Radiant (30 page)

Mary thought for a moment. She was a little glad for the company, so she began telling him about the night the store was robbed and she was shot.

"Wow," Josh said when she had finished. "That's nuts."

"Yeah. I guess it is." She shrugged.
"Anyway, here I am now. And that's Michelangelo."

Josh
chuckled and patted the wheelchair. "Nice. A fitting designation for a chariot of his stature."

Mary sighed.

"I'm sorry," he said. "It must be tough."

She
nodded.

Neither of them spoke for a moment. Then, he said, "Well, I'm probably going
to irritate you greatly by saying this, but I've always believed in the power of positive thinking."

She wrinkled her brow.

"I'm serious!" he said. "I've seen people do some crazy cool things when they really put their minds to it. Do you want to walk again?"

Mary's brow wrinkled even more.

"That was a rhetorical question," Josh chuckled. "Do you, Mary, want to walk again on your own two feet?"

"Of course," she said. "Why wouldn't I?"

"If you want it bad enough, and you believe it without a shadow of a doubt, then you'll walk again," he said.

Mary sighed. "
You're one of those glass-half-full people."

"Guilty," he laughed.

"But I can't walk," she said. "It's impossible."

"Only because you
think
it is," he said. "What is anything in this world? The most popular products, the biggest companies, whole nations, and even the whole universe all began with a single thought."

She stared at him. "You
also don't talk like a janitor."

He chuckled and took her hand. His hands were strong and rough. A worker's hands.
"Come on, just humor me for a second," he said. "Say, 'I can walk.' And really mean it."

Mary rolled her eyes. But she said, "I can walk."

"For real?" Josh huffed. "That was weak. I mean
really
mean it. Again. 'I can walk!'"

Mary laughed. "I can walk!"

"Again!" he said. "But this time, with feeling. Can you walk, Mary?
Can you
?"

"Yes!" she s
houted. "I CAN WALK!"

***

Mary's eyes shot open.

Mom got up from the recliner.
"Mary? Why'd you yell? Are you hurting?"

Mary looked around
. "Where is he?"

"
Who?" Mom asked. "You mean Carter?"

"No, Josh," Mary said. "He was here just now."

"I've been here for the last half hour," Mom said. "No one named Josh has come by this morning."

"Morning?" Mary looked out the window. For the first time in weeks, she saw soft sunrays streaming through it.
"But he was cleaning the room."

"Housekeeping came
and left a few minutes ago. It was a woman," Mom said. "You might have been dreaming."

Mary opened the drawer by her bed and saw her sketchbook inside. But there was no Bible.
"But…it felt so real," she mumbled.

Mom touched her face. "It's all right. Do you want to sit up and eat? Carter
should be back with some breakfast soon."

"
He's here?" Mary asked.

Mom nodded as she took Mary's arms and pulled her up. "Today's Saturday, so he got here just as
I was getting off work and—" Mom stopped. "Mary? Did you just move your leg?"

Mary wrinkled her brow. "What?"

"Just now," Mom said. "When you were sitting up, I thought I saw you lift it a little."

Mary looked down. It had been ages since she had tried to
move any part of her lower body. But she tried to move her left leg to the side.

The blanket shifted slightly.

Mary gasped and pulled the blanket off, revealing her legs and feet. She tried moving her right one.

It shifted slightly as well.

"Mom?" Mary said, her voice starting to quiver as her heart began to race. "Mom, I'm moving my toes."

They both stared at her lime green toes as they
slowly wiggled back and forth.

The door opened, and
Phos came in with a tray of breakfast food from the cafeteria. He stopped when he saw the looks on their faces.

"Phos!"
Mary cried, forgetting to call him Carter. Slowly, she turned by herself and lowered her feet to the floor. The tiles were hard and cold. She moved and her feet and legs responded by catching her weight as she stood. Carefully, she took two tiny steps toward him.

Ph
os said nothing as he stared with eyes as wide as clock faces. Mary took another step, but her weak foot stumbled and she lost her balance.

He dropped the tray and caught her. Milk, orange juice, cereal, and other thin
gs splattered across the floor.

Mom leaned on the bed and
began sobbing, "My God, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you…"

Phos held Mary as her feet found their strength again. She
stood and looked into his emerald eyes. "Phos," she said. "I can walk."

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- 3
2 -

Release

When they saw Mary walking, the nurses scratched their heads. Later, Steph scratched her head. And when Dr. Han came to examine her, she also scratched her head. She ran some X-rays and other tests, but that just made her scratch her head even more.

"
I can't explain it," the doctor said. "According to these results, it's like nothing had ever happened to your spine. You still have some slight muscle atrophy, but that can be easily taken care of with some time. But, my word. If you didn't still have the burn scar on your stomach or the one from the surgery on your back, I'd question whether you were ever injured at all!"

"
Does that mean I can go home?" Mary asked.

Dr. Han shrugged.
"I can't see why you should stay. I'd like you to continue with physical therapy for at least a few weeks, and I'll let you schedule that with Steph. But other than that, you can get your things packed. I'll get your discharge papers going."

As Mary got dressed in the bathroom, Mom and Phos gathered up all of her school things
and other stuff she had accumulated during her stay. Before she pulled on her shirt, Mary stared at the scar on her stomach. She ran her fingers over it, feeling the rough skin. It was rather ugly, as most scars are. But she was still glad to have it.

