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           Vista remembered looking around the dinner table at her family. Even though she was only ten years old, she could feel the love at this table. She felt they were a close-knit family and nothing could break them apart. That was before the tragedy happened to her.
     Her family took vacations together every summer for one month to the family’s waterfront home in Florida.
     On one of their last summers at their property Courtere, Vista’s sister took her best friend Sideley, with them. Vista and her best friend Marin were playing Monopoly on the porch. It was mid afternoon and the sun was high. The lemonade Vista had made cooled them down a little. The girls stayed under the awnings to avert the burning sun. This had been a lazy day, just sitting around watching the squirrels play. Suddenly, Courtere and her friend stopped playing the game, looked at their watches and ran into the yard.
     “We don’t want to play anymore,” Courtere said. “This is boring.”
     “Yeah”, Sideley repeated. She looked over their shoulders.
     Instead of rejoining the girls on the porch, Courtere and Sideley started to walk away from them.  They were whispering very low and giggling very loud.  Sideley was twirling her auburn hair and patting her feet on the ground. Courtere had her hands on her hips and told Sideley to lower her voice so we couldn’t hear. Courtere and Sideley looked guilty. Vista felt that they were going to do something secretive without her.
     Courtere said “Don’t try to go anywhere without us. You know what mom and dad said. They gave explicit instructions to us.”
     “I know what they said.”
     “You better not leave the yard. And if you do, we are going to stay together.” 
     Courtere started pouting. “I don’t want to stay here.” She was getting anxious and started pacing back and forth. She acted as if she was late for something special.  Vista left the porch and followed her sister down the road. At the fork in the road, Courtere and Sideley made a break for it and ran up the hill.
     At the top of the hill, Courtere yelled out, “See ya. I’ll tell the boys you said hi.”
     Vista called to Marin. “They’re getting away, hurry up.” Marin was overweight and too far down the road to keep up the pace so Courtere and Sideley got away from them. Vista and Marin were disappointed; they wanted to meet some boys too. Since Vista and Marin couldn’t catch the girls, they decided to head out on their own adventure.
    

CHAPTER TWO
     Their parents weren’t around; they started to take a short cut through the wooded area. Thick vines had overgrown the trail, but the area had the most beautiful color flowers that Vista had ever seen. The trees were so huge and grew so tall that the girls looked like midgets in comparison. If a girl they knew hadn’t lived at the end of the wooded area, they would have taken the long way around to her house; but she did, so they took the shortcut to her house.
     Partway through the woods, two boys who lived in town popped out from behind the trees and startled them.
     “What are you boys doing here?” said Marin. The boys were grinning and started following behind them. The girls weren’t happy about this. Glencoe and Almar were brothers and were always pulling pranks on them.
     When the girls would come to town alone, the boys would spray them with water or shake up a cola to spray on their hair. The brothers were only nineteen and twenty, but they seemed to be always in trouble.
    The boys originally lived in Virginia, but, while on vacation in California, the brothers’ parents were in an accident with a drunk driver. They died from their injuries. The boys were about five and six years old. Since then, they lived with their maternal grandmother in a cramped two-bedroom family development in town. The lifestyle that they once had with their parents was gone. The boys’ parents were gone, their large four-bedroom house was gone, their two cars were gone, and their extra money was gone. Their penance came on the third of the month from the Social Security Administration and it never seemed to be enough. The brothers turned into bullies who were always getting into fights wherever they went. They got in fights in school, in the grocery store and in the apartment development where they lived. They had beaten up a boy so badly he was in the hospital.
     “He deserved it”, Almar said. “He called me stupid.” Over time, the two had become bitter-orphaned adolescents.
The girls knew that people called Glencoe and Almar “bad boys”. Vista turned and walked away from them because she didn’t want any trouble from them. She was afraid of the boys.
     “Where are you girls going?” Glencoe said. “Slow down.”
     “We’re going to the store to meet my parents.” Vista lied.
     “Come on now, slow down. We want to talk to you.”
     “We can’t, we’re running late.”
     “You will be late then.”
     Almar aggressively grabbed Marin and started to spin her around and around until she puked. Glencoe, the heavier one, smashed grass in Vista’s face. Marin and Vista told the boys to stop but they didn’t. Glencoe and Almar seemed to enjoy what they were doing to them.
     “That’s enough Glencoe, stop”, Vista yelled. Glencoe ignored her. The more the girls yelled and begged them to stop, the more that seemed to egg the boys on. Glencoe pushed Marin to the grass and sat on her chest; his brother did the same to Vista.
