by Nancy Adams
Katie shrugged. "Well, I think there's more to talk about, but I can't say the idea doesn't appeal to me. After all, I'd have pretty good exposure to a lot of potential clients."
"Yeah," Rob said, "not to mention a physical therapist who would be delighted to recommend you to his patients. You know, this building has enough rooms to set you up with an office and a waiting room."
Katie smiled. "Does it? But wouldn't that take away some of the rooms you use for your clientele? Treatment rooms and such?"
"No, not at all. Come look at this," he said, and stepped over to where a large painting hung on one of the walls. He lifted it off, and suddenly Katie could see a receptionist's window. "I tried to stick Anna into this room, but she wanted to be out here in the lobby so I just covered it up. That door"—he pointed to a door just a few feet from the window—"leads into a small waiting room, and there are two other rooms beyond that. You could use one as an office, and the other as a counseling room."
Katie's eyes went wide. "Wow," she said, "that's really awesome. I could hire a receptionist, and…"
"Hey! Hey!" Anna said. "There's already a receptionist here, are you people blind? Why do you need a new receptionist? You think I couldn't handle both of you?"
"You know," Rob said, "realistically, she probably could. What would you think, Katie? We could split her pay, but of course with the extra workload, we need to pay her a little more than I do now."
Katie smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "Well, that would be okay with me. I called this morning, and I can take the test for my license next week. Assuming I pass it, and I will, I could be ready to hang out a shingle in less than a month. What kind of rent would you want for some space here?"
"I hadn't really thought about it, but I'm certain we can come to an agreement. It wouldn't have to be a whole lot; this place isn't all that expensive to begin with. We'd have to add a couple more phone lines, but I can't think of anything else we have to do to get you moved in."
Katie smiled. "Well, office furniture and such I'd buy myself, of course. Seriously, Rob, do you think this is a good idea?"
Rob nodded. "I actually do," he said. "To be perfectly honest, I think there's a need for counselors who specialize in disability counseling. There are a lot of people with disabilities who could stand to have someone to talk to that really understood what they were feeling. You're qualified, even if you haven't had it quite as bad as some. At least you've got a serious idea of what it feels like to not be able to do the things you used to do."
"Rob, I'll be honest, this feels like something I've been destined for. I can't explain that, but somehow I think you understand it."
"I think I do," Rob said. "However, at the moment, you're still a patient, not a tenant. How have you and Willie been getting along?"
Katie started to answer, but Kylie cut in. "Oh, my goodness," she said. "She's like a wild woman. I mean, we haven't been able to keep her in one place since she got home with that thing yesterday. And even this morning, she insisted on putting it into the trunk, and getting it back out when we got here. Something about independence."
"Excellent," Rob said. "Then I think your exercise for today is going to be timing you to see how long you can stay up walking on it at a time. Our target for today is five minutes straight, do you think you can do that?"
Katie looked nervous. "Five minutes? Holy cow, couldn't we start with something small, like thirty seconds? I've been doing little bits, here and there; I haven't been trying for an endurance marathon."
"Well, I'm not suggesting a marathon, either," Rob said. "However, there may be times when you need to be up on your feet for a while. You've been making some excellent progress, but in all honesty, Katie Lou, while you've regained some leg function, you're still showing signs of peripheral nerve damage. That means that you're not ready to take off and go jogging, of course, but it also means that it may yet be some time before you're up to walking on your own. One of the reasons I wanted to get you on that walker is because I suspect it may be a necessity for you for some time to come."
Katie's face, which had been almost splitting with a smile, suddenly sobered. "Are you trying to tell me that I may never walk normally again?"
"No, that's not what I'm saying at all, just even though you been making such incredible progress, you still have a ways to go. Katie Lou, I'm thrilled that you managed to get to this point in such a short time, but we’re still dealing with the fact that you have nerve damage, and don't have full control over your leg muscles. When we see this type of damage, well, it usually takes quite a bit of time to get all the way back to normal. And, just for the sake of being completely honest with you, I have to say that there are some cases where there isn't a complete recovery. In some cases, progress goes only so far, and then stops. We have no way of knowing just how much progress to expect."
