The Healing Horse, Ch. 26, Scene 5: Sway Like a Palm Tree

Even though Claudia has wounded Karen, our hero is resilient.

Scene 5: Sway Like a Palm Tree

Outside, the sky was blue. The weather was warm but not hot. Tall, beautiful palm trees swayed in a gentle breeze. It was a perfect day. She stopped running and walked slowly to the sidewalk. She would wait for Mama there, under the palms. Then the tears came.

They flowed down her face. She dabbed at them with the white cotton handkerchief she always carried. She wondered if she had done the right thing. Maybe she should have refused to give up her pretty doll dress, but she had felt so overpowered, and so unable to stand up for herself. Claudia was more frightening than the experts. Then, she realized that while she had lost a pretty doll dress, Claudia had lost a friend. The dress could be replaced. The friendship could not. Nevertheless, she was angry with herself for not being stronger.

Mama’s car turned the corner. Karen made the tears stop. She would talk this over with her mother. She looked up at the palm trees swaying high above. She would be like them and sway but never break.

The Healing Horse, Ch. 26, Scene 4: Doll Clothes

Little Karen’s heart of gold is no protection against Claudia’s nastiness. But she survives and escapes.

(Image published by D. Lothrop Company, no artist or author identified, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Scene 4: Doll Clothes

Saturday came, warm and sunny. Karen dressed for play in her powder-blue coveralls and a white tee shirt. All morning long, she folded and unfolded the doll outfit, and then finally put it and the doll into her doll suitcase.

After lunch, and full of enthusiasm and hope, she hurried out to Mama’s car. At one-thirty, Mama drove her the twenty minutes to Claudia’s. Claudia lived in a large white bungalow with an immaculately maintained green lawn in the upscale Beverlywood neighborhood.

Karen followed Mama up the long sidewalk. At the end, they climbed three red tile steps to the front porch. Mama pushed the doorbell button, and they waited. After a few minutes, Claudia’s mother opened the door and welcomed them in. Claudia’s mother looked like she could have been a model. She was over five-and-a-half feet tall with shoulder-length brown hair and matching brown eyes. Slender, she wore a size five dress and radiated kindness.

“Come in, come in,” she said.

Mama said, “I’d love to, but I thought I’d go grocery shopping while the girls played. And I have some errands that can’t wait. I should be back in an hour if that’s okay with you? Then we can visit.”

Karen and Claudia’s mom waved goodbye and went inside.

“Karen,” she said, “I’m so happy you’re visiting Claudia. You know she doesn’t have a lot of friends, so your visit will be special for her. I buy her everything she wants, but she’s still not happy. I really don’t know what more I can do. Maybe if you’ll be her friend, she’ll be happier.”

Karen’s heart swelled with warmth. She was going to make life better for Claudia. She was going to be a good friend.

Claudia’s mother led her down a short hall and into a huge bedroom overlooking the beautifully landscaped backyard.

She said, “Claudia, your friend is here. I need to do some things in the kitchen, at the other end of the house, but if you need me just yell. Okay?”

She hurried away.

Claudia sat in her wheelchair in the middle of the room, upright and regal, as if she were a queen. A beautiful white wooden table stood in front of her with a chair on the other side.

“Hi, Claudia. How are you doing, today? This is a great bedroom.”

Karen walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows and admired the backyard.

“I am well,” Claudia replied. “This is the house’s master suite. I am in charge here, and this is where I choose to live.”

Karen waited for Claudia to ask how she was, but Claudia did not ask or respond to her compliment. Instead, she talked about the dolls.

“Why don’t you have a seat at the table? You can put your doll and her clothes on it. Why don’t you let me take a look at them? I’m sure you won’t mind getting started. I’m in a hurry.”

As Karen sat on the chair that Claudia pointed to, she caught her balance and realized it was a toddler chair, a chair for a tiny child. Sitting in it forced her to look up at Claudia, who now appeared much larger. Ignoring a premonition that the afternoon was already going wrong, she unpacked her doll.

Claudia picked it up and said “I have a small, cheap doll just that size. It’s much smaller than a Barbie. It’s in the toy chest over there.” She pointed to a huge, white box at the foot of her bed. “Get it for me, will you?”

Karen hurried to the box and brought the doll back to the table. It was the same size as hers, but badly worn. The long, brown hair was frazzled, and the doll’s pink face was marred by scratches and pencil marks.