     “Get off me, I can’t breathe”, whispered Marin. The fat boy on her bounced a little. Marin was turning colors and gasping for air. Her crying seemed shallow as her chest heaved up and down.
     “Who are you looking at?” Glencoe screamed at Vista.
     “Please stop.” Vista said. “At least let Marin up. She has asthma. She’s not breathing well.”
     Glencoe became boisterous.  “No. That’s too bad. We’re just beginning to have fun.” 
     Glencoe pulled a bottle of alcohol from his vest and drank from it. He passed it onto his brother.
    Vista fought Almar to get him off her and to try to help Marin. That seemed to make Almar even madder. Almar slapped Vista.
”Be still” he told her. The sting hurt and she began to cry. Vista’s crying didn’t matter to Almar. He hit her harder. She could feel the blood in her mouth; he busted her lip. She tried to spit out the blood but it kept flowing down her chin on her blouse.
     Meanwhile, Marin was still crying and gasping for air. Glencoe finally let Marin sit up long enough for her to catch her breath. When he did, she tried to run. That made Glencoe angry so he grabbed Marin and threw her back on the ground.
     “Where do you think you were going? Trying to get away. Well that’s not going to happen.”
    He slapped Marin across the mouth.
     “Look at what you made me do. Now be still.”
Both of the girls were bleeding. They were bewildered.
     The boys continued to pass the bottle between them until it was empty and they were drunk. Their eyes became wide and glassy; they looked sinister. Vista and Marin were so scared that they started shouting.
    “Help. Help. Can anyone hear us? Call the police.” The girls sounded like a chorus.
     “Shut up Vista. You’re making my head hurt” said Almar.
     Almar’s face looked distorted. Glencoe had a frown on his face. Both of them were flippant.
     Marin was so scared and in so much pain that she was crying and throwing up.    
     “Shut up that girl Glencoe. I have to think what to do.”
     “Let’s stop,” said Glencoe. “We’ve had enough fun. Let them go and let’s go home”  
      “No, we can’t let them go. Look at them. Everyone will know what we’ve done to them.”
     “You won’t tell, will you Vista. We were just having fun. I guess we went too far. We’re sorry.”
His words sounded slurred. 
   Vista and Marin shook their heads. “We promise not to tell anyone.”
     “Yes, you will”, screamed Almar. “You’d like to get us in trouble. You don’t like us and we don’t like you. You think that you’re better than we are. Walking around town as if you and your sister own it. Because your parents have money and have a vacation home here don’t make you a princess. You make me sick. Tie them up while I think”.
     “No,” Glencoe, the eldest said. “I won’t tie them up. Let’s stop now. We already have enough trouble on our plate.”
     “You think this won’t count. You think that we will get off lightly with the law. Come on think. We have to do something with them until we can get away. Tie them up now!”
     Glencoe was hesitant for a moment. Then he stumbled up and ran in the woods to get a rope they had hidden in the bushes.  When Vista saw the braided rope, she knew that something bad was going to happen to them. This was despicable. Vista was thinking that they were going to kill her. She wished that she had obeyed her parents and stayed at the property.  She was thinking how wrong this was. She had a good life and a good family. Bad things like this didn’t happen to people like them. This must be some mistake; this must be a bad dream. Yet she knew that it wasn’t a dream-she was wide-awake.
     Vista tried begging Almar not to do anything bad to them, but he wasn’t listening.
     “Please Almar let us go. We won’t tell anyone what happened. You can have a head start. Go now, go anywhere.”
     He was preoccupied. Almar was smiling as he watched his brother tying up Vista. Vista knew that Marin was next.
     After that last blow, Vista couldn’t remember anything. Her mind was blank. She must have stopped crying and begging because she couldn’t feel her mouth moving anymore. She felt numb, and could not feel any part of her body. She couldn’t hear Marin crying. Had she stopped? Was Marin still around?  Vista must have blacked out.
    

CHAPTER THREE
     When she awoke she wasn’t on the grass anymore, she was somewhere else. She was laying on something soft, like a cushion. Vista was confused. She was afraid to open her eyes, afraid that she would see Glencoe or Almar. She forced her eyes open anyway. The soft object was a mattress on a bed. She was in what seemed like an abandoned cabin. She had never seen this cabin before. There was no one and nothing in the room but her and the bed. She struggled to get up but couldn’t. Nailed to the bedpost was rope that tied her wrists.  Duct tape was wrapped around her ankles. There was a piece of rope tied around her waist so she couldn’t sit up. She tried to cry out for help, but no words came out. The pain in her mouth was excruciating. Her jaw and her ribs felt like they were broken. She had difficulty breathing and had to take short, slow breaths. She must have fainted from the blows that Almar had inflicted on her.
