The Flu Shot

By Jaye Boissiere
If there was one thing in the world that was certain to Sarah, it was that she hated needles. She hated everything that had anything to do with needles. Sarah couldn’t stand shot needles, absolutely wanted to destroy blood drawing needles, and thought in the most negative way about pushpins. The thought of any needle like object made her shiver.

As the dreaded month of the year, October approached she got less and less sleep. Every night she would get terrible nightmares about the flu shot. In her nightmares she could feel the thin needle breaking her skin, as the color quickly drained from her fragile face. Her own scream filled her ears, and she woke up panting, struggling to get her breath back. Small beads of sweat trickled down the sides of her face, the sweat passed her terror filled eyes. Her mouth opened to let out a scream hoping to get all the fear out in a single yell, but no words came out. Endless cycles of fear swirled through her during the night. Sarah was nothing but sleep deprived.

A week before October her softball coach had a discussion with the team. Sarah listened with excitement. Her coach usually had interesting news that always made the team laugh.
“This year I have decided, for the good of the team, that we will all get flu shots,” Sarah’s coach announced. Sarah nearly fainted with fear.

A week later Sarah walked numbly into the shot room. She tried to calm herself down but couldn’t stop herself from panicking. About a minute after Sarah walked into the room her teammates heard an ear-piercing scream, followed by teary-eyed Sarah walking out of the doctors office.
“It’s all my coaches fault,” Sarah thought. After that she never played softball again.