When they were ready to go, Dr. Han came back with a bunch of stuff for Mom to sign. "It
's the hospital's policy that you be taken to the exit in a wheelchair. Do you want to use yours?" she asked.

M
ary looked at Michelangelo. "I guess one last time wouldn't hurt." She lowered herself into the chair, and Steph pushed her out of the room, followed by everyone else. After a quick elevator ride, they arrived at the front of the hospital. There was a bunch of people there, along with balloons, flowers, and a couple kids in wheelchairs as well.

"They were released from the cancer ward today," Mom explained.

Mary smiled.

Steph pushed her
and Michelangelo to the sliding doors. "Here you go!"

Mary
stared at the doors for a moment without moving.

"Are you all right?" Phos asked.

She nodded. "I was just thinking." Yesterday, she thought she wasn't going to be able to walk out of the hospital. Now, she took hold of the chair's armrests and pushed herself up to stand. Then, she stepped through the sliding doors.

***

Mary stayed home from school for a few days, but she was getting stronger. Ba was so happy to see her walking that she cried. Sienna and the others also flipped when they heard she was home.

"It's a lot better hanging out in your living room than at the hospital," Sienna said
as she skimmed through the television stations with the remote. "But your TV kinda sucks."

Mary laughed. "Maybe I should've asked to exchange the wheelchair and bring the flat screen home instead."

"Hm," Sienna said as she flipped another channel. A black and white movie came on. "Oh! It's
Roman Holiday
! I love this movie. I wanna go to Rome some day. Can you imagine seeing all the art everywhere? And not just in the museums."

Mary smiled. On one of their
"cool" dates, Phos had translated them to the Eternal City. It really was an amazing place.

Sienna continued. "I think it'd be awesome to study abroad there. Hey! Maybe we sho
uld all do that next year and—Babe? What are you doing?"

David
was rolling around in Michelangelo, trying to balance on just the two large wheels. "What are you going to do with this? If you're not using it, can I have it?"

"
Mom and I are donating it," Mary chuckled. "There's this charity downtown that takes wheelchairs and gives them to people who can't afford them. I'm gonna miss it a little. I was starting to get attached."

"
So, don't break it," Sienna told him as she picked up her glass of lemonade. When she saw it was empty, she raised it in the air. "Waiter! More, please."

Phos was in the kitchen putting the clean dishes into the cabinet. When Mary got home, she was a little distressed to find that Mom had hardly cleaned the apartment
while she had been in the hospital. Dust covered everything, dirty clothes and dishes were piled up, and weird things were growing in the bathroom. Phos pitched right in to help, even scrubbing the toilet. The only thing that Mom didn't let him do was wash their unmentionables. Since then, Mom was totally cool about having him in the apartment.

He
smiled as he got the pitcher from the fridge and refilled her glass. "Here you go, my lady."

"I think you're abusing the help," Mary chuckled.

The door to Mom's bedroom opened, and she came out in a fresh set of scrubs. "I've got to pay the electric bill before I go to work, so I'm heading out now. You kids have fun, but don't stay too late. It's a school night. And David, honey, be careful in that chair."

Mom kissed Mary on the cheek before they exchanged their usual "love-you-buh-bye
s." Then she was gone.

Sienna pulled herself to her feet. "Well, we'd better head out, too. I told my mom I'd be home for dinner. You think you'll definitely be at school next week?"

Mary nodded. "That's the plan."

"Cool," Sienna said. "All right, see you all later."

After Sienna and David left, Phos asked her, "Are you hungry? What do you want for dinner?"

"Hmm," Mary said. "I want pizza. Are there any in the freezer?"

He
opened the door. "Sausage or pepperoni?"

"You pick,
" she said.

He took one of the boxes and opened it. "How do I prepare it?"

"There should be a pizza pan in the cupboard," she said. "The instructions for setting the oven are on the box. Just a heads up, our oven is ancient and it takes a while to heat up."

"That won't do then," he said. He found the pan and put the frozen pizza onto it. But rather than put it into the oven, he just held it in his hands.
Hot pizza smells started filling the air as the cheese on top began bubbling. After a couple minutes, Phos grinned and said, "Ding."

Mary
laughed. "That works, too."

He cut
the pizza up with a knife and brought it to the coffee table. Then he sat on the couch next to Mary and she snuggled up beside him. It was the first time in a while they were alone together.

They watched the movie as they ate. There was a part where
Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn were riding around the city on a Vespa.

"That was one thing we didn't do when we were in Rome," Mary said thoughtfully. "Ride a scooter."

"We didn't think to do it then," he said. After they had seen all the sites that Mary wanted, they spent the rest of their date making out at the Villa Borghese Park.

"Maybe we
can if we go back," she said.

"Maybe," he said.

Mary looked at him. "Are you okay? You seem preoccupied."

He didn
't answer immediately. Then he said, "I can't figure out how you are able to walk again."

She shook her head.
"I can't either."

"Did anything strange happen?" he asked. "Between the night before and the next morning?"

She thought for a moment. "Not that I can think of. Although I did have a really weird dream."

"
Dream?" he asked. "What was it about?"

She told him about her dream with the odd janitor, Josh.
"It felt so real. I don't think I've ever had a dream like that before."