"So, then you are saying that it's possible I won't ever get back to normal?" Katie asked.
They entered a large room Katie hadn't seen before. "Of course that's possible," Rob said. "As much as I would love to tell you that everything is going to be perfect, I don't have a crystal ball, and I don't have magical powers. If I did, you and all my other clients would be back to normal already. On the other hand, we're certainly not going to give up, now, are we?"
“No,” Katie said, “of course not.”
Kylie had been pretty quiet all this time, but she spoke up then. “Rob, Katie Lou isn't one who ever gives up,” she said. “We got that from our Dad, he's sort of the most stubborn guy you could ever meet.”
Rob grinned. "Sounds like a guy I ought to know. I'm pretty stubborn myself, when I set my mind to something. And one of the things I've set my mind to is making sure that our Miss Katie Lou here gets back up on her feet as soon as possible!"
Kylie nodded. "Then we're all on the same page," she said, "and since we are, I had another idea I wanted to bring up to you." She caught Katie Lou peeking at her out of the corner of her eye, but pretended not to see. "Rob, something's come up and I don't think I can make it to the dance with you Saturday," she said. "So, I was thinking, why don't you take Katie Lou? I figure if she can push that walker around, then she should be able to hold on to you and dance a little bit, shouldn't she?"
It suddenly occurred to Kylie that both Rob and Katie Lou looked terrified. It was Rob who recovered first, breaking out into a big smile as he turned to Katie.
"Hey," he said, "Katie Lou, how about it? I think she's right, we should be able to manage a few dances. I'd love to dance with you, if you'd be willing to go. What do you say? Will you go out with me?"
Katie opened her mouth a couple of times, but nothing came out, so she tried again. "Well, okay, I guess," she stammered. "I—I mean, if you want to…"
"Of course I want to," he said. He glanced at Kylie, who smiled and winked at him, then looked back at Katie Lou. "Look, I'll just admit it, I've wanted to ask you out since the first moment you walked into my clinic. Now, does that constitute an impropriety? I don't think so, since we have never been alone together, and we've been chaperoned by your sister or mine, or both, all the times we've been together. Of course, if we're going to start dating, then I have to drop you as a patient, but that doesn't mean I can't work with you, only that I can't bill you for it." He suddenly looked nervous. "Okay, maybe that seemed a little forward, or like I'm moving too fast. Just going to a dance together, especially one as public as this one, I don't think that's a problem. And of course, one dance doesn't mean we're dating, right? So that's not really a problem, I mean, I didn't mean to imply that you wanted us to be dating, I just meant…" He trailed off, suddenly at a loss for words to continue.
"Rob," Katie said, laughing at him and his discomfiture, "let's take it one day at a time, okay? You're right, one dance doesn't mean we're dating. We can decide whether we're dating after we see how things go with the dance, right?"
Rob let out a terrific sigh of relief, and broke into a smile again. "Yeah, that's fine,"
he said. "So, you’ll go to the dance with me?"
"Yes, I'd be delighted," Katie Lou said, "but on one condition. Have you got a radio around here somewhere?"
"A radio?" Rob looked confused for a moment, but then he burst into a smile. "Oh, so we could practice a little dancing, perhaps?"
"Yes, since we have a chaperone here with us. I thought maybe we could practice a bit, so that I don't make either of us look like a total fool on the dance floor Saturday night. That makes sense, doesn't it?"
Rob grinned from ear to ear, and Kylie burst out laughing. "Makes a lot of sense to me," Kylie said, and Rob nodded in agreement. "I'd have to say it makes sense," he said, "and it's probably some very good exercise for you, anyway. It's just not the kind of exercise I can offer to most of my clients."
Katie had been walking along, pushing the walker around the perimeter of the room, and she suddenly stopped and stood, looking at him. "Well, if you can find some of that music, I think we can give it a try and see if it might be an effective exercise."
"I got your music," Kylie said, taking out her phone. She tapped on it a couple of times, and suddenly, there was music coming from it. "I'm not sure what kind of music you’ll be dancing to on Saturday, but here's some slow stuff. Practice on this."