     Vista tried not to concentrate on her injuries. By now, her family would know that she was missing and come to look for Marin and her. She reasoned that her parents would find her and bring Glencoe and Almar to justice for what they had done to her. She was confident of that. Vista kept thinking to herself just be patient, don’t panic. She was distraught.
     She didn’t know what day it was so didn’t know how long she had been in the cabin; it appeared to be dark outside. That may have been the first day that she was in the cabin. Vista didn’t know where Marin was but hoped that she was not in a cabin as she was. Vista didn’t know if Marin was still alive. She didn’t look so well the last time Vista saw her. 
     In fact, Vista didn’t feel so well herself; she felt stabbing pain all over her body.
     To remain focused Vista tried to keep her mind on the picture of her family when they were at the dinner table.  Her mind wandered off for a while and then she slept. When she opened her eyes, again there was a stream of light from the window behind her. She was happy to be still alive. She didn’t know what was next or what happened to Glencoe and Almar. She started to question herself: did the boys purposely leave her to starve to death or were they coming back to finish her off.  She had to push negative thoughts out of her mind and fill it with positive thoughts if she was to get out alive. She tried screaming again, but she was the only one to hear her voice. She tried to wiggle out of the tape and rope but couldn’t. Each twist brought on new sharps of intense pain.
     As the day wore on, she became hungry. She couldn’t remember when she ate last. Was it yesterday or the day before? Maybe she wasn’t as hungry as she was thirsty. Her mouth was dry and the splitting at the corners of her mouth hurt. The thoughts of food almost drove her crazy. She could taste the vanilla milkshake she had the first day they arrived at their summer home. The shake was cold going down and had a nice vanilla flavor to it. The hamburger was juicy and mouth watering. She could die for one now. That was a poor choice of words. She hoped it didn’t come down to that. Vista decided to try to free her legs since they were the only things that could move. When she tried to wriggle to the left or right, she would slide down the bed and the twine on her hands and wrists tightened. It was as if her hands had fallen to sleep and her wrists were on fire. Her only hope was that her family would find her before it was too late. She could only cry to herself until she blacked out again.
    

CHAPTER FOUR
     When she awoke this time, it was dark again. She had lost track of time. Something wet was on her bed. It was her urine and it had pooled around her from her waist to the back of her knees. It was cold and burned all at the same time. Her urine and feces smell was overwhelming. The suffocating stench in the small, closed room caused her to heave and vomit. Eventually, she had nothing left to vomit so strains of green slime came out of her mouth and ran down her chin. She resigned herself to die. The bed was now her prison, and the room would ultimately be her coffin. The thirst, hunger, and pain were unbearable. She wanted to die and she wanted it to come quickly. She blacked out again.
     Her eyes were almost swollen shut the next day, but she could feel the sunshine in the room. Why hadn’t she died last night? Why was her body hanging on? She kicked and screamed in anger because she felt cheated from death. The cords tightened but she was beyond pain; she was delirious. She floated in and out of consciousness.
      At times, she thought that she heard voices. She thought that she heard her mother calling her name. Vista thought that her mother had found her. Thank you mom, she thought. She knew that her mom would come for her. That’s when she woke up. She had a bad dream, no, a nightmare. Vista was still in this cabin, in this bed, in this room, waiting to die.      
     Later, she heard voices again. She couldn’t tell if they were real or not. Vista felt incoherent. One of the voices sounded like her mothers. Vista didn’t feel pain anymore; she felt warm and fuzzy. Her sense of smell had shifted gears because this place smelled clean and sterile. This must be it, she thought. I’m in a good place. Her pain had subsided and rays of light surrounded her. She felt that her life was over and she was at peace. She apologized to her family that she had to leave them. She hoped they would forgive her. Vista was delusional; she couldn’t tell what was real.
   She kept the picture of her family at the dinner table in mind. She remembered looking to her right at her mom. She had baked Vista’s favorite: lasagna and it was delicious. On the table also was her sister, Courtere favorite desert, chocolate cake. The lemonade made for her father was just right. Her mom did things like this to keep her family happy and they appreciated it.
