On a gloomy rainy day Priya awoke to an annoying itch on her face. Typically any person could just lift their arm and scratch their face, but today Priya seemed to be having difficulties. “I am probably just still really tired and I’m too lazy to move, maybe I should just go back to sleep.” Priya thought to herself. But Priya did not feel tired, in fact she felt quite well rested. She suddenly noticed how unhealthily skinny her body looked. Her arms and legs were the size of a ruler. “Why do I look like this? What happened to me?” Priya wondered to herself. Suddenly she noticed something wet dribbling down her chin. “Ew am I drooling?” Priya said to herself. Once again she tried to lift up her arm but just struggled and could not. “Oh no! Am I paralyzed?” Priya worried.
After a few minutes of laying in shock and confusion Priya decided to call out for her mother. “Moooom!” Priya wailed. No answer. “Mom, can you please come here?”, still no answer. Priya looked over at the clock it was 5:35 and her alarm was going off. Surely either her mom or dad would come to see why she hasn’t turned off her alarm clock. Finally her dad comes into the room, “Priya why haven’t you… Oh my god! Richa, come quick! Call for help! Priya are you alright?” Quickly Priya’s mother rushes into the room. “Priya are you alright? Conrod what’s wrong with her? She looks like Daddy!” Priya’s father snapped at her mom and told her not to say those kinds of things. Priya was starting to panic her dad usually did not snap at her mother unless something really wrong and drastic was happening. “My mom says I look like grandpa!?” Priya started to worry. From the other room Prajeev, Priya’s little brother, is shuffling into Priya’s room. Rubbing his eyes he says “What’s going on? I am trying to sleep. Mommy, Papa why are you yelling?” Prajeev then looks over at Priya and realizes what is wrong. “Piya what happened? Mommy, Papa why does she look like that?” Prajeev started to say worryingly. After a short while an ambulance comes to pick up Priya and everyone else climbs in.
While in the ambulance everyone is silent. Priya’s mom is teary eyed, her dad looks solemn, and Prajeev looks bewildered. Her mom is holding Priya’s hand as they are a few minutes away from the hospital. Soon everyone was in the hospital. Priya’s family was out in the waiting room, while numerous doctors were aiding to Priya. Finally her parent’s were called in. “We are sorry to say that Priya is diagnosed with ALS.” said the doctor. Priya’s mother gasped and started to sob while her father still had that solemn look he had in the ambulance. Prajeev was quiet for a few seconds then quickly hid his face in his mother’s side. “Now, the phase your daughter is at is that she is not able to move some of her muscles. From the tests we ran we were able to discover that her lungs are still working healthily and so are her neck and face muscles.” the doctor reported. “Noo I can’t have ALS!” Priya tried to say but instead to everyone else came out as a sad moan. “Oh yes and she is not able to really communicate. I will leave you some time with your daughter now.” The doctor said without emotion as he slipped out of the door.
As Priya looked up at her parents she saw how upset they were. “Now both my grandfather and I have ALS. This must be so hard on my dad. I wish I could tell him I am sorry.” Priya thought to herself. “How is it that my grandfather communicates? Oh yeah I think he has someone say the alphabet to spell out a word. Mmmm! Mmmmm!” Priya started to say to get the attention of her parents. “Yes Priya? Do you need anything?” her mom asked worriedly. “Do you need us to move you pillows? Her dad asked. Priya shook her head. “I want to let them know I am thirsty.” Priya was thinking. “Do you want us to spell out the word using the alphabet?” her dad asked. Priya nodded. Then her dad started “A, B, C, D” Priya nodded at D. Eventually they were able to get to the word drink. Priya started to notice how Prajeev was not looking at her directly. It seemed as though he was scared and was avoiding eye contact. “I now know how grandpa feels. I feel bad that Prajeev is scared of me and won’t look me in the eyes. It is hard to see the ones I love so upset and stressed out because of a situation I am in.” Priya thought to herself.
Soon the night came and the doctors told Priya’s parents that Priya was welcome to spend the night at the hospital or go home. Her parents chose to take her home. Once everyone got back home it was very late. Prajeev had already fallen asleep. “I will stay with Priya during the night and you can sleep Conrod.” said Priya’s mom. Priya’s mom quickly dozed off while Priya lay there awake for a little while. Soon Priya fell asleep as well. Suddenly Priya woke up with a jolt to the sound of her alarm clock going off at 5:30am. Priya realized that she was able to get her whole body upright and was able to move again. As she looked around the room she realized that her mom was not in the room with her. “It was just a bad dream! None of that actually happened! But the dream did make me take into account of how my grandfather must feel. It made me realize how hard it must be for him and that I should try to interact with him more.” Priya thought to herself as she happily slipped out of bed to get ready for school.