“Come on Anna! You know ya can’t get me! You should just go after Lizzie!”

“Hey! Keep going after Sammy! Go after Sammy!”

Anna rolled her eyes. She began to climb up the swing set after me.

“Yeah, Sam. I can’t get you!”

I looked at Anna then to the pole I was about to swing from. It was a red pole that stuck
out of the side of the swing set.

“Yup! You can’t get me!”

I jumped for it. My hands gripped the pole and began to swing. It was a thing we would
commonly do but, unfortunately for me, it had rained before our game of tag. I slipped and fell.
Hard. I hit the ground with a loud, OOF! I looked at the sky, giggling uncontrollably. Anna
rushed over to me, looking very concerned.
“Sam! Sam! Are you okay?”
I looked at her. My giggling began to turn into a cry. I sobbed, watching my sister run to
our house, screaming for our mom. Anna’s babysitter, who had been quietly pushing Anna’s
brother on a swing, tried to help me get up. Anna began to pull my arms, trying to help her
babysitter. My back was a little sore, but my wrist was in pain. As Anna gripped my left wrist, I
shrieked. She let go of my wrist and I fell back to the ground.

“Oh! Sorry Sam!”

My mom rushed out of our house, Lizzie trailing quickly behind her. I looked at her and
when she saw me crying I saw a look of worry spread across her face.
“Oh, Sammy! What happened?”
I looked at her, unable to respond. She began to help me up. She grabbed my wrist and I
shrieked, this time louder. She tenderly let go of my wrist and grabbed higher up my arm. As we
walked into our house, my mom turned to Anna’s babysitter.

“She’ll be okay. It wasn’t your fault, anyway.”

Anna’s babysitter looked at my mom with big, sad eyes.

“Go look after them.”

They looked at Anna and her brother. We went into our house as Anna’s babysitter
went to watch Anna and her brother.

My mom helped me sit on the counter. She looked at me and tried to find what I hurt.

“Sammy, what hurts?”

“I-I-I hurt my wrist!”

I began to sob louder than I had been. She felt my wrist and I shrieked again.

“Sammy, get in the car. We’re going to the Emergency Room. C-G-W! Get in the car!
Sam hurt her wrist!”

My dad came up from the basement, where he usually can be found, and gave my mom a
confused look.

“What?”

“Get in the car we have to go to the Emergency Room. Sam hurt her wrist.”

They helped me into the car and we drove to an Emergency Room. Halfway out of the
driveway, my mom called our grandparents to come over and watch Lizzie. They were there in a
few minutes and then we finally were able to leave.

At the first Emergency we went to they said they didn’t have colored casts. Well that was a
huge problem for me.

“I want a pink cast.”
The doctor looked at me.
“We don’t have colored casts.”
“I want a pink cast!”
My parents told me we could go to another Emergency Room and see if they had pink
casts. If they did, I could have one. If they didn’t, too bad! We got in the car again and drove
to a second Emergency Room. This one did have pink casts and the doctor put one around my
wrist. I gave the doctor a funny look, and then turned to my mom.

“It’s okay Sammy. It will help your wrist heal.”

“It feels funny and tight.”

I wasn’t thrilled about getting a cast on, especially when I would go to 2nd grade soon.

“Well, it’s all done!”

The doctor led us out to the main lobby. My mom and another person talked about when
I would get my cast off.

“She’ll get it off in two weeks.”

I was horrified. In less than two weeks school would start!

We left the Emergency Room and got into the car. I was worried about wearing the cast to
school but I was more tired than worried. As we drove home we stopped at Burger King and I got
a cherry flavored ICEE. It tasted great!

Thinking back to that day I feel kind of dumb for swinging on the pole after it rained. I
haven’t seen that babysitter back at Anna’s house either, so I feel bad. Anna’s parents got me a
cookie cake after I broke my arm, even though it wasn’t their fault. It was my fault I broke it
(though I do sometimes blame the swing set). I think I learned one of the greatest lessons I
will ever learn: accidents happen, it’s just a way of life. I also learned to never swing from a wet
pole above the ground, and that would have been nice to know.