Katie Lou cocked her head and looked at Rob coquettishly, and he smiled as he extended his arms and she stepped into them. He had to hold her close, since she was having some problems standing, but it became obvious after a few moments that neither of them was objecting to the nearness. Kylie watched, smiling as she realized that Rob was holding Katie up, and it was very easy for him to do. It made it appear that they must've been dancing together for a long time, for she literally flowed along, following him perfectly.
They made it through that first dance, and then Rob let Katie Lou sit down on the walker for a few moments. She was tired, but she was smiling broadly, and Kylie could tell she was happy. In fact, she didn't think she'd seen Katie so happy in years, even when she seemed to be completely in love with Darren. She was thrilled to see her sister smiling so much.
"Well, well," she said. "If I didn't know the problems you have, Katie Lou, I would swear that you were dancing all on your own, there. I mean, that looked so natural."
Katie grinned at her. “It felt natural, too,” she said, and then she blushed, realizing how that might have sounded. “I mean, it sort of felt like I was really able to dance, even though I knew Rob was holding me up. It really felt right—oh, you know what I mean!”
Rob grinned and leaned close to Kylie. “It felt pretty right to me, too,” he said in a stage whisper that Katie Lou could hear, and then they were both blushing. Kylie laughed out loud at the two of them, and soon they were laughing along with her.
“It's good to see you laughing again,” she said to her sister, and Katie Lou smiled.
“It's good to feel like it.” She looked at Kylie, then at Rob. “What amazes me is that it's only been, what, two-and-a-half weeks since the wreck? That's hard to believe. In some ways, it feels like it just happened yesterday; but in other ways, I feel like it's been a year, and a very long one at that."
"I'm not surprised," Rob said. "A lot of people have said similar things to me. I think it's because, especially in cases like yours where someone makes a lot of progress in a hurry, all the pain and hard work seems like it must've taken months and months, but only a few days or weeks have passed. Then there's the fact that our bodies and our minds perceive time differently. Think about it: if you're wearing a pair of shoes that are too tight, you may only have them on for an hour, but it will seem like all day."
Both of the girls were nodding. "Oh, I can so relate to that!" said Kylie. Katie chimed in with, "Yeah, me too."
"Anyway," Rob said, "so are we all on the same page? Katie, you're going to the dance with me on Saturday? And Kylie, you're really okay with this?"
Kylie grinned, then reached up and took hold of his shoulders, pulled them down and kissed his cheek. "The answer to both of those questions is yes," she said. "You're taking Katie Lou to the dance, and I'm perfectly fine with it. You're cute, Rob, but I see the way you look at my sister. I'm not sure what's going on there, but you two need to figure it out." She smiled at Katie Lou. "We're good, right, Sis?"
Katie Lou nodded, smiling. "Good." She turned to Rob. "And are we on the same page? About me opening an office here? I think it would be a great deal for me, but I'm not sure that I won't be in your way."
Rob looked at Katie Lou, and a soft smile fixed itself to his face. "Katie, trust me when I say that you could never be in my way. I think it's possible that we could start a trend, with counseling centers in other medical offices, as well. I don't know of any other psychologists who specialize in counseling for people with disabilities, but I think it could become a popular specialization. There are a lot of people, especially those whose disabilities are the result of accidents and sudden trauma, who just don't understand what's happened to them. They need someone to talk to, someone who truly knows how they feel. I'll guarantee you, had you been around when I was hurt, I would've been one of your patients."
7
As usual lately, Rob had told Anna not to schedule any appointments but Katie's between ten a.m. and one p.m., keeping his lunchtime open so that they could go to lunch together. On this day, however, instead of taking them all out for lunch, he told Anna to order pizza. When it arrived, she brought it back to the room they were in, and joined in the party.
"I think this has got to be a new form of therapy," Katie Lou said. "I could be imagining it, but my legs feel stronger now than they did when I got here this morning."