“Let’s dress up our dolls,” Claudia commanded. “It’s too bad you don’t have a real Barbie. These little dolls are pathetic, like you.”

Karen forced her smile to remain in place and her voice to sound cheerful. “Okay! But, what’s the rush? Can’t we talk for a while and get to know each other? Don’t you want to show me your room and your house?”

Claudia’s eyebrows came together. “Let’s see your doll clothes. Let’s see what you have!”

Karen laid out the doll outfit she had brought, the tiny red hat, the matching red Mary Janes, and the frilly white bobby socks. They were all in perfect condition, just as they had been when she had unwrapped them from their packaging, many months ago. Beside them, she smoothed out the black and white checked gingham dress Mama had sewn by hand.

Claudia picked up the dress. “This is handmade. You didn’t make this.” She said handmade as a compliment and the rest like an insult. “Go back to my toy chest and find some outfits that will fit.”

Karen obeyed rather than risk a confrontation. She was there to make friends, and she could not find the courage to resist Claudia’s bullying.

The girls took turns dressing and undressing each other’s dolls. Claudia seemed to relax and even laughed a little.

Then she snapped, “It’s time to exchange doll clothes, and then you can leave. You’ve been here long enough. I’m done with you. Here!”

She pushed a light blue check dress toward Karen and scooped up the gingham dress Mama had made along with the rest of the outfit. The dress she was worn and stained as if she had touched it with greasy fingers. The cloth was so old that the whites had yellowed.

Karen felt sick. Claudia was not interested in her. Claudia did not want friendship. She just wanted the doll outfit. She knew Claudia was deliberately intimidating her, but she could not find the courage to stand up to her overbearing behavior. She felt paralyzed.

“Okay,” Claudia said. “Now, I have the best dress and you have a rag. You can go now. You know your way out. Get out of here. I never want to see you again.”

Karen clenched her teeth. She could not speak. She stuffed her doll and the ragged dress into the suitcase and ran through the house and out the front door.

The Healing Horse, Ch. 26, Scene 3: For Claudia, the Best

Image of Karen's Doll

Little Karen has a heart of gold. She decides to take her best doll in its best dress to Claudia’s. Anything to help Claudia feel better.

(Image source unknown)

Scene 3: For Claudia, the Best

Kitten felt a burst of energy. She skipped down the hall to her bedroom and laid out her favorite dolls and doll outfits on her bed.

Claudia and her mom have a lot more money than we do, and I don’t want her feeling sorry for me or embarrassed because her dolls are nicer than mine, so I’ll take my best doll with me, and I’ll take my best doll dress, too. We must’ve eaten a hundred boxes of cereal to get this doll. It’s really nice. And this green gingham dress with red, white and blue floral trim and rickrack is beautiful. It even has a big skirt. Mama worked for hours to make it. Claudia will love it.

The Healing Horse, Ch. 26, Scene 2: Karen Asks Mama

image of spaghetti bolognese Little Karen is someone who does not easily give up on herself or on other people. In this scene, she reaffirms her courage. She will go for a play date with a mean girl. Maybe she can help Claudia and be her friend.

(Image by Manfred&Barbara Aulbach, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Scene 2: Karen Asks Mama

When she got off the school bus, Karen ran into the house and found Mama waiting for her in the kitchen. It was Karen’s night to cook. She made spaghetti with tomato sauce, and Mama helped.

“Mama, Claudia sat next to me on the bus and invited me to come over to her house and play dolls this weekend. I thought this is weird. Why would she be asking me to come play with her after all these years of ignoring me? I’ve tried to be friends with her in spite of her bullying, but she’s always ignored me. We ride the bus together, every day, and we have classes together, but now, all of a sudden, she wants me to come visit her.”

Mama raised one eyebrow as she replied, “Kitten, this could be a way to expand your circle of friends, but be careful. You know how mean she can be, the way she teases and tries to trick the other children. She’s been mean to you, before, so take heed, darling.”

“Maybe she’s changed, though the way she was teasing one of the boys on the bus about his learning disabilities did not sound like a change. It sounded like the same mean old Claudia. I hope she’s changed. I can always use a new friend, and I’m sure Claudia would be happier if she stopped making enemies out of everyone she meets.”

“That’s my Krana Layala! So smart. So wise. Always reaching out.”

“Can you take me on Saturday? Can you call Claudia’s mother to let her know?”

Mama agreed and then used the school directory to look up the number. She made a quick call, and then said, “You’re all set. I’ll take you over, Saturday afternoon.”

