The first thing
that everyone, including me, noticed when the new student entered the classroom
was how short she was. At thirteen years of age, every one of us was at least
above four feet tall. But she was barely four feet. This was because her legs ended
at her knees.
There were sniggers and whispers as
our form teacher, Mrs Raja, introduced the new student, Su Lee, to us. I
neither sniggered nor whispered for I, too, was handicapped, but in a much
lesser degree compared to her. I was born with an extra finger on each hand, a
condition known as polydactyly.
“You’ve got twelve fingers.”
I tried to conceal my hands under
the table after she said that. When she saw what I did, a look of horror
appeared on her face.
“No! No! That’s not what I meant! I’m
sorry, but what I wanted to say was that, I think that’s cool, having twelve
fingers.”
I tried to think of something nice
to say, but all I could do was stare at her legs.
“Please don’t feel bad for me.
Promise me that you won’t.”
“Okay, I promise.”
And that was how our friendship
began. We found out that we had much in common. The both of us had an unusual
thirst for knowledge and a knack for languages. Very soon, we became firm
friends and spent large amounts of time together.
When Su Lee first arrived at our
school, she required the assistance of a female teacher to help her move
around. A wheelchair was impractical given the fact that our school was not
wheelchair accessible. When I started to notice that this arrangement was becoming
inconvenient for both Su Lee and the teachers, I volunteered to carry her.
One day, as we were making our way to the
canteen with Su Lee on my back, we stumbled upon Amelia and her gang. They were
standing right in the middle of the corridor, blocking our path.
“Excuse me, could you please let us
through?”
“Hey, it’s the two freaks, one
carrying the other. They almost look like twins, joined together!”
After Amelia finished her sentence,
they broke into laughter.
“Please let us through,” I said with
greater vehemence.
“So what if we don’t? Actually, I’ll
let you through. But you have to crawl between my legs.”
They laughed again. I tried to step
away from the corridor, but one of them promptly planted herself in front of
me, blocking my way. When I attempted to force my way through, someone shoved
me. Su Lee and I fell. Their cruel laughter rang loud and clear in my ears as
we tumbled onto the hard cement floor.
“WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?”
We looked up to see Mr Chin standing
at the end of the corridor with arms akimbo. Before he could say another word,
Amelia and her gang of bullies bolted from the scene. Mr Chin walked over and
asked if we were hurt. Apart from some bruises, Su Lee and I were fine. I
lifted her onto my back and resumed our walk towards the canteen. My bruised
knees were aching by the time we reached the canteen. I rubbed them with my
palms after helping Su Lee to sit down.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For what happened just now.”
“But it wasn’t your fault!”
“If you weren’t carrying me, you
could have avoided being pushed. I…”
“Su Lee, don’t be silly. I decided
to carry you. It was my decision. And it wasn’t your fault that Amelia and her
friends are nasty individuals. You must be hungry. What would you like to eat and
drink today?”
“So you don’t think I’m a burden to
you?”
“No, of course not! Come on, what
would you like today?”
“I’ll have whatever you’re having.”
“Okay!”
As we were tucking into our fried
rice, I noticed that tears were flowing down Su Lee’s face. When I put down the
wooden chopsticks and asked her what was wrong, she wrapped her arms around me
and started sobbing.
“Thank you so much, Daisy. Thank you
so much for being my friend.”
“I will always be here for you. Even
if I have to fall down a million times, I will gladly do it for you because we
are friends forever.”
