by T. L. Haddix
Two years later, Alice suffered a brain hemorrhage and died, leaving Fred and Deborah on their own. Deborah’s brothers were older, already married, and the loss hadn’t affected them as directly. Lost in grief from her mother’s death, Deborah had sought comfort in the arms of an older man who’d run far and fast when he’d gotten her pregnant. Since she was still in high school at the time, the pregnancy had been unexpected to say the least.
From there, Fred had held on and rolled with the punches. He’d done well enough raising Haley, but there hadn’t been a lot of cash for extras. And because of that, he’d not been able to save up much over the years.
As a result, now that she was making a decent paycheck, Haley was picking up a lot of the slack.
She prayed the old SUV she drove, a vehicle that was older than her, lasted another year or two. If it didn’t… well. She’d figure that out if and when she had to.
When she went in, the receptionist, Lou, greeted her with a harried smile. “Morning, hon. Looks like a crazy schedule today. It’s a full moon, isn’t it?”
“Morning. And I think so, yes. How crazy?” she asked as Lou handed her several files.
“Four new patients.”
Haley grimaced. “In addition to the usual contingent?”
Lou nodded. “Sorry. That’s what you get for being too good at your job.”
She sighed. “It’s okay. Thanks, Lou.”
Once she dropped her belongings in her locker, she sat down in the office she shared with two other therapists and thumbed through the new files. Two seemed fairly straightforward—work injuries that needed relatively simple rehab. One was post shoulder surgery, an older gentleman who should have been seen initially while in the hospital but for some reason, hadn’t been.
“That’s going to be some work,” she muttered, nibbling on the side of her thumb. It had been two weeks since his surgery, and dollars to donuts, the muscles of the shoulder’d be frozen up.
The fourth patient, Eli Campbell, had lost a foot overseas. He was young, and he appeared from his chart to be in good shape. He was a referral from the VA, and Haley saw he’d been fitted for his prosthesis last week in Lexington.
She made a face. “I wonder if you’ll be a pain in my ass or a gentleman.” She’d had a couple of referrals from the VA in recent weeks who’d not been the best patients in the world though the majority of the people they sent were sweethearts. After the difficulty those two cases had presented, though, she’d warned her boss that if she had another nightmare patient, she was going to refuse to handle the veterans.
Would she really do that? Probably not even if she had a choice, which she didn’t. And her boss knew that, had realized she was only venting and blowing off steam.
Luckily, Mr. Campbell was coming in earlier in the day just before lunch, so at least she wouldn’t spend the entire day wondering. Crossing her fingers for luck, she headed out to greet the first patient of the day.
Eli felt like he was on display. He knew he was being ridiculous, overreacting, but the looks and stares he’d gotten all morning were starting to wear on his nerves. He and Molly had been doing errands around Hazard, including shopping for some civilian clothes for him, before his appointment with the physical therapist. It felt like every place they went, at least one person stopped and gawked at him.
“You’d think they’d never seen a guy on crutches with half his leg missing or something,” he grumbled to Molly as they got in the car after leaving the library. “I hated being in the hospital, but at least there I didn’t feel like a fucking freak.”
Molly laid a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry. Some people are assholes. Just ignore them.”
He ran a hand over his hair. “I’m trying. Sorry, sis. This has been a tough few days.”
He’d met with a psychologist as part of his evaluation in Lexington, and one of the things she’d warned him to watch for was an emotional minefield where he least expected it.
“You’re going to be processing what’s turned out to be a huge shift in what you expected your life to be over the next few months. Not only did you not leave the service voluntarily, but you’ve also lost a foot. Either of those things would have a big set of challenges attached to it. Both together? Double whammy.”
And that wasn’t even taking into account the strained relationships he had to try to repair. So it was turning out to be a mixed-bag homecoming.
“At least my separation came through without a hitch,” he told Molly now. “There’s that.”
The papers had caught up to him Friday. It would be a few more weeks before his separation pay and the disability insurance payment came in, but getting the separation officially processed and out of the way was a huge step.
From the library, the drive to the facility where he’d be receiving his physical therapy didn’t take long. It was within sight of the library, and a person with two good feet could easily walk it in less than five minutes. For Eli, the drive wasn’t nearly long enough.
“Ready to go in?” Molly asked as she pulled up in front of the building to let him out. “I’ll park and meet you inside.”
Eli stared at the building. “I don’t want to do this,” he admitted softly.
“Okay. Why not?”
“Because it feels like conceding that I need help, and I’m a stubborn Campbell who thinks he can get along without anyone’s assistance?”
Molly smiled. “That sounds about right. And maybe you’re afraid that committing to this means you’re in it for the long haul, that it isn’t a nightmare you’re going to wake up from?”
He turned to her, stunned. “When did you get so smart?” She’d nailed how he was feeling exactly.
