Radiant (29 page)

When Mary wok
e in the morning, she saw that the skies were gray and the window was wet with rain. After breakfast, Mom got off work and came to see her.

"How are you feeling today
?" she asked.

Mary shrugged. "Okay, I guess. Aren't you tired? Shouldn't you go home and rest?"

"I wanted to be here for your first PT session," Mom said. "She's supposed to be here any—"

"H
iiiiiii there!" a bright voice sang.

They looked up as a
young woman with thick hair came into the room. She brought a wheelchair with her. "I'm Steph!" she said. "I'm your physical therapist. Pleased to mee'cha."

Mom and Mary shook hands with her. Then Mary looked at the chair. "You're going to teach me how to use that?"

Steph giggled. "Yeah, and some other things. But before we get started, I like my patients to pick a name for their wheels."

Mary wrinkled her brow.

"Come on!" Steph said. "It'll be fun. Pick a good one. Like Lightning Bolt or Rocket Booster or something. I had one guy who was into anime, and he called his Deathscythe. He was kinda weird."

Mary and Mom looked at one another.

"So!" Steph continued. "What'll it be?"

Mary
figured that if she didn't choose something, she might not hear the end of it from Steph. She groped about in her brain for an unusual name. "How about Michelangelo?" she said.

"T
hat's a good one!" Steph cried. "Ninja Turtles fan, huh? My fav was Donatello 'cuz he was all nerdy and stuff."

"What?" Mary asked.

"Ninja Turtles," Steph repeated. "The TV show? It was about mutant turtles who lived in the sewer and they were always fighting with this—you have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

Mary shook her head. "I was thinking of the
Renaissance artist. He painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and sculpted that giant David statue."

Step
h blinked. "Awkward! Well, Michelangelo it is. Let's get to work, huh?"

For the next hour, Steph t
aught her how to sit up in bed and how to move her legs with her arms. Mary had never realized before how heavy her own legs were, or how hard it was to roll over when you had no ability to move your lower body. Steph also showed Mom how to help her get in and out of bed and then in and out of the chair. At the end of the session, Steph showed Mary some exercises to get her arms and upper body stronger.

When they were done, Mom kissed Mary goodbye and went home to sleep for a
while before she brought Ba to the hospital. Mary spent the next few hours mostly bored and watching TV. Sometimes, she just stared out the window and watched the rain.

Afternoon came, and s
omeone knocked on the door.

"Come in," Mary said.

Phos entered the room, followed by Sienna and David carrying flowers and balloons.

"MARY!" Sienna ran to her and threw her arms around her.

"What are you doing here?" Mary asked in surprise.

Sienna looked at her.
"Really? No, 'Hey Sienna. How's it going, Sienna? Awesome of you to take time out of your busy schedule to see me, Sienna.'"

Mary stared at her. Then she smiled.
"It's good to see you."

"We come bearing gifts," David said as he set the flowers
and balloons on the table. "And your school work."

"You have extra time to do it all, of course," Sienna
added. She then grew solemn. "Carter told us that you couldn't walk. I'm really sorry about that."

Mary shrugged. "I'll manage. I've got Michelangelo now."

"Who?" she asked.

Mary laughed. "Never mind."

The four of them talked and did some of their homework together. It made Mary feel good to have people with her on a rainy day in the hospital. Later, Mom and Ba came, and Raj personally delivered dinner for everyone. He also stayed until visiting hours were over.

"Don't you worry about that, Ms. P,"
Raj said when Mom tried to pay for the food. "You let me know when you want food, and Gita or I'll bring it as a gift from my family while Mary's recovering. And it doesn't have to just be Indian. My aunt is from Mexico, and her enchiladas will make you think you're in heaven." He then flashed his winning smile at Mary. "But the minute you're better, all the menu prices double."

Everyone laughed, and Sienna threw a plastic spoon at him.

"Seriously though, get better," Raj said. "Later everyone."

"We should get going, too," Sienna said as she hugged Mary. "Can we come back in a couple days?"

Mary smiled "I'd love that."

"I'm going to get Ba back to Agape," Mom said. "See you later
, Sweetie."

The last
person to leave was Phos.

"Will I see you tomorrow?"
Mary asked.

He looked down. "I won't be able to come for a few days."

Her smile faded. "Judges?"

He nodded.

"When will you be able to come again?" she asked.

"Probably not until next week," he said. Then he added, "Maybe a little longer."

Mary swallowed. "Okay. I'll see you then."

"Good night, Mary." He kissed her and left.

Mary breathed a heavy sigh. Today had been a great day with everyone there. They were good therapy. But knowing that she wouldn't see Phos again for a while made everything gray and dreary again, just like the rain clouds outside.

Back to Table of Contents

- 3
1 -

Can

Over the next couple weeks, Mary continued recovering. Mom and Ba came to see her everyday. Sometimes, Mom would just nap in the recliner in Mary's room before going to work. Some of Ba's friends came occasionally, and Sienna, David, Raj, and Gita came more frequently. Bruce even paid her a visit. He didn't say much, but he brought her his collection of Bruce Lee DVDs.  His only words to her were "Don't lose any" and "Get better."

Steph worked with
Mary a lot so that she could do things on her own, like go to the toilet and get in and out of Michelangelo. Mary was going to still need a lot of help, especially in the beginning. But she wanted to be able to do as much as possible without relying on others.