"Well, I have my doubts that it's made that big a difference already, at least not physically," Rob said. "Now, emotionally, I can see where it might be making you feel better, and that's got to be taking some of the stress off. Your legs probably feel like they're responding better, but that could just be because they're having a good time."
"I don't care why it feels this way, it just does," Katie said.
"Okay, if I wasn't seeing this, I wouldn't believe it," Anna said. "I don't believe I've ever seen my brother dance before, and certainly not with one of his patients." She looked at Rob. "You do realize, don't you, that Katie must be some kind of witch, right? She's cast some sort of spell over you, because you never, ever let your hair down this much."
"And you're complaining?" Rob asked. "Isn't it you who always says I need to relax and have more fun?"
"Oh, yeah, that's me," his sister shot back. "Which, of course, makes you the one who always tells me to shut up and mind my own business. Remember that?"
Rob laughed happily. "Oh, just hush up and have a good time. Kylie, more music. Katie, may I have this dance?"
"Give me a minute, I'm eating pizza. You better grab a slice, it's going fast."
"Oh, baloney, we've got two large pizzas for me and three skinny girls. I don't think I'm in any danger of going hungry." He picked up a slice of pepperoni pizza and took a bite.
After nearly an hour of dancing with Rob, Katie was getting tired, so they took it easy for the rest of lunch. They talked about Katie opening her counseling practice in the building with Rob's physical therapy practice, and came to an agreement on rent for the office space, but that was all contingent on her passing her test and getting her license. Anna wanted to start putting in phone lines and such right away, but Katie insisted they wait until after her test. There was no point in spending the money, if she didn't pass and get her license.
When it was getting close to one o'clock, Kylie reminded Katie that she had another appointment in the afternoon, so they said their goodbyes and headed out the door. After all that dancing, Katie was tired enough that she let Kylie put the Walker in the trunk of the car. She leaned back in the seat, worn out but smiling.
Kylie stood behind the wheel and looked at her sister. "See?" she said. "I told you it was you he really wanted to go out with. You should've just believed me."
"Yeah, yeah," Katie said, "you were right. Oh, Kylie, am I making a mistake? I can't believe I'm going on a date less than two weeks after calling off the wedding to the man I thought I was destined to marry. Is this crazy?"
“Of course it is,” Kylie said, “but that's what love and romance are all about. We go crazy enough to forget what individuals we are, and look for someone to join with to complete us. If that isn't insanity, then I don't know what is.”
Katie had turned and was staring at her. “But I mean, is it crazy that I'm jumping back in so soon? I don't want to end up getting hurt again, Kylie, and who knows if there's even any real possibilities, here? What if trying to date him is gonna mess up what I'm doing by opening a practice in the same building? Then we could end up causing problems for our patients and clients.” She leaned back again, and closed her eyes. “Oh, this is gonna give me a headache.”
Kylie laughed at her. "You always overthink stuff," she said. "Why can't you just relax and enjoy life a little bit? Sure, not everything in life is fun, but a lot of it is. You’ve just got to learn to chill out and enjoy."
Katie chuckled and shook her head. Leave it to her sister to take so many complicated issues and reduce them down to nothing but fun versus boredom. It must be nice to live in such a simple world, and it would certainly be nice to find a way to get back to it. Katie hadn't been there since high school, but it certainly seemed like a good idea at the moment.
"Hey, I'm not doing that badly," she said. "I agreed to go out with him, didn't I? And yes, before you can shove it down my throat again, you're right, and I'm gonna have a good time this weekend. Stop reminding me that you’ve been trying to tell me that all along."
Kylie was grinning, but she didn't say anything. The two of them relaxed as the car rolled along the highway on the way back home.
By the time they got back to town, Katie only had about half an hour before she had to go to the lawyer’s office and sign papers on the settlement. She kept waiting for something to go wrong, something that would interfere with her dreams. In her experience, things just didn't go smoothly, especially when you're dealing with lawyers, and especially when one of those lawyers was your ex-fiancé! Somehow, she just knew it was going to be an unpleasant experience, but she'd already decided she was going to keep her mouth shut and just try to get through it as quickly and easily as possible.