“I did a psych rotation last semester. And I’ve known you my whole life, remember,” she teased gently. “You need to do this. Whether you put it off or do it now, physical therapy isn’t really an option. Not if you want to have a normal life again.”
“My foot’s gone. How in the hell can I have a normal life?” He knew the question was bitter, but he didn’t care.
“By working your ass off. Nothing in this life is guaranteed, sure as hell not happiness and perfect health.” Something about her no-nonsense tone made him wonder if his baby sister hadn’t somewhere along the line had her heart broken. But she wasn’t about to let him dwell on that. “Go on in. You’ve got this appointment and it’s too late to change that now. Skip the next if you’re going to chicken out.”
Eli narrowed his eyes. “Smart-ass.”
“Pragmatist,” she corrected. “Come on. I have cars lining up behind me.”
He glanced in the mirror at the empty lane. “There’s no one there.”
“There could be. And if we sit here much longer, there will be.”
With a frustrated growl, he undid his seatbelt. “Fine. See you in there.”
Once inside, he had to sit down to give the receptionist his information. He’d still not figured out how to manage crutches, getting his wallet or phone out, and doing it all while balanced on one leg. The irony that he was there to learn those very tasks didn’t escape him.
“How long will this first visit take?” he asked as he was signing the privacy forms. “I need to let my sister know.”
“Probably close to an hour and a half, maybe longer,” the lady told him.
“Okay. Thanks.”
He relayed the information to Molly when they were seated in the waiting room. “So if you want to go do something, I’ll be a while.”
She waved a hand. “I have some reading I can do. This chair’s comfy enough.”
“Molly… I don’t want to be a burden.”
“Eli…” She leaned into him with a winsome smile. “I’m a big girl. If I get bored, I’ll go somewhere. Like I said, I have some reading. I got
a new oncology textbook in, and I want to study it.” She held up her tablet.
He snorted, but he gazed down at her with a great deal of pride. “You’re something else, calling me stubborn.”
“Where do you think I get it from?”
Eli hugged her. “Thanks, kid, for being here and being so persistent.”
They’d only been sitting there a few minutes when a door off the waiting room opened, and a slender woman with amber-brown hair looked around the room before her assessing gaze settled on him.
“Eli Campbell?”
He gathered his crutches and prepared to stand. “That’d be me. You coming back?” he asked his sister.
Molly shook her head. “Nope. I’m good. Let me know if you need me.”
With a polite smile for the woman holding the door, he managed to ease past her. “Thank you, ma’am.”
“You’re welcome. This way, please,” she said, leading him down the hall while watching him walk. “We’ll start in one of the private rooms. I’m Haley Buchanan, your physical therapist.”
“Nice to meet you, Haley.”
She directed him to the table. “Have a seat there, please. You seem to be managing the crutches well enough.”
Eli eased down on the edge of the cushioned table. “I’m having a good day, that’s all. It’s been an experience.”
“I imagine so. I’m sorry about your injury.”
“Thanks.”
For the next several minutes, they went over his history, his physical goals, and what the process of rehabilitation was going to consist of.
“A lot of patients in your position tend to think they don’t need physical therapy so much, and some don’t. Not if they’re satisfied with the status quo. But if you want to get the most out of your prosthesis, you’ll need to adhere to a fairly strict regimen over the next few months. Once we get you walking again on two legs—even if one of those is not the one God gave you—it’s going to be a whole new ballgame.”
“Another one?” he asked with a weary grin. “Really? I’m only just starting to figure out how to play this one.”
Her smile was sympathetic. “I’m sorry. But given your medical history, and depending on what your physical condition is like, I’m hoping we have a lot to work with. Why don’t we get started with the physical? I’d like to examine your wound first if you don’t mind.”
Eli didn’t want to comply with that request. As vain as it sounded, he hated showing the blunted end of his stump to this woman. This was his first interaction with an attractive female outside the walls of a hospital since his injury, and his pride was offended that she’d see that side of him first. He also resented that his damaged body was the impetus for their meeting and that despite his much larger physical bulk, he wasn’t the strongest person in the room today.
But mostly he hated that this sweet-smelling woman with soft hands whose very subtle perfume reminded him of summer and kind green eyes that made him think of dew on grass, was only interested in him because it was her job. And that job would put him in a position where he couldn’t meet her on equal footing, pardon a pun.
Knowing he had no choice, he started removing the protective stockings covering his wound.
Though he wasn’t really a ladies’ man, Eli’d never had a hard time getting a woman to go out with him. Flirting was second nature, something he did without even thinking. That had been true with the nurses and female doctors in Germany and here in the States with one or two exceptions where he’d not felt it was appropriate. And it wasn’t serious but simple, casual flirting, an effort on his part to make them smile and lighten the burden of his own injuries.
But now as much as he tried, he couldn’t get his easy charm to work with Haley. All his attempts at teasing fell flat, and he gave up after a few minutes.
