People said that the president had been born like everyone else. There were pictures of him in the breathing machines all children had to be in until they were taught to breath with the glasses. His high school pictures all showed him wearing the glasses. But slowly, as his political career started, and advanced, slowly the glasses had disappeared. It had been one of the major parts of his campaign, one of the things that had pushed him to his landslide victory. He was the man with the will and ambition to fight even his own body. He was a man who had learned how to breathe.
Malia carefully removed her glasses, ready to put them back on if she started feeling lightheaded. It had become a nightly routine for her. Slowly she had improved; she could now walk and breathe without her glasses for five whole minutes. Next she was going to try speaking without the glasses on. She took a deep breath.
“With determination and persistence we can do anything,” she declared and took another deep breath. “Nothing is out of our abilities, it is only because we do not strive that we do not succeed.” She stopped, gasping for air. That last sentence had been a bit too long, her lungs were empty. She would have to watch the speech again and see when the president paused to take breaths. She shoved the glasses back on her face and instantly they told her she needed to take a breath. It was so easy to forget.
The president was going to be in town, speaking at the stadium. Malia of course had a ticket; she wasn’t going to pass up a chance to watch the president. Her boss had agreed to let her have the day off. He knew how much it meant to her.
The stadium was full already when Malia got there; every seat anywhere near the stage was already occupied. She nearly screamed in frustration. There was no way that she would be able to see the president in any detail. It would have been better for her to have stayed home and watched on television where at least they would zoom in.
Malia stormed out of the stadium and into the hall again. If she wouldn’t be able to see anything anyway, she wasn’t going to stay. It would only add to her frustration and anger. The exit to the stadium was filled with people trying to get in however. It was impossible to leave right away, no matter how much she wanted to. It would be like trying to swim against a riptide. She wandered around the halls around the stadium, waiting for the speech to start so the crowd would break up and she could leave. She was turning around a corner when she bumped into a woman coming the other way. Papers went everywhere.
“Sorry, here let me help you pick those up,” said Malia.
“No, I was the one carrying to much,” the woman said. It was true that the amount of papers strewn across the floor was far more then any one person should be able to carry without help.
“Do you want me to help you carry them wherever they go?” Malia asked. “I don’t have anything else to do.”
“Would you?” asked the woman thankfully. They finished gathering the papers again and split them between the two of them. Malia couldn’t help but notice the papers all looked like official documents of various types.
To be continued....
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