Number: 96

Bubbles Von D was raised in a small town in northwestern Ohio to an Amish mother and a Mennonite father. The couple raised Bubbles as their own, the best they knew how after finding her lost from a gypsy wagon that was traveling through town.

Over time, as Bubbles grew older, the family settled into a peaceful existence. When they made trips into town for apple butter and black fabric Bubbles would often watch other children as they laughed and played in the streets. She longed to be like the other children, but most of all she longed to wear the shoes with wheels—roller skates they called them.

One evening at dinner, Bubbles asked her parents about the roller skates she so desperately longed for. They were outraged. “No daughter of mine will have wheels on her heels,” her father shouted. Bubbles was forbidden to ever go into town again. She always felt like an outsider in the family, she just knew that she did not belong in this life.

One day when she could no longer stand the tension in the house, Bubbles let out a string of curse words, including every ‘swear’ she had ever learned. Her mother grabbed her by the bonnet and dragged her into the bathroom, where she vigorously scrubbed her mouth out with soap. As she lay sprawled on the bathroom floor, tiny bubbles escaped her mouth and floated toward the cherry-wood ceiling. She knew she could no longer stay in this place—after all—bubbles were meant to float away.

Bubbles left that very night, and hitched a bus to Columbus, Ohio. She soon found a new kind of community, a community where she was loved and accepted and where all the girls wore wheels on their heels. She’s a Bubble among Bullies, and even though she might look cute…bubbles will always burn if they get in your eyes.