The Healing Horse, Ch. 26, Scene 1: Claudia Turns Friendly

image of housecat with outstretched claws

This scene begins Chapter 26, which explores how a good-hearted person can be taken advantage of but turn the experience into something positive by learning from it.

(Image by Fabian, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Scene 1: Claudia Turns Friendly

The next Monday, Karen climbed onto the school bus and sat in the back for the ride home. Tammy had been absent from school, that day, and she wondered what had happened to her.

As the bus filled, Mr. Hinton and another bus driver carried a wheelchair holding a girl named Claudia onto the bus and set her down next to Karen. Mr. Hinton and Claudia’s mother would carry her off the bus to her home wheelchair at the other end of the ride.

Claudia had muscular dystrophy. Under her skirt and blouse, she wore a custom plaster brace made with straps so she could have it taken off at night. She was a pretty girl of medium stature, with long, brown hair that hung straight to the middle of her back and carefully trimmed bangs that dropped a little below her eyebrows. She always wore a bow hair clip to match her outfit. Her eyes were brown and her fingernails were very long and a fashionable white pearl. They stood out above everything else, like fashionable claws.

After a few minutes, Claudia asked, “Hey Karen, do you want to come over to my house this weekend and play dolls with me?”

“I’ll have to ask my Mama and give you a call. How’s that?” Karen replied.

“That’s fine,” Claudia said, as she turned her back on Karen and began teasing the boy on her other side about his learning disabilities.

Karen wondered why Claudia was inviting her over. She had a bad feeling about this.

The Healing Horse, Ch. 25, Scene 10: Like a Rosebud

photo of pink, yellow, and lavender roses opening

This scene ends Chapter 25 on a joyous note. Thirteen-year-old Karen realizes that she is blossoming like a rose and helping her friends blossom in their own unique ways. They are changing the world. Stay tuned for a darker chapter, as Karen tries to befriend a mean girl.

(Image courtesy of Grant Gould, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Scene 10: Cooling It Like a Rosebud

Karen turned around and walked back to her mother’s bedroom, dragging her left foot with a limp deeper than usual. She loved being with people, but she also knew when she needed to be alone.

As she looked out through her Mama’s bedroom window into the rose garden, she was taken to a place of stillness and solitude. She raised the window and let the rose perfume fill her lungs.

The joy she had seen in Tammy’s and Kimberly’s eyes lit up her heart. She was doing it. She was fulfilling her potential. She was making the world a better place, especially for people with disabilities. She was unfolding and blossoming like a rose, and she was helping her friends blossom too, each in her own unique way. They were still more bud than bloom, but they were opening to the world and bringing their beauty into it. Together they were changing the world.

The Healing Horse, Ch 25, Scene 9: Happy Goodbyes

In this scene, the friends say goodbye after promising to meet, again, soon. That is all good. But we also get a glimpse of what is to come, as Tammy’s sister glares at Karen.

(Image courtesy of Evan-Amos, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Scene 9: Happy Goodbyes

Karen and Kimberly put away the scarves, the Victrola records, and the other things they had played with. Kimberly tucked the tube of lipstick back into her jeans pocket. Then Karen pushed Tammy’s wheelchair through the door, down the hall, and onto the front porch. She loved helping her friend.

Karen and Kimberly hugged Tammy goodbye. She beamed.

“I hope you can come visit again soon,” Karen said to her. “You, too,” she said to Kimberly.

“Yes! Soon!” the girls shrieked at the same time.

Mrs. Beaumont and Tammy’s sister bumped the wheelchair down the steps, and the others followed. Then she let Karen push the chair along the brick path to Mrs. Beaumont’s station wagon. The two mothers hugged, and Mrs. Beaumont transferred Tammy into the back seat.

Mrs. Beaumont backed the big station wagon out of the driveway into the street. As everyone waved, Karen glimpsed Sandra glaring at her from the front seat passenger seat. Tammy’s sister was not happy about Tammy’s new friends.

The Healing Horse, Ch. 25, Scene 8: The Blessing of Acceptance

photo of a yellow feather on a white background

In this scene, the happy play date ends as Tammy realized she has found complete acceptance for her exactly as she is.

(Image courtesy of Rolf Dietrich Brecher from Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Scene 8: The Blessing of Acceptance

An hour passed, an hour of joy and affirmation. Then the doorbell rang. Through the laughter of her friends, Kitten heard Mrs. Beaumont’s voice. She could not make out the words, but she knew the afternoon had ended.

