Topeka's Terrible Head-Injury

Fantasy Fiction Inspirational

Written in response to: "Center your story around a character who has lost their ability to create, write, or remember." as part of The Tools of Creation with Angela Yuriko Smith.

Topeka's Terrible Head-Injury

Once upon a time in a huge metropolis called Danville, Va. there lived a 10 year-old girl named Topeka. Her life was really happy and had everything in her favor like she was quite popular, extremely athletic, was an honer-role student, had lots of friends including several boyfriends, got along perfectly with her parents and seamed to have taken life by the horns so she was winning, that was no, "bull."

Then tragedy struck. While she was riding her bike to go see her friend, Suzy, a drunk driver swerved off the road and hi her. That gave her a traumatic brain injury, or t. b. i., which is the worst thing that could happen to anybody since it's so incredibly life-changing, for the worst. It left her legally-blind with some severe memory-problems.

Because of that, she lost just about everything good in her life. Since she was legally-blind, it meant that she could no longer read, which happened to be one of her favorite past-times. She also couldn't walk well which was tragic because she was such an awesome athlete, winning many blue ribbons, meddles and trophies. It seamed as if her life had officially ended, and had begun one full of pain and frustration.

Not being able to see well meant she couldn't read and her memory had been affected so even hearing things read to her did't stick in her head, so she had to repeat the 6th grade which was awful because all her friends had moved on except her. Her life was totally ruined.

Almost every night after her mom tucked her into bed and had taught her how to pray out loud in intersession, she'd break down and bawl her little heart out since she knew there was no way her life would ever e livable again the way it was before she was injured.

After doing that for a really long time, just before she went to sleep for the day, she noticed a tiny light floating in her room. That made her stop crying as she watched it float closer to her bed. That's when it stopped and in a poof, turned into a tiny man with wings on his back, dressed like a farmer. He smiled at her which was comforting.

"Hay, Topeka," he said with his arms outstretched towards the little girl, "I'm Harold. I'm your, 'garden' angle. You know, it's like the Christmas song goes, 'Hark The, 'Harold' Angels Sing.' It seams your guardian angel sprained her left wing while playing rugby so the big Guy Upstairs sent me to take her place. I've come to grant you a wish. You can close your mouth before a bird flies into it. I'm a good-guy."

By then Topeka knew she was dreaming so she pinched herself to wake up. That made her cry, "Ow!" so she did it again. After several times, Harold said, "Hmm, apparently you don't want any wishes. Oh, well, see you." then he raised his hands up over his head as if he was going to disappear but he just fluttered in mid-air waiting on her.

"No! Wait a minute! I'm sorry! Please don't go!" said Topeka, "It's just that having 6 inch-tall people appear in my room doesn't happen all that often to me! Well, actually it's never happened to me! Well, the main thing I need is to have my sight and memory back! Is that cool?"

"Is that cool" asked the fairy godfather with a smile, "Is the Pope Catholic ? Does Dolly Partin have big lungs? Of course it is!" Then he raised his hands up over his head and, "Poof!" her vision was restored. Not only that, but when she looked out her side window, she saw 2 men fighting. What was so odd about that sight was they were fighting 3 miles away in the back yard of an old gambling casino. Apparently, the one dude had lost a game of poker to the other guy and wasn't all that happy about it. That really did upset Topeka so she yelled, "Hay! Those guys are fighting and one of them just pulled out a gun! Do something!"

The fairy said, "Oh wow! I'll get right on it!" Then she zapped the guy with the gun and knocked him to the ground. that meant the other guy could run away, which he did. Topeka laughed since she had just saved somebody's life. It made her feel absolutely fantastic.

The fairy told her, "You've got one more wish! Better make it count!"

"Now, wait just a dog-bone minute!" said Topeka, "I didn't wish for that! All l did was tell you about it then you just made it happen! To be, 'fairy' about it, I mean fair! Woe! First day with my new tongue!"

That made the fairy turn into a sheep and say, "Geese! Do I ever feel, 'sheepish!' That's pretty, 'ba-a-a-a-a-ad!' At least you didn't try to, 'pull the wool over my eyes!' Oh well, fair's far, but there is no, 'fare' in Danville! You must go all the way to Pennsylvanian County!" Then she disappeared in a little, tiny puff of smoke which quickly blew away. On the ground was a receipt for 3 wishes from The Fairest Ferry in town."

"Hay! I was gypped!" shouted Topeka, like somebody could hear her.

By the time she got home, her mom was fussing, "Where have you been? Can't you tell time? Oh, right, you don't have a watch. Well, there will be nothing you can, 'watch' tonight since there will be no t v! Just do your homework and no cell phone! Just look up the meaning of, 'cell' in your dictionary, young lady! No car either! Oh, you don't drive yet. Well, when you learn to drive, aw, just forget about it, child!"

