Once upon a time
There lived a young woman who’s heart was growing on the outside
You may have heard similar stories of babies born like this
But this young lady’s story was unique
You see, she was born with her heart perfectly intact and enclosed inside her body
But when she was 7 years old, her dad left her and her mom for good
She cried herself to sleep
Every night for a month
She missed him terribly
One morning she woke up and felt a lump under her pjs
It felt like it was moving!
She ran to her moms room
Her mom jumped out of bed and ran to her side
She saw the lump moving with her own eyes
It looked like it had a heart beat
She tore off the young girls shirt
And there her heart sat
Exposed and thumping away
Doctors and hospitals and so many tests
Nobody knew what was going on
All tests showed that the girl was perfectly healthy
Her heart was strong
Except for the strange occurrence of her heart being on the outside
As the young girl began to grow into a teenager
Her heart grew with her
When she experienced emotional pain
Like when another birthday passed, with no word from her dad
Her heart throbbed and little cracks started to form at the edges
Every time it beat, she felt a searing pain and a small rip would appear
It would go away for awhile
And then something else would happen
Like the time she saw her mom crying in the kitchen
Her heart would scream its pain so loud she couldn’t sleep
And her heart ripped apart a little more
It was really bad when she turned 18 and started having panic attacks
She was so worried that her heart would completely rip apart and she would die
And her mom would be all alone
She would wake up in a sweat
Crying and her raw red heart ripping in all the wrong places
This young woman and her mom decided to try to follow the advice of a new doctor
Who recommended that every time a rip would appear
The girl or her mom should get a sewing needle and some thread made out of twine and simply sew it up
This reminded the girl of a time when her cabbage patch lost her arm and her dad sewed her back up
Good as new but with a little scar that showed someone had loved her enough to fix her
They were shocked that this seemed to help
Every time something bad would happen
Her heart would rip a little more
And she or her mom would rush to get their needle and thread
And sew it a little more
Soon, her heart looked like battered war-torn soldiers clothing
All stitched together with black twine
Crissing and crossing all over her heart and in a hundred different directions
She felt even more fragile than she ever had
The only thing keeping her intact
Were haphazardly sewn together stitches
She felt like these stitches were somehow holding her whole life together
To keep her from falling apart any further
She wondered what would be the ultimate thing that would finally pull the stitches apart and leave her heart in pieces
She knew she was damaged goods
Maybe she always had been
Broken, cracked and irreparable
Too damaged to be helped
Like the cabbage patch doll who, after her dad left, suffered too many rips and tears to be put back together
There just wasn’t enough of her heart left to piece together
So she did the only thing she could
She hid the needle and thread and found her dad’s phone number
She sat on her bed and called him up
He picked up and she felt like maybe everything would be okay
She spoke to him for a minute or two
He sounded rushed and annoyed
Suddenly she heard yelling in the background
It sounded like a young boy
He was calling for his dad, telling him dinner was ready
She felt the familiar twinge of her heart ripping apart
Her father told her he was busy and said he would call her some other time and hung up
She sat back and let her heart fall apart
One last time
Later that day her mom found her laying on her perfectly made bed
Her eyes open and lifeless with her broken and bruised
Damaged heart