A moment later, Mama and Mrs. Beaumont walked through the bedroom door. They surveyed the scarves and the lipstick tube discarded on the carpet. Mama lifted Karen from the floor, where she had collapsed in laughter. Tammy had also tipped sideways in her chair, but she still wore the yellow feather bo Mrs. Beaumont pulled Tammy back into an upright position and secured the straps.

Karen hoped they were not in trouble. Then Tammy’s sister Sandra came in. Her eyebrows closed into a frown. “Tammy, are you okay?” she asked.

Tammy raised her head, and as it twitched from side to side, she said, “This was the best afternoon of my life. Kitten and Kimberly accepted me as I am.”

The Healing Horse, Ch. 25, Scene 7: Lipstick

image of red lipstick in a tube This novel deals with the struggles of growing up with disabilities, but there can be happy times, too, when children make new friends and dance with joy.

(Image courtesy of Jennifer Donley from Portland, United States, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Scene 7: Lipstick

A few minutes later, Kimberly ran back into Karen’s mother’s bedroom. She giggled so hard that she could barely get her words out.

“Guess what I have, girls?”

Karen and Tammy caught the giggles and shouted, “Lipstick!

Kimberly pulled a golden tube out of her jeans pocket. She pulled the cover off and twisted the base until the waxy, cinnamon-colored lipstick rose.

“Who’s first?”

Karen said, “Let Tammy be first, and how about if we play dress-up, too? I’ll get out Mama’s shawls, and we can do each other’s hair. Do you want some music? I can turn on the old Victrola. We can listen to some jazz and blues.”

“That’s a great idea!” Kimberly and Tammy shouted.

Karen hurried to the antique Victrola that stood in the corner. As gently as she could, she slipped a wax disc out of its sleeve and started the music playing. It was Cab Calloway singing “You Gotta Ho-De-Ho.” She and Kimberly danced a few steps. Tammy’s arms and legs moved in time with the tune.

Tammy puckered her lips, and Karen applied the cinnamon lipstick. Kimberly puckered her lips in sympathy with Tammy. Karen put the color onto Kimberly’s mouth, and Kimberly put it onto hers. They pursed their lips like their mothers did to smooth out the lipstick. Tammy watched and did the same.

Karen dashed to Mama’s armoire. The floor of it was over a foot up, so she had to climb into the cupboard, and then stretch her right arm far overhead to reach the clothes. She tugged each shawl off its hanger and draped it around her neck. First came a pink silk shawl, then a black cashmere one, and then a yellow feather boa.

“Which of these do you want, Tammy?” Karen asked, holding up the shawls.

“Oooooh, the yellow one!”

Karen looped the yellow feather boa around Tammy’s neck with the most fashionably elegant result.

“Which one do you want, Kimberly?” she asked.

“I’ll take black, please.”

Kimberly shook the cashmere square until it was flat and then snuggled it around her torso and wrapped the top edge in upon itself so it stayed in place like a bath towel.

“It’s my little black dress, ladies!”

They laughed more.

Karen draped the pink shawl deliciously around her neck and over her shoulder, just like a movie star would when greeting a deluge of admiring fans on the red carpet.

“Do you want to fix each other’s hair, too?” Karen asked.

“That sounds like fun,” Tammy said.

Karen dragged the stool from Mama’s dressing table until it was in front of Tammy’s wheelchair. Kimberly sat down carefully so that she would not disturb her newly made cocktail outfit. She leaned forward so that her waist-length, wavy brunette hair hung forward and within easy reach for Tammy.

Using her strong right hand, Karen unbuckled the strap that held down Tammy’s right arm. Gently, she wrapped Tammy’s fingers and thumb around the handle of the natural bristle brush from Mama’s dressing table. As Kimberly leaned over Tammy’s lap, Karen helped her friend brush Kimberly’s hair. At the same time, Tammy’s left leg muscles mimicked the movements of her right arm. Despite the buckle and strap that held it down, her left leg jerked up and down as her right hand brushed Kimberly’s hair. Her left foot, which was also strapped into place, spasmodically pushed back and forth, without any control. Her spasticity was directly related to her excitement.
Kimberly was caught off-guard with curiosity. She could not understand why Tammy’s leg was extending and contracting at the same time as her hand was, but she was so comfortable with Tammy’s company, that she simply asked her why that was happening.

