Bound

Courage

At 10:00 I was on laptop before my dad came in and told me it was bed time. "Did you brush your teeth and wash your face?" He asked. "Yep." He smiled before he helped me into bed. My dad tucked the covers around me before gently kissing my forehead. "Goodnight Coop I love you to the moon and back."

"I love you too dad." I said. My dad turned off the light and closed my door. I heard him go back downstairs to do the dishes. I just laid in my bed thinking about what I wanted to do tommorow. Then It hit me. Why don't I try to walk tommorow? Yeah! It was already established in my head that I was gonna try really hard to walk tommorow. Maybe then, the feeling in my legs might come back if I do. I don't really know what it's like to have feeling in your legs but I just hung on to the hope that one day I might. With that I fell asleep. 

I woke up the next morning around 5. My dad usually doesn't come in my room until 8 sometimes 9 so I figured that I would go ahead and try to get into the wheelchair myself and then slowly try to stand up. I looked at my wheelchair from across the room. I untucked the covers and then I slowly pushed myself up. I let myself carefully fall to the ground trying to not to make noise. Then I used my arms and dragged myself to my wheelchair. I grabbed my closet door knob and flopped myself into my wheelchair. I wheeled myself over the the bed. I put both of my hands on the bed. Then I gently and carefully lifted myself up. But before I could get my feet on the ground, my dad came into my room.

"COOPER NO!" My dad ran over and scooped me back on the bed. Or should I say square one. "You know you have to ask me if you want your wheelchair! You could've gotten hurt!"

"But dad I was only trying to-"

"No Cooper! N.O. no!" I thought that was completely unfair. I wasn't even doing anything! All I was trying to do was be independent. "Don't ever do that again!" My dad said. I didn't respond. I just furrowed my eyebrows and crossed my arms. Dad tucked the covers around me and told me to go back to sleep. "I'll wake you up officially at 9." He left and went back to his room closing the door a little aggressively.

I was just too mad to go to sleep. I didn't understand why dad was being so uptight about this. I thought he would've wanted me to walk! I sat myself up a little bit and I got on my phone. I scrolled through Instagram to see if anyone left comments or something. That girl Katie kept tagging me in her instagram stories and posts.

I really wish I could be there with him
Her caption said. Katie was really sweet and she was smart. I could talk to her about anything. I dmed her and to my surprise she was awake. 

K: hey Cooper! Omg this is such a huge surprise!

C: hey Katie. I figured you would be nice to talk to early in the morning

K:😝

C: lol

K: haha so where are you now?

C: I'm still in indonesia. I'll show you were I'm at: 

K: wow 😲 it's beautiful

C: I camped on the cliff and I took one last picture before I start heading back

K: It's so pretty

C: it is😌

K: 😀 talk to you later bye

C: bye✋

K:✋ 

It was nice to talk to Katie. She seemed really interested in my "adventures". But above all I really appreciated her company even if it was just a dm.

I turned off my phone and tried to get a little bit of rest. I woke again around 10:00 I guess dad was sleeping in later because I woke him up with the whole wheelchair incident. I still didn't understand it though.

I could hear the creeking sound of dad's bed as he say up. I heard his footsteps come out of his room and march over to mine. "Good morning Cooper." He said opening the door. "Good morning dad." 

I didn't say anything as he lifted me up and wheeled my wheelchair over to me. Dad lifted me in the chair and wheeled me downstairs. I didn't say anything when dad wheeled me in the living room. After dad went into the kitchen, I remembered I forgot my phone upstairs. I made sure dad was preoccupied before carefully wheeling myself up the ramp. I made it all the way to my room and grabbed my phone before leaving.

"Cooper what did you- COOPER!"

Dad's scream scared me. I wheeled downstairs immediately only to find a frantic and angry dad coming over to me. "Cooper.... I've told you to always let me know where you're going. Whether it's upstairs or downstairs or in the kitchen and so on."

"I just wheeled myself upstairs to get my phone dad it was no big deal."

"It is a big deal Cooper, what If you fell off your wheelchair going up the stairs?!" I just looked down slowly shaking my head. My dad scoffed and wheeled to the dining room. He put a bowl of Frosted flakes in front of me along with some orange juice. "Thank you." I said very quietly. I figured I didn't wanna upset dad anymore so I figured that would be the end of today's trying-to-be-independent lesson. 

For now.