It is foretold

"Sure he can go Sir, Oi'll be his carer."

"Colleen, in case you hadn't noticed, David is a boy, you are a girl," Mr. Rider answered sarcastically.

"Oh, oy Sir, I learned the difference so time ago now."

"And you may also know that his carer will have to sleep in the same room as him, and will need to help with washing and other personal things." The rest of the class laughed and whooped and I shrunk into my wheelchair, wishing myself well away from the others and wondering why Collie had even offered.

"Sleeping in the same room isn't the same as sleeping in the same bed, Sir. And you may also have noticed that most of the nurses in a hospital are women, and half the patients are men. I know enough about men to do those things for David, Sir." Again the class erupted into laughter.

"I'm sure you do Colleen, but I thought his older brother Philip was your boyfriend, are you going to cheat on him?" Mr. Rider smirked.

"Was is the right word, Sir. He's been away working on the cruise ship for a month an' more and I've not had even one email. He's probably shagged all the female crew and half the passengers by now and starting on the crew of his new ship so cheating doesn't come into it."

"So you are offering to care for David to get back at Phil?"

"No Sir. History is David's main passion in life and I know from visits to his house, he so looked forward to going to Canterbury and seeing all the historical sights and all that, and you can see just by looking at him that he is terribly disappointed Phil decided to go on another cruise and not care for him on the school trip. With only three days to go, you cannot give him a refund so his parents will lose quite a lot of money over it as they paid for both boys. As you know, I'm not much into history and didn't think the trip worth paying for but as it is already paid, I can go in Phil's place and Davy gets to go as well. I don't see what the problem is and I know my mother will only be too pleased to get me out of the way for a week and I expect Davy's parents will agree." Once more the class burst into laughter and called out comments as to her intentions.

"I think we ought to discus this privately after school and, at the very least, get their parents views on it," Miss Devers interjected and gave the class a withering look that stopped most but not all of the snide comments.

It all started when I mumbled an apology for having to cancel going on a history study trip to the cathedral city of Canterbury, with visits planned to the cathedral, the castle, and other historical houses and museums. When the history department first announced the trip several months previously, I'd pleaded and begged Phil to accompany me because the regulations stated that I needed a full-time carer and, indeed, I would have found it very difficult to look after myself without help. Mother chivvied him too until, finally, he agreed and it seemed to work out that he'd have a couple of weeks at home when the cruise ship returned to England. However, he signed on with another ship soon after arriving in port and didn't come home to tell us. I'm sure he did it deliberately because ever since childhood he hated the restrictions imposed on his life by his having to care for me. Now he's left college, he felt he should be free of my being a burden on his life.

Many times he'd told me that the accident that robbed me of my right foot and made a mess of my left and both knees, was not his fault and he shouldn't have to suffer for it. The accident happened before I started school and I lost a lot of school time through the operations needed to correct the damage. The fact that I couldn't walk or play games, and in my earlier years at school, I fell behind with my class work, which made me the butt of other children's jokes and I became introverted and shy. Fortunately, without the distraction of sports, I caught up with the academic side of my education.

I slumped into my chair after tending my apology and Mr. Rider, our history teacher and Miss Devers who teaches geography but is going on the trip to chaperone the girls, had to drag the reasons for my cancelling from me, although I tried not to blame Phil.

Colleen O'Malley's announcement, stunned and horrified me. Much as I wanted to go, to have a girl look after me, especially the tall, brash Colleen O'Malley (because of my disability generally girls treated me with distain, almost as a sub-human). I knew her from the many times she'd been to our house with Phil, and while she never taunted me like many others in my age group, she hadn't shown any particular affection or regard for me. Mother isn't keen on her but Dad thinks she's attractive, lively and fun so I'd no idea how they would react to her offer and we all knew that she and Phil were sexually active. Lying in bed hearing the sounds from my brother's room, I'd fantasised having sex with her, but my fears of rejection, of being humiliated and held to ridicule and possibly my inability to perform, made me hope they would reject her suggestion although I really did wish to go on the trip.

I spent the rest of the lesson in a daze but fortunately Mr. Rider must have realised this and left me out of the discussions and at lunchtime I planned to slink off to the library and sit where it would be quiet but only made part of the way before Colleen grabbed my wheelchair and headed for the cafeteria. "We've got to talk," she said but the cafeteria is about the worst place to have a conversation especially with the comments from others around us as to our relationship, so after a quick bite to eat she steered me to an isolated part of the grounds.

"Davy, you remember at the school summer fayre last weekend when I sat in a tent and told fortunes; your fortune?" Of course I remembered, how could I forget the warmth from the crystal ball and the feel of her hands on mine? I hadn't intended to go to the fayre but mother insisted that I help on the used bookstall and during a break I cruised around the other exhibits until I came to her tent and inexplicably wheeled into it. Colleen dressed as a gypsy, a role she filled with natural grace, sat behind a huge crystal ball that I wrongly assumed to be an upturned goldfish bowl but from the results of her viewing, it appeared to be the genuine article.

