Wallflower Girl

Chapter 1

Anne grabbed hold and lifted her right leg to the square cushion she always kept to the side of her easy-chair. She needed to lift the leg. As a child she had been in a car accident, and after countless operations, she had been left with a leg that just didn't work the way her other one did. She was fine with all of that; had been for years. It had been something to manage through school, with limitations on what activities she could get involved in. There had been the sideways glances and grimaces of horror to come to terms with. The operations had included skin grafts and scarring that were quite shocking for the other kids to look at. She still got the looks sometimes, but the worst of it now was that her stupid leg dragged a bit in a limp and needed to be lifted up onto its cushion.

Anne expelled a breath of exhaustion. It was so hot out that day, and she had just finished cleaning her car and lugging all the junk she had accumulated up the four flights of concrete stairs to her apartment. That last trip had been torture and now her leg was telling her about it more than usual. And she'd done it all on her own. She shook her head, looking at her brother sitting there watching television.

This was why Anne was pleased she didn't have a man in her life. No, not just pleased, it was a relief that she lived alone.