his control for the rest of my life. He thought I would remain ignorant forever, loving him too deeply to ever leave him. But what he didn't know was that my legs would make a full recovery on our wedding day. And our wedding wouldn't end with vows. It would end with revenge, and the regret that would bury him for the rest of his life.

Mom always says that depression is nothing more than an illness born of idleness. People who are truly busy studying don't have time to be depressed. So, during my senior year of high school, I lie awake through countless nights, my hair falling out in clumps as I tremble over endless mock papers. Mom only slides another mock exam booklet in front of me. "Finish this booklet, and you won't have time to wallow in self-pity." At family gatherings, my relatives notice that I keep my head down and barely speak. They ask Mom, "Why has she gotten so quiet?" Mom's face darkens at once. "It's because she's guilty about something, duh. Go on. Tell everyone what you've done wrong this time." Later, even my homeroom teacher calls to say I don't seem like myself anymore. The moment Mom hangs up, she rounds on me. "So, now, you've started tattling to your teacher?" It isn't until I collapse before a mock exam that she finally listens to the doctor's advice and brings home a tiny orange tabby. Through the darkest days of my life, that cat becomes my only reason to keep going. Eventually, I make it into college. When I come home for the Independence Day holiday, I step through the door and call out instinctively for him. "Tangy?" No answering meow. Even the cat bed on the balcony is gone. "Stop calling," Mom said flatly. "I dumped him back where I found him the day you left." I stand there, frozen for several seconds before turning and darting outside, only to realize I have no idea where to go. The sounds around me become muffled, as though separated by a pane of glass, drifting farther and farther away. At that moment, my last connection to the world quietly snaps.