"Put your hands on top of the ball please," she requested and when I did so she asked in a theatrical Gypsy Rose Lee voice that had a touch of Irish in it, "Does it feel warm?"

"Yes, it does, very warm."

She put her hands on top of mine but at right angles to them. "Yes, I can feel the heat too, the powers within the crystal ball are working and I should get a reading shortly." She peered into her side of the globe and looked a little flustered. "Don't be shocked at this but I can only say what I see in the depths of the crystal. In the near future, Davy, you are getting a girlfriend. I don't know exactly when and I can't see clearly who it will be but it is the clearest image I've had all day so it will not be long before it happens." I thought it make-believe mumbo-jumbo, something to keep the punters happy but when I offered her the 50p entrance fee, she refused and looked upset.

"You do remember, don't you Davy?" I nodded. "I lied to you," and when I started to grin she quickly went on, "Not about you getting a girlfriend, but I clearly saw the image of the girl; ME!" Aghast, I stared at her. "Yes, it shocked me too, but if it is written in the runes, there is nothing we can do to change it. What the further future holds, I don't know because I turned my head away when I saw you and me together but the fleeting impression was that our relationship would last a long while."

"But ... but I don't love you or even really like you?"

"I thought the same, and still do, but when mother consulted the crystal ball this morning she told me the time had come to start a relationship with you, hence my outburst in history. I'm certain the runes will overcome all the objections to our being together on this Canterbury trip, and if they do, you can rest assured that everything else, like love, will follow if it is meant to be."

"You really believe this stuff?"

"Oh oy, yes. Our family has been able to read the runes for generations and there is always a reason for things happening. There is a reason for our being brought together but it may be years before we find out, so don't mock the runes, they hold the key to your life, our lives, our fate."

Together

Colleen sat in the window seat alongside me as the coach sped along the motorway. For a while she dozed and I could recall the events of the past few days. After a stormy outburst when mother came into the meeting with Mr. Rider and Miss Devers, decrying Collie's motives for helping me. "Colleen O'Malley, you are only doing this to get back at Philip for dumping you," mother accused immediately she arrived, but Collie pointed out that Philip had not even sent either of them an email to say where is or what he was doing and hadn't apologised for not returning to take me on the trip. He'd only sent a short note to say he wouldn't be home for another month. "I knew from the times I spent at your house, how much Davy wanted to go on this trip and how depressed he must have been at the news, so it was a spur of the moment decision to volunteer, rather than a way of getting back at Phil," Collie averred. Finally, after more persuasion and assurances from our teachers, Mother finally acquiesced and agreed to consult my father. I began to believe in the runes.

Dad took a more philosophical approach, "Even if it only lasts a week, perhaps it will help you form relationships with other girls," he commented when mother explained the situation. " You're shy around girls, hell, you're shy around anyone, and we know why, but once you get to talking with one girl, maybe you'll start to talk with others. Colleen's a practical, no-nonsense girl and I'm sure she will look after you. If you have sex with her, treat it as sex only and enjoy it but don't believe it to be an indication of true love and of a relationship that will last a lifetime." Mother looked aghast at his words but in the end, after more debate, they signed a letter to the school, giving permission for Colleen O'Malley to care for me during the school trip.

Since then I'd hardly seen Collie except on two occasions to make arrangements for mother to pick her up at 6 a.m. on the Saturday, but I'd spent the intervening nights and much of the days, dreaming of what might occur between us. Apart from not being able to walk properly and being extremely shy because of it, I had the normal desires and sexual feelings of any other sixteen-year-old boy and didn't spend all the time on the Internet researching history or doing school work. I visited a number of porn sites and masturbated frequently and wondered if on this trip I would get to do the real thing. I looked at the girl sitting alongside me; the girl the runes said would be my partner for a while. "Why choose me?" I asked myself, "An attractive girl like her could have any boy she chose; a fit, handsome boy and not a deformed creature like me. Why me?" My eyes took in her long dark hair and her eyes, though now closed, I knew to be very dark too. At 5 ft. 9 inches tall, she towered a good six inches above me and strong with it; she would be able to handle me with relative ease. Her breasts, covered with a dark bra that I could see through her white blouse, thrust the material tightly forward, her legs covered only at the top by a short pair of blue denim shorts, stretched under the seat in front. I'd not seen any more of her body than that and I wondered if I would in the confines of our room at the university campus where we'd be staying for the week. "Will she let me hold her and touch her like real lovers?" I mused, "Will she really keep to her own bed or slip into mine sometimes?" She'd refused to promise mother that she wouldn't. My imagination went wild and I felt my prick start to harden so I tried to think about the history side of the trip with only limited success especially when her eyes opened and she started chattering.