BY ALEX GLICK
Everyone has their good, and their bad days, but this day was one of Anderson’s worst days. The sound sent a shock down my spine, and the screams that followed still resonate in my ears. Anderson Price had just begun his senior soccer season at Grady, the shortest season he has ever played.
I was there. I heard the break, and I have never seen anyone in so much pain. His screams echoed off of the walls of the stadium. The crowd grew deathly silent, as a long promising season was suddenly over, due to a broken leg.
“I can barely remember how it happened,” Price said. “One second I was hitting a corner, and the next second I was overcome by pain, I knew that I was done.”
His mother felt the pain just as quick as he did.
“His eyes opened so wide when he saw me. I could see how worried he was. First he screamed in pain, then he screamed for me,” said Ms. Mayes, Anderson’s mother.
Being around Anderson made me hurt. All of his spare time was then occupied by pain. Pain from the shattered bones in his leg, and the pain of realizing his last high school soccer season had abruptly ended. For the next few days I sat with him. My butt ached from the wooden chair I was in, as Anderson took up the entire couch.
He moaned and groaned from the slightest movement. The look on his face was one of pain and disappointment.
“Dude, I don’t think I’m ever gonna play again,” he said. Those words stuck with me.
He was confined to crutches for weeks. Everywhere he went was a struggle. Eventually, he actually became quite agile, but the look on his face remained disappointed. The next step was an electric yellow waterproof cast. A light appeared in his eyes. Hope had finally become real for him.
After weeks in his new cast I got a call from him.
“Do you have a boot I can borrow? I’m getting my leg out of this thing.”
He was getting closer and closer to breaking free from the oppression of the dreaded cast. As the days passed, he felt less and less pain, and the pain I felt for him had almost disappeared.