One of her biggest challenges by far was going to be s
tairs, especially since the apartment building had no elevator. Mom looked into switching to an apartment on the ground floor, but since they were all occupied, it didn't look like that was going to work out. It seemed more and more like they were going to have to move.

"That'l
l be cool," Sienna said, sitting at the foot of the bed painting Mary's toenails. "If you can, try to move into a place that has a pool and invite me over."

Mary laughed.
"We probably can't afford a place like that. And we don't want to move far from my grandmother."

Gita, who had brought dinner that evening,
sat at the table painting her own toes. "I've always wanted to live in an apartment."

"
Why?" Sienna asked. "Your parents have a small palace in a neighborhood with a rent-a-cop. Why would you want to live in a place where you have to share a laundry room with Creepy Steve who steals girls' underwear?"

"Gross," Mary said
. "Someone in your building steals underwear?"

"Lost my third pair
this month," Sienna said.

"Well, minus the underwear stealing, I think an apartment would be fun," Gita said. "You can interact with your neighbors more.
We're the only brown family in my neighborhood, and everyone's suspicious of us. Except for Carter, but that was only until recently." She looked at the bottle of nail polish in her hand. "I really like this color. Can I borrow it for prom?"

"
Sure," Sienna said. "I didn't know you have prom at an all-girls school."

Gita nodded. "It's very regulated, though. We cannot wear strapless dresses or show any cleavage. And we cannot
wear shoes that are higher than three inches. We have to get what we're wearing approved by the administration a week before the dance."

Sienna whistled. "That sucks. Part of the fun of going to prom is seeing what everyone's wearing and making fun of the slutty ones. Are you and Carter going, Mary?"

Mary shrugged. "We hadn't talked about it, but probably not. Hard to dance in a wheelchair."

"It's possible, though," Gita said. "I saw it on
YouTube."

"Speaking of Carter, where is he?" Sienna asked.
"I've seen him at school a couple times, but not enough to talk to him. It's been a while since he's come here to see you, hasn't it Mary?"

Mary nodded. "He has a ton of stuff to do, and I told him
not to worry about me."

Sienna
whistled. "Wow, you're super understanding. If I were in the hospital, I'd make David come see me everyday or I'd dump him like an ugly baby."

Mary and
Gita laughed.

A nurse knocked on the door
. "Ladies? Sorry to spoil the fun, but visiting hours just ended."

"But my varnish isn't dry yet," Gita said, wiggling her
glossy toes.

"Just walk barefoot," Sienna said as she
packed up her stuff. "They should be dry by the time we get downstairs. See you later, Mary."

Mary said goodbye
. And just like that, the room was empty. One of Bruce's DVDs was playing on the TV, but Mary switched it off. She was starting to get a little Bruce Lee'd out.

She sighed and looked at her toes. Sienna had painted them
lime green. Mary didn't care for the color, but she had enjoyed the girls staying with her. Now, there was nothing to do and no one to talk to until morning. Mary was caught up on all her schoolwork for the most part, and she didn't feel like watching TV or surfing the web. And she wasn't tired enough to sleep.

Mary
leaned her head back against her pillow. "I'm bored." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Michelangelo sitting by her bed. "You look boring, too. You're all black. But I only like it when Phos wears all black. Maybe I'll paint you a different color." She sighed again. "I'm so bored that I'm talking to a wheelchair."

She lay there for a while
, listening to the rain outside. It hadn't stopped once in the time that Mary had been at the hospital. She wondered if that conversation she had dreamt about between Phos and Mayim was real.

Mary
finally decided to do some drawing. She reached for the side table and opened the drawer to get her sketchbook out. But she noticed that under the sketchbook was a Gideon's Bible. It was the first time she saw it there.

"That's weird," she said. "I thought those were only in hotels."

She pulled it out and opened it to the first page. She didn't understand the first few pages, so she flipped ahead and came across the familiar book of Matthew, which she read part of when she had thought Carter had been possessed by a demon. She flipped ahead a little more until she got to a section that had the bold subtitle, "The Greatest Gift." She didn't really understand the first part of it, but about a third of the way down, it started talking about love. "Love is longsuffering and is kind," it said. She read on until she got to the line, "Love never fails."

Mary
re-read that section several times. It reminded her of when she and Phos talked on the roof of Carter's house. She began memorizing parts of the passage when she heard singing. It came from the hallway and was getting closer.

A knock came to
her door.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"Housekeeping," a voice said on the other side.

That was odd, Mary thought. Housekeeping usually came in the morning. Maybe the nurse from earlier saw all the empty food containers that Gita had brought dinner in
. The room did look a bit like a pigsty.

"Come in," Mary said.

The door opened, and a man in a janitorial uniform stepped inside. He had a ponytail and red wristbands.

"Hi there,"
he said as he pushed his cart in. "Sorry to bother you, but I'll only be a minute."

Mary stared at him. "You're from the university! Josh, right?"

He smiled as he began tidying the room. "That's right. I work around the university a lot, but I pick up a couple shifts here. Remind me what your name is again."

"I'm Mary," she said.

"Right. The artsy one looking for the Astronomy department," he said.

She smiled and nodded.

"What happened to you?" he asked.

Her smile faded. "It's kind of
a long story."

Josh
glanced at the clock on the wall. "Well, I'm due for a break right about now. Wouldn't mind to hear it if you wouldn't mind to tell it."