As Topeka went up to her room to begin her punishment, all of a sudden she remembered the little pixie girl who still owed her some wishes yet, so she called out, "Hay! Picks! Where the heck are you? Oops! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to say a bad-word! Please forgive me!"

That's when another puff of smoke appeared in her room, only the pixie was soaking wet and naked as a jay-bird. "Hay!" she yelled, "Can't a fairy just take a bath without somebody bugging her?" then she just disappeared in an angry puff of smoke. Yet since Topeka had a t. b. i., she soon forgot about that whole incident. She went to her room and cried. Yet then she couldn't remember what upset her so she turned off the water-works which had started in her eyes. Then she smiled.

Her mom took her to see a doctor who specialized in various types of memory problems. He asked Topeka, "What's your problem, dear?"

"It'a my memory," she cried, "I cannot remember much of anything."

"Well, how long have you had this problem?" asked the doctor.

"What problem are you talking about?" replied Topeka with a shrug.

Some people asked her where she got the name Topeka from, but of course, she couldn't remember so she said, "I don't know. Maybe it was because one of my parents caught me staring at somebody so they asked me, 'If you're going to look at somebody, don't look at them for a long time. It's really bad manners, 'to-peek,-uh,' I mean stare."

That poor girl had a really hard time getting teased just because of her unusual name. If the other kids couldn't get her to react the way they wanted her to, which was to get mad and either cry or run away while talking to herself, they would resort to punching her which caused her to cry out in pain, that was a reaction she couldn't help. The worst part about the whole thing was she never could remember what the other kids would say to her. Then when she would tell an adult about it, they would just say, "Well, if it happens again, tell me."

Life was extremely difficult for a person who had a head-injury. All any adult would tell her to compensate for her problem was to carry a pan and paper with her everywhere she went to write things down. People refuted to doing that as using her memory-aids. Ordinarily that would have been a good idea, except that she kept forgetting to bring her memory-aids every place she went so it wasn't much help.

Then one day when she was invited to a party at her neighbor's house who lived right across the street, she brought along her pad and pen to write down everything that went on there. People had told her, "There is nothing wrong with having a bad memory, it's how you compensate for it." The problem was she didn't see well which meant her handwriting was quite hard to decipher sometimes. Still, she got in the habit of taking those things with her everywhere she went so she could record everything that happened to her on paper. That way she could either read what had happened for herself, or at least give it to somebody who could decipher the words she had written down.

All the doctors she went to see said there's no way her brain would ever get any better so she'd have to resort to compensation tactics throughout the rest of her time on Earth. That was really difficult for both Topeka, everybody in her family and all those who loved her. That caused many crying episodes with nobody to comfort those she loved.

The prognosis got even worse after that. All those doctors said if she survived, which was highly unlikely, she'd be a literal vegetable, unable to see, walk, feed herself or even think like normal human. Even the specialists suggested to the family that they let the doctor pull the plug on her so she could just go on Home. Since she was under the age of accountability, she would be sure to go straight to Glory. All the priests, pastors and bishops agreed it would be the best thing for her. Her parents were sobbing and said to pull the plug.

Then just as the doctors were headed in to release Topeka from her state of vegetation, some man named Bishop David came walking down the hall. He notaced the long faces on everybody while all the women were sobbing uncontrollably, although he heard the heart monitor still pumping away. The good Bishop had brought his friend, Cuz in to visit a Church member who'd fallen and broken his right patella. When they asked asked one person why everybody was looking so upset, they said, through their sobs, that a 9 year-old boy had been hit by a car while chasing a ball into the street. He'd just been taken off of his life-support. Yet Cuz turned to the Bishop and told him they needed to pray for that youngster. They laid hands on the lad and took turns praying in English while Cuz prayed in Tongues. Everybody else had left, for they knew nothing would come from that.

Suddenly Cuz yelled, "Hay! I feel a faint heart beet! Tell those doctors to come back and take the bandages off of his face! He's alive!"

While people were applauding and laughing, Cuz left the room and went back get the good Bishop, because he was the chauffeur home.

That evening, after writing a story on his computer, he saw there was a message on it from the little kid's parents he'd revived in the hospital. They wanted to treat him to a meal at The K. & W. Cafeteria, one of the swankiest eating establishments in all of Danville. They told him they would be upset if he refused their offer. It so happened that they were some of the wealthiest people in all of Danville and wanted to buy Cuz something. He told them that would take away from his blessing to accept such a thing, but they insisted so they bought him a brand new I. B. M. computer. Cuz told them he couldn't spell I. B. M., which made them both laugh. They became really great friends. They even took him on some of their family vacations. They also introduced him to their daughter who was the same age and quite lonesome, so aft er dating a while, they eventually got married. At any rate, like the best-written stories of all time will officially finish up with,

"THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER !!!!"

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The end. By, Cuz Roye.

Posted Apr 22, 2026
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