Crescent Star
To shield my sister from a street thug's iron bar after she cut class, my right leg was shattered. The infection that followed left the doctors no choice but to amputate.
From that day on, I spent ten years in a wheelchair.
Consumed with guilt, my sister massaged my stump every single day. My parents wiped their reddened eyes and promised that everything they owned would go to me someday, to make up for what I had lost.
Then my sister won the highest international ballet award, and the whole family wept with joy.
Before the ceremony, she looked at my wheelchair. Her eyes suddenly filled with tears.
"This is the greatest moment of my life. If a cripple tags along, what will the press write about me?
"Dad, Mom, just this once, let the three of us go together, looking our best. Please?"
My parents caved in the end.
Before they left, Mom was afraid I might fall, so she lashed me to the wheelchair with hemp rope.
"Be good, Audrey. I put all the knives and scissors away. Don't move around. We'll bring you back egg tarts from Belem."
I sat obediently in the middle of the living room and watched the front door close, then heard the lock turn from outside.
That night, the old electric blanket in the bedroom short-circuited and caught fire.
The flames burned their way from the bedroom into the living room.
I could not break free of the ropes. I could not reach the door handle. I could not find a single thing sharp enough to cut myself loose.
The fire licked up my one remaining leg.
The pain was beyond anything I had ever known. I sobbed through the smoke, begging my family to save me.
They hung up.
On the television, my sister stood in the spotlight, her smile radiant and dazzling.