Out of My Heart

Later that night, Melody feels she needs to go to bathroom. She alerts Trinity, and the two head out to the camp facilities. On the way back to the cabin, they run into Noah who also is making a bathroom run. Seeing Noah, Melody is flustered, and even worries about her bed hair. When she gets back to her bed, she cannot sleep.

The next morning, with the encouragement of the counselors, the camp squads play a game called Balloon Ball in which teams of two try to move a balloon down the camp’s fenced-in playing field any way they can and put the balloon into the goal area. Because the balloons float freely, the game involves teamwork and concentration. The Falcons spend the morning’s art class painting new sleeveless T-shirts for their team and, dressed in their new uniforms, head out for the competition.

The field is marked to give each team a lane and a goal. Each of the teams shows up with matching shirts and a sack of balloons, all the same color. The Falcons are orange. The competition matches one camp squad against another squad in teams of two—and the first match is between the Falcons and the Panthers, Noah’s team. The games begin. Melody watches each competition eagerly, using her Medi-Talker to amplify her cheers. Then it is her turn to play.

Melody psyches herself up, telling herself she has a secret weapon—her legs are strong, and she can kick. She has Trinity un-secure her legs from her wheelchair. She knows she needs to kick the balloon down to the goal area. She and Jocelyn take the field. As she follows the balloon, Melody boots it again and then again. She is sweaty and excited as she follows the balloon down the field: “All around [her] are kids screaming with passion, screeching with excitement, and sweating in the summer heat […] and [she] was right there in the middle of it” (241). At one point Jocelyn kicks the balloon, and it lands squarely in Melody’s lap, an event so rare in the game that it is worth 50 points. The Falcons go crazy. Everyone laughs and congratulates Melody. After the games are over, Melody asks whether she could deflate and keep the balloon that landed in her lap.

That night before the campfire starts, Trinity asks Melody whether she would let her to do her nails. Melody delights as she has Trinity paint each of her nails a different bright color. When they see what she is doing, the other girls in cabin beg Trinity to do theirs. At the campfire, Melody finds out she is something of a celebrity because of the games.

At campfire, the counselors suggest the campers do a variation of a circle dance where they play music, and the campers move about in a circle. When the music stops, they will share one interesting fact about with the person nearest to them. In the last round, Melody ends up with Noah. The two talk about the games that afternoon and Melody shares a secret: She does not want to ride the horses the next day. Noah assures her that riding horses is fun.

Long after the game is over, the two chat around the fire, about their pets, their families, their schools. He shares with her about his difficult birth during a hurricane, and how he was weeks premature and had been deprived of oxygen during all the confusion of the delivery. His lack of oxygen at birth caused his medical problems. He asks Melody about using a wheelchair all the time, and Melody says she would give anything if people would see her first and not her chair. She adds how she would do more stuff with friends if she ever had any. Noah tells her that she has one now. When the fire goes out, Trinity tells a reluctant Melody it is time to get a good night’s sleep because the next day, they’ll be having horseback riding lessons.

Melody waits in the stable, and from her perspective, the horses look huge. Trinity introduces Melody to her horse, Jolie. She assures Melody that Jolie is trained to work with kids with unique needs. A crane-like device gently lifts Melody from her chair up to a specially designed saddle that she will share with Trinity. She is buckled in securely and Trinity lets Melody know that Jolie is about to start walking. As the horse moves beneath her, Melody feels the animal’s strength and its thick cords of muscle. With every step the horse takes, Melody feels more confident.

Melody relaxes into the rhythm of the horse’s walk. She even waves at her cabinmates on their horses. There is one thing she notices as they all plod along the horse trail: “lots of poop” (266).

Just as Melody begins to daydream as she rides with confidence, the boys from the camp ride by. They are hooting and hollering and being silly. Noah rides past and waves. Melody struggles to picture what Noah sees: a “wobbly girl wearing a black helmet, bouncing along on the back of a lovely brown horse” (269). Noah rides next to her for a bit, and the two chat. One of the kids mentions the dance the next night on the camp’s the last night. As everyone rides along the trail, Melody feels as if all the words stuffed in her head suddenly go quiet. She thinks, “There was no need to say anything to what was already pretty perfect” (272). She is feeling happy when rain threatens to fall, and the campers turn their horses back to the stables.