     Her mom gave up her career as a dentist to stay at home and dote on her and her sister, Courtere. Vista looked like her mother: their hair was a long flaming red, their skin was a rich golden tan, and their eyes were a sparkling emerald green. Both of them had tall, lean and curvy bodies. Heads still turned when her mom walked down the street.  
    Vista’s mom gave freely to others in her neighborhood in addition to taking care of her family. At community fairs and events, she baked dozens of cupcakes and boxes of other desserts.  She loved to do things for her community. Her mother was one of the first people to welcome new ones to the neighborhood with baked goods. When someone was sick or in the hospital, her mother was there to help. No matter what project her mom took on from their school events to hosting dinners for their fathers’ clients she never seemed overwhelmed or complained. Vista envied her mother; she was not only beautiful but also competent, intelligent, and funny. Usually those combinations were hard to find but her mom wore those qualities like a badge of honor.
     “Would you like to have more lasagna, Vista”? Her mother’s voice shook her from her trance.
     “No, thank you.”
      Vista noticed the way her dad looked at her mom. He looked as if he was hopelessly in love with her mom. She wished to have a life just like theirs when she grew up.
     Her dad had a successful business designing custom-made prosthetics for people with missing limbs.  His business was exclusively for those who could afford his one of a kind high product. He was a hard worker and provided well for them.
     His demeanor complemented her moms’ personality; he was not as outgoing, or loud. His smile was his greatest asset; his smile was so bright that when he entered a room, it would light up.  His resonating voice had a mildness and kindness to it. Therefore, when he read to the girls, it would lull them to sleep.
     Her father was also tall, lean and had well built legs; he looked like he could have been a tennis player. He had dark brown pensive eyes and dark wavy hair; and always well groomed.  Her father and her sister had a European look about them- that exotic look.  Courtere mirrored their fathers’ looks just as Vista mirrored their mothers. Her sister was more studious like their dad; while Vista was carefree like their mom. Vista and Courtere were best friends as well as being sisters; they did most activities together. Their family was complete with the four of them; Vista couldn’t imagine a life better than theirs.
     Her family lived in a big Tudor styled house outside of New York City in a family oriented neighborhood. The girls went to a private school and were popular; they were like social butterflies. Vista and Courtere were active in school events and sports. Vista was on the basketball team and was team captain. Courtere was on the tennis team and was co-captain. Their parents were on the PTA as well as members of other civic groups. They were well-respected members of the community. Their family was the epitome of what upper social life could afford.
     Vista felt that their parents had a good relationship with Courtere and her. She felt that she could talk to her parents about anything; they had open communications.
    CHAPTER FIVE
     Their family owned waterfront property in Florida where they went each summer for one month. When they were there, they did everything together. They water skied, floated on tubes down stream and played around in the water from their custom-built tree house. The home in Florida had four large bedrooms with private baths, a theatre room for the girls and their company, a lounge like area for the adults, ample room for entertaining and a huge family room and kitchen. It was also better than being at home in New York. Sometimes their family brought another family along for company. Most times Vista’s mother would hire a woman from town to cook and clean for them. After all this was their vacation. Their family stocked foods they wanted prepared for them for each meal, except when they ate out, and then allowed the woman to schedule the foods, as she wanted. They truly felt wined and dined. They deserved the lavished life after waiting all year. They could slow down their busy life and relax.
     The outdoor life was second nature to them. To feel the newly cut grass under their feet, to see the colorful flowers growing together, and the clean smell of the open air was exhilarating. The nature and hiking trails were excellent in this part of the state. The streams were bubbling and stocked with fish. For miles, Vista could see greenery, trees, and jaw dropping scenery. They were so happy together. That was what Vista thought. Vista had to keep these scenes in her mind to remain sane. She didn’t want to wake up again in the coffin-like room.
   

CHAPTER SIX.
     The next time when she woke up, she wasn’t dreaming. Through the slits in her eyes, she could see the letters FBI on someone’s jacket. They had really found her. Someone was talking. They said that she had been in the cabin for three days. One nurse said to her mother, “She has been in intensive care for several days. I think she will make it. We can transfer her to a regular room in a day or so.”
     Her mother said some words that Vista could not make out. Something about her being in and out of consciousness. This was real. She must be in a hospital or something. She had survived.
      When Vista regained conscious, she couldn’t remember the entire ordeal. With the help of her doctor, she recounted what had happened to her. At first, she didn’t want to remember, but she had to. Her body still ached, but felt better than it did when she was in that cabin.
