Brace 2

approx. 40 years ago

I woke unexpectedly in the exact position I fell asleep. 3:42 am the clock read. In the Milwaukee Brace the ONLY way you could sleep was on your back. Rage filled my body this time. Feeling strangled in my contraption as the metal collar piece encased around my debilitated neck, I began to wonder. “Will I ever be normal again?”

Abruptly, I rolled out of bed, unscrewed the back of the brace ( in which my hair was matted in) and shoved and molded the whole thing off my body. I was tired, exhausted….both physically and emotionally.

Urgently and frantically I started unscrewing the tiny metal fasteners. This apparatus was unyielding. My fingers touched each of the screws with vigilance. I couldn’t move quickly enough. When I had them all out I scurried to my bedroom window and plowed it open. As I fidgeted with the screen, I ferociously spewed all of them from my second story window. It was the same feeling I got when I fed myself to satiation. Out of breath, I then stood still, at peace.

All of a sudden I whirled around, grabbed my brace and whacked it into the wall, leaving a nice indentation in the sheet rock. ……My work here was done.