At the end of the competition, there were fireworks. Beautiful reddish lights colored the pupils of the spectators, and of our Comet, too. But she did not see them as she wished. She visualized these brilliant colors in her mind as the gold medal hung around her neck.
Instead, she ended up seeing the spectacle in a blur as she was put into an ambulance and heard a myriad of voices.
Coaches and fellow sprinters were shocked to know that she had suffered heart failure. The case quickly gained notoriety in the city as well, as she was a person who received help from many people for her sporting and existential progress.
She had to have a heart transplant for her salvation, but the time was very short, as short as the races she used to run.
Could she triumph this time and contemplate the fireworks that life offered every day?
The doctors were looking for donors like crazy, but that day there seemed to be none. The whole clinic was a mess over the case. It was truly a place of weeping, wailing and suffering. Everyone running from one side to the other.
In the midst of the commotion, a doctor appeared whom the other doctors did not recognize. In spite of this, they were quick to welcome him, for in his hands he held the possible saving organ.
Everyone was amazed at how well the transplant went and how Comet was soon stable and returning to her normal life sooner than expected.
The doctors advised her to stay away from the tracks and concentrate instead on finishing her studies and appreciating every day of her life as much as possible.
But she was not like that. She had not come into this world to be quite. Speed coursed through her veins, and this new heart seemed the best engine to accelerate wherever, whenever.
On the sly, she resumed her training. Her life regained the colors of before every time she could do a little sprint. The sensation of the oxygen rushing in and out was simply the glory.
A year after the unfortunate event, Comet asked her aunt, who was taking care of her, to take her to see the 200m Junior Final. That race.
No doubt, she was beside herself with excitement to see the place she loved so much. However, her heart began pounding even before any of the races started. She was thrilled to see the doctor who brought the heart she now had inside. He asked her a few questions about her daily life and then left a folded piece of paper in her trembling hands and walked away.
The piece of paper had written on it:
It has been many years, daughter. Forgive me for never having been there for you. I've only lived the bad life and I didn't want you to ever see anything like that. But, now that you were that bad, I could do nothing but show up and help you to become a champion. I love you, Comet.
Such a revelation shook every bone in my body. And I say so, because yes, I am the popular Comet of San Diego. I am the impossible miracle.
My aunt saw the photo of my mother and me as she interspersed her gaze with the writing and then hugged me like she had never hugged me before.
The fireworks extolling the triumph of the new champions filled my pupils and then a flame of passion as fleeting as the explosions I heard made me rise from my seat and shout to the sky:
"I'll be the fastest comet in the Universe, mom!"