To say this experience had been humbling thus far would be a massive understatement. If he had any ego left by the time he recovered, it’d be a pure miracle.
He still had quite a bit of weakness globally, which his doctors had told him was normal, and the few errands he and Molly had done today had wiped him out, never mind the gauntlet he was in the middle of.
“I’m really impressed with the way you’ve healed,” she told him as she had him move through a series of range of motion exams. “Your chart says you were injured in July?”
“The eleventh. My one-month anniversary will be tomorrow.” He winced as the muscles on the back of his left leg pulled as he stretched. “Most people in my family heal fast.”
“Well, you’re lucky. Was that grimace due to pain or discomfort? It’s important that you tell me how these stretches feel so I can properly gauge your response.”
“Discomfort.”
“Good. You want discomfort but not pain. Find that limit where going any further would be painful and work on moving it out. Let’s continue.”
By the time she let him stop fifteen minutes later, he’d broken a sweat and his muscles were trembling. Feeling weak as a kitten, breathing hard, he stayed on his back for a minute when she was done.
“You okay?” Haley asked softly as she made notes.
“Yeah, just feeling a little embarrassed. I didn’t realize how far I’d gotten from where I was in early July.”
She laid his chart down and crossed her arms. “You’ve been through a lot, even though you’re really doing exceptionally well. Better than I’d expected given what was in here,” she said, tapping the chart. “Remember, you’ve had two major surgeries, and anesthesia can take a long time to work its way out of your system. I know it’s hard to go from being extremely active to being confined. But you’ll be back in running form before you know it if that’s what you want.”
Eli propped himself up on his elbows to study her with a seriousness that would have surprised a lot of his family members. “You really think I could run again?”
He’d told her during the interview how much he liked to run cross country, using the activity to clear his mind as well as for fitness.
For the first time since he’d followed her into the room, a more-than-polite smile spread across her face. And when it did, it turned her from being pretty to being beautiful. He felt his heart turn over in his chest, actually felt it do a flip. He had to struggle to focus on what she was saying, the smile and the sensations it caused were such a distraction.
“I can’t guarantee you one hundred percent, but if you work at it? I don’t see why not. You got very lucky in terms of what kind of amputation you have—most of the lower leg is still intact. That’s a great foundation to build from. And they’ve come out with such ingenious technology and advances in prosthetics in recent years, it’s nothing like it used to be. You might even qualify for active duty again. Is that something you think you’d be interested in?”
Eli sat up fully, swinging his legs over the side of the table. “I don’t know. From what they said at the VA, they didn’t think it would be possible. The job I did was pretty dependent on having two good feet.”
“What did you do?”
“I supervised a crew of mechanics in Afghanistan. And I wasn’t a straw boss, either. I wouldn’t ask them to do anything I wouldn’t do myself. Most of the time, I was right there with them.”
She gave a soft laugh. “Then you were probably a popular boss.”
He grinned sheepishly, pleased that she’d warmed up to him. “Most of the time. So what’s next?”
“Next, we do a few more tests out in the main room, and then you get to go home and rest. We’ll start the torture Wednesday.” She stood and waited for him to do the same.
“Torture, huh?”
“Yep. You’ll either love me or hate me by the time you leave here Wednesday.”
“But you seem so nice,” he teased as he followed her.
&nb
sp; “Oh, she’s a taskmaster, don’t let the sweetness fool you,” a middle-aged lady in scrubs said as they entered the large room that contained a plethora of equipment, half of which Eli couldn’t identify. “Most of the new patients end up crying for their mommy at the end of the first week’s sessions.”
There were two people on stationery bikes nearby, and they chuckled.
“She’s kidding with ya,” an elderly man who was slowly working hand pedals said with a grin. “Haley’s a sweetheart. I’m trying to get her to go out with my grandson.”
“Eldon, I told you that as soon as he shows half the charm as his grandfather, I’ll consider it,” Haley said.
“I’m working on him, young lady. Don’t you doubt it.”
That beautiful smile that had wrecked Eli was back, and if he hadn’t had to pay close attention to where he placed his foot, he’d have been caught staring at her. As it was, he almost stumbled because he lost focus on walking. That was what he deserved for flirting with her, he supposed.
“Easy there,” Haley said. She stretched a hand out. “You okay?”
Eli’s cheeks heated. “Fine. Just forgot what went where for a minute.”
For the rest of the appointment as she showed him what to expect, he tamped down ruthlessly on the temptation to make her smile again. He didn’t need any more injuries than what he already had, and if he wasn’t careful, that’s exactly where he’d end up.
“How much of the therapy will you be providing? I see a lot of aides and assistants here,” he said as they walked to the door a bit later.
“Better than sixty percent,” she told him with a slight frown. “Is that a problem?”
“No, ma’am. I was only curious.”
“Okay. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Lou will get you set up for Wednesday. I’ll see you then,” she said as she held the door open for him.
“Thanks again.”