The world is chaotic and cold. No love to give and no warmth to feel. It was easy to live in that kind of world when it was the environment you were raised in-it's just sad for the ones who were thrown into the mix without warning.
The only advice...
"You're doing so good, keep going — don't look down! Head up and eyes on the goal." Dr. Palmer coached Zuri as they were in the middle of a physical training session.
Three months and only a small amount of progress. To Zuri's peers, it was a lot because it meant she was even closer to walking out the hospital doors, but to Zuri, it wasn't enough to make her feel like she was closer to even seeing the doors.
She was just ready to get back to her regular life. It was harder than it seemed. Being limited to certain things. For 20 years, Zuri always had an opportunity to explore and expand above what she did and knew. Although she didn't like the idea of it, being forced to not have those opportunities in her grasp was killing her inside.
"Zuri—do. Not. Stop. You're quitting and you've barely started." Dr. Palmer tried to reason as Zuri stopped walking.
Zuri rolled her eyes and sat down on the mat. "That's just it! I barely started! I ain't made no huge progress and I'm tired. Ok. This is harder than it looks."
"You don't think I know that?" Dr. Palmer walked over to Zuri, kneeling infront of her. "I've worked with many people who've been in this same predicament."
"What? Fucked up and crippled?" Zuri joked, which actually made the physical therapist laugh. She was one for dark humor. Working with people who were mentally exhausted from being in physical pain, she had to find the humor in situations so she could laugh with them. Show her patients that it wasn't all sad.
She found laughing through serious situations were therapeutic.
"No." She chuckled then looked at Zuri with a smile. "Hopeless. You just need to have patience. I told you, things like this don't happen over night."
Zuri knew that. Of course she knew she wouldn't regain mobility over night. But she'd always been on her feet. There was never a waking moment where Zuri got the chance to not be moving around. Running around. Running is what she missed the most.
Zuri sighed. " I know , I definitely know that." And that's when Zuri's mind traced through a memory she'd held and had mentally cried over her entire life.
"You look just like you're mother." Jerome slurred as he lounged on the leather couch while his 12 year old daughter shaved his patchy beard. After being gone for about 2 months, he appeared on the doorstep, slumped and obviously drunk.