     The most painful part of her was her hands. The bandages were bulky and heavy.
     “Why do my hands feel different?” She must have said aloud. Everyone in the room stopped and looked at her.
     “Honey” her mom said as she sat on the corner of her bed. “I have to tell you something.”
To her horror, she found out that her hands were stumps. Amputation had been necessary because the tight cords had cut off circulation to her fingers. Vista looked down at the dressings where her hands used to be and was appalled and angry. She wept profusely until she had no tears left.
     She wondered why this had happened to her. How would people look at her now? How was she going to play sports again? Vista felt dizzy and confused.
     Her mothers’ voice kept her holding on; it was soothing and pleasant to her ears. Her mother rocked Vista and let her cry as much as she wanted.
     “You’ll be fine honey. You family is here with you. We love you and everything is going to be okay.
     When Vista opened her teary eyes to see her family around her bed, the feeling was indescribable. She was at a loss for words; they were all together again. They were crying too. They were just as she envisioned them.
   

CHAPTER SEVEN
      The first few weeks of rehabilitation were physically grueling, but with her family at her side, she knew that she could make it. Looking at the stubs where her hands once were was depressing and embarrassing. The counselor, Juada, told her with time that feeling would lessen.  Artificial limbs would replace her stubs. Vista didn’t worry about her artificial limbs since her father was the best designer of prosthesis on the east coast.
     Over the next few weeks as she became more alert, her intuition about her family seemed different. Her mother and father looked distant and never looked each other in the eyes. They didn’t look in love anymore and didn’t hug or hold hands like they used to. Vista thought that she was making more out of the situation and ignored the signs. Her family was here with her and that was all that was important to her right now.
     When Courtere visited at the hospital, she seemed like she came only as a sense of duty or obligation, not because she really wanted to come. She didn’t look the same either; she had on black clothes as if she was in mourning. Courtere even had piercings on her face and body. When they were together at the hospital, they didn’t seem to have anything to talk about; that never happened between them before. They always had something to say. It dawned on Vista after Courtere left that her family had changed dramatically. She wondered what and how had this happened.
     One day after therapy, Vista asked her mother if she was a burden on the family. Everyone seemed so different.  “No honey. You are not a burden”, she said with a sigh.
“Well what is it. Something’s wrong.”
“I guess I can tell you. Your father and I are separated.”
      Her parents seemed to blame each other for her capture and couldn’t come to terms with it. Further, Courtere had become so depressed about Vista’s disappearance that she gave up hope of seeing Vista again. For her to cope, Courtere had joined a gothic group, became agnostic, and had alienated herself from their parents. Courtere felt that she was at fault for Vista’s ordeal. Knowing all the changes within her family was difficult to hear. Vista wondered how this could have happened to their perfect family. Her seizure was no ones’ fault, if not her own. She remembered that Marin and her wandered from their home. Up to this point, no one had said anything about Marin. Vista was afraid to ask her mother; she flustered her. She decided to ask her father about Marin when he came to visit the next day.
     With a nervous heart, she asked her father about Marin, Glencoe and Almar. Her father looked haggard and told her that Marin had gotten free from the brothers. Marin told Vista’s family, the sheriff, and the FBI what the boys had done and that they had separated her from Vista. She had no idea where Vista or the brothers were. The local sheriff took Marin to the Emergency Room with minor cuts and bruises. She had 2 to 3 treatments for asthma then released. She was shook up, but would be okay. Marin would come and visit her in a few days. Vista was happy to hear some good news.
   The FBI had searched for Glencoe and Almar -followed all leads and still had not found the brothers. It was as if they had disappeared in thin air. The boys’ pictures would be on Americas Most Wanted television show soon in hopes of getting further leads. Vista instantly felt a stabbing pain in her head. It felt like her head would burst. The boys were still out there to hurt someone else. Or worse, they could come back to kill her. That frightened her. Her father put his warm arms around her as she cried. He told here there was a police stationed outside Vista’s room for protection. He also told Vista that her family would take care of her and protect her. That no one would ever take her from them again. Those words had a calming effect on her and she slept peacefully in his arms.
   

PAGE EIGHT
      The next day Vista asked her father about his separation from her mother. Her father said, “Me and your mother were having martial problems for a long time but decided to be discreet about it for the sake of Courtere and you”.
“We love you girls so much that we wanted you to be raised by a mother and a father together.”