“Tammy, why is your leg going like that?”

Immediately, Tammy’s limbs relaxed a little, although they continued dancing, slightly, choreographed by her inner life.

Tammy smiled and said, “I can’t control these movements. They’re part of my spasticity. That’s why my feet are buckled in and my arms are strapped down. Otherwise, they’d fly all over the place. When I get excited they move around even more. To me, it’s a normal part of life. I’m used to it.”

Kimberly smiled with relief. She felt a lot more comfortable after asking and knowing. “Okay,” she said. “I understand.”

The girls danced and hummed and sang with the music, as they primped and fussed over each other, brushed each other’s hair, got all the bumps out of their ponytails, and fixed their bangs just right.

“Ohhhhhhh,” Tammy gushed. “I look so pretty! No! So ravishing, just like a princess!”

“Now for the finishing touches,” announced Kimberly, as she danced to the beat of the music. “It’s time for the finishing touches, girls! More lipstick!”

Kimberly added more color to Tammy’s lips, and then to Karen’s. While they were rubbing the lipstick in, Kimberly put hers on.

“Now, we look as stunning as Elizabeth Taylor! Are we going out on the town?”

They screamed with laughter and danced wildly.

The Healing Horse, Ch. 25, Scene 6: We Look Into a Mirror That No One Else Can See

People with disabilities view themselves reflected in a mirror that most people cannot even see. People without disabilities see hopelessness. People with disabilities see courage and potential to be all they can be.

(Paul Smith Typewriter Artist video via YouTube)

Scene 6: We Look Into a Mirror That No One Else Can See

During the minutes they waited for Kimberly, Both girls gleamed with anticipation of trying the lipstick. Karen used the time to share her belief in Tammy and Tammy’s abilities.

She said, “I know your life is more challenging than mine, but you are not alone. You and I are going to leave a mark on this world. You just wait and see!”

Tammy made eye contact with Karen, and Karen waited for Tammy to speak. She knew how hard getting words out was for her friend.

“Do you really think so, Kitten?”

“Yes, Tammy. I think so! A lot is lacking in the world’s attitude toward us as people with cerebral palsy. Society has not yet accepted us. They have trouble with what we say and how we say it. We have to face our pain and our struggles by ourselves, while others get to run away from them.

“We look into a mirror that no one else can see. They don’t know what it’s like to be us. We are at the bottom of the totem pole. Do you think they will give us the wherewithal to achieve any kind of success? They have trouble understanding that we can achieve anything. They think they must control our every thought and word. Don’t they understand we can succeed if given a chance? They have even more trouble believing that we have the same desires and capabilities that they do, because of all the labels of learning disabled, spastic, and paralyzed with brain damage that dehumanize us. Just look at the typewriter artist, Paul Smith. He has C.P. with severe spasticity. His parents were told he had no chance of surviving. He was not allowed to go to school or learn to read and write. He could not speak until he was in his teens. Yet, he became an artist. That disproves everything they think.

“It is within us to change the attitudes of people around us, and hopefully around the world. We must voice our views and allow our disability to shine through. We must remain accountable for who we are, and we must allow our experience of being disabled to be what it is. From that recognition comes our pride, our satisfaction, and our high regard for ourselves. When we derive a deep, positive conviction from achieving something we thought or were told was unattainable, then we possess dignity and a sense of worth. This is who we are.

“Every human being goes through this process. Why not us? Why are we different? Why are we left behind? Why do we have to be protected from our own thoughts, feelings, and dreams? Is there something so terrible about having our own dreams?

“Is there something so terribly wrong with us that humanity has to stop us from having our own goals? Must they destroy our dreams by immediately trying to control them? This is our life! Not theirs! We can’t be afraid to speak up for what we know is right.

“Our disability and pride start with the world around us and expand from there. When you or I affirm each other’s experiences, we validate who we are. When we affirm each other’s goodness we enable each other to move forward and beyond. When we face our feelings straight on, we enable ourselves to release the hurt and pain and see the truth squarely in the mirror.”

Karen looked at Tammy’s reflection with compassion. Tammy looked back with admiration. Her emotions raised her, inspiring her with an intense desire to empower herself.

Tammy sat up straight in her wheelchair. A prickly, tingling sensation that she had never felt before slowly moved up from her hands, through her arms, and then through every nerve in her body. It was healing energy that pulsated as it restored her rigid body. Her eyes opened wider as these truths touched her depths and her arms and legs danced.