The final straw came when they could not find Vista and feared that she was dead; they both felt at fault. Her parents felt they shouldn’t have left Vista and Courtere alone. The pain that her parents felt couldn’t be reconciled, so they separated. Vista couldn’t believe her ears. When did they had any trouble, she asked herself. She didn’t notice that her parents were having problems.  So wrapped up with her own life she couldn’t see that her parents were unhappy. She wanted them to be happy- she wanted a happy family. She was so blind.
     Vista closed the door on that painful conversation, and asked her father to design her new hands. Her father sadly shook his head and covered his face. He told her, “I am keeping another secret from Courtere and you.” Slowly he pulled up his right pants above the knees. Vista screamed out softly- her father had an artificial leg. All these years and she didn’t know this. She saw him with short pants on and didn’t see any difference between his real leg and the artificial one. Why was this a secret?
     Her father explained to her the reason he became a designer of prosthesis. He had been in a machine accident before she was born that crushed his right leg. Her father wanted a leg with flexibility that could withstand a lot of weight and pressure. He also wanted a leg that didn’t look different from the other leg. At that time, no one could make one for him. During his recuperation, her father experimented with artificial limbs to make a perfect limb for himself. In time, he made one that looked exactly like the other leg. The satisfaction her father got from designing his limb spurred him on to make custom-made limbs for others. Her father said that in the early 1950’s many people didn’t respect a person who had a stump for a limb. Some people still feel that having a false limb deforms the person and makes him less than a whole person.
    For those reasons, her parents decided to keep the matter private. Once her father had become famous by designing prostheses and erasing all stigmatisms, he was going to tell them his secret. The years went by quickly and he became so busy with requests for orders he didn’t have the time to tell his secret.
     Vista lay in the hospital bed that night thinking how different her family actually was from the family she had envisioned. She was so naïve. Throughout her hospital stay, she had matured and realized that her family was like any other family: imperfect, vulnerable, and full of challenges. She came to see her family without the rose-colored glasses and was endeared them to them even more. She wished her parents had come to terms with their problems a long time ago and dealt with them before it came to a head and blew up.  Vista felt that secrets always tear families apart and hers was no different. If her parents had discussed her fathers’ leg when they were younger, they probably would have understood. Their life is complicated.
     Armed with the information that she now had, Vista was determined to finish her rehab and help her family rebuild the trust and loyalty she felt they had at the beginning. This meant that they had to attend counseling classes as a family and work hard at individual counseling too.   
    It’s sad that it took a horrible ordeal for her family to see that they were not living the suburban dream; in fact, they were not living: they were co-existing. Their existence was a lie.
   

CHAPTER NINE
      Once the lies were exposed, the healing began; her family took nothing else for granted. Her family attended counseling with Vista twice a week. Her family was also supportive of her exhausting rehab. The recovery would be slow, but they’ve made a commitment to each other to complete it. They don’t live anymore for the moment or for what protections money could give.
     Vista’s family now lives a life of service instead of being served. They’re truly happy. Her family realizes how much they had and how little others had. They still live in one of the nicest neighborhoods in upstate New York but her family gives to and works hard to support those in other neighborhoods. These were neighborhoods that they had never seen and didn’t know that existed.
      It has turned out well for all of Vistas’ family. The transformation of her family members’ life and attitudes has been astonishing. Her parents are working out their problems through marital counseling two evenings a week. Her father’s company offers low-cost or no cost limbs to inner city families. Her mother volunteers three times at a week at the free dental clinic in New York city. Courtere is attending counseling and has stopped wearing black clothes; they are best friends again. Vista speaks out at schools with at risk kids about the dangers of having secrets from their family. She is a staunch supporter of family unity and honesty. Through Vista, tours of schools many students and parents have broke down and shared secrets with their families.
     Vista’s very proud of a new start up group for Kids Without Limbs (KWL). This group gets together once a week for support and association.  Starting with three patients from the local hospital, it has grown to three groups of twenty. Each person who has started with the program has reached out to head up another kid’s program. They all report to Vista and the hospital staff that nursed her back to health.
      Due to extensive nerve damage, Vista’s right hand remains a stump. She has a metal clip attached to her right stump that functions as her fingers; the left hand has custom-made fingers. At group meetings, Vista shows the kids her two hands-the fitted one and the inadaptable one. She feels that they need to see both limbs to motivate them to use the limbs they have and still be active just as she is.
     With all the drama and the secrets behind them, Vista’s family is progressively making adjustments to mend their family relationship.