Truthful, Beating Heart

Chapter Six

Slowly, I regained the ability to care for myself. My busted up legs prevented any walking but I liked to drive my wheelchair around, even though it made Mom and Tom nervous. Sometimes I would try to eat by myself only to get frustrated after an hour of failure. At that point one of the nurses or Mom would help me. I hated every second of being cared for. Eating the Jell-O had shown me that independence was a possibility, even though I was blind.

I had also learned to accept the fact that I was most likely going to stay blind. The doctors were still running tests to make sure my brain was okay but they had said the chances of me regaining my eyesight was nearly nonexistent. That thought, no matter how depressing, motivated me. I was going to be like this for the rest of my life. I might as well learn to function as normally as possible.

I was busy struggling with some blueberry yogurt when my best friend Bree came to visit. She had little sibling that were her responsibility during the week. I heard footsteps at my door and I brushed them off, thinking it was a doctor or nurse coming to check in. She screached,

"Never fear! Bree is here!" I paused for a moment before squealing with delight. I blindly rolled my chair toward her as fast as I could. I bumped into her thighs and she flopped down into my lap, throwing her arms around my neck. I squeezed her tight to me while we giggled in unison.

"Good to see you, B." I said, happy for the company of my best friend. She immediately became silent and I realized why. I had said, good to see you. I would never see her again. I cursed myself for ruining the moment so early. I was sure that everyone was going to treat me differently now. My suspicions were erased when Bree erupted into fits of laughter. Gasping for air, she said,

"Ah, man! I'm sorry but that's just funny." She sighed and continued, "I thought that maybe you forgot for a second!" Forgot that I was blind. I suddenly saw the humor of my comment. Relief washed over me because something like a blind person saying, 'good to see you' was exactly the type of thing we would have laughed about before the accident. I burst into laughter as well and that's how we sat. Bree in my lap in a wheelchair sitting in the doorway of my hospital room. Slowly our giggles subsided. She said,

"To the bed!" I spun us around, giggling. She asked, "Wait...how do you know where you are going.." I cried,

"I don't!" And I propelled us forward. Bree screeched but my aim was good and we rammed into the mattress. She bounced off my lap and I heard her flop onto my bed. Soon she was heaving me on the bed with her. When we were both sprawled across the mattress like our old slumbed parties she said,

"Do me a favor? Since you can't see anymore...don't go anywhere where there could be cliffs, okay?" I could tell she was smiling by the way she said it and we started to laugh again. I gave her a playful shove.

"I'm so glad you're here, Bree, you have no idea!" I told her.

"Oh, I can imagine life without me would be just dreadful!" She giggled and she layed her head on my shoulder. "I'm so glad to be here. You had us all real scared for a while. I think I was on the phone with you mom for about an hour straight after the accident." My eyes filled with tears knowing how much my friend cared for me. I heard her sniffle and I knew that she was feeling the same thing I was. After another sniffle, I heard plastic crinkle and she set a bag of something on my lap.

"Here," she said, "I brought us some sweets. I figured that sugar wouldn't be real easy to come by around here." She picked up the bag again and ripped it open a little too aggresively. Candy flew all over both of us and onto the floor. Cheerfully, she said,

"Oops." I laughed again, so amazingly happy that she was here.

Hours flew by us while we ate candy, talked, and laughed at everything. She did an amazing imitation of the squeaky voice of the annoying nurse. She insisted on feeding me pudding only she deliberately missed my mouth and hit my nose. All I could smell now was chocolate pudding.

I told Bree about Tony too. She, too, had been surprised that he had come back. She hadn't been friends with him but she still remembered him from elementary. We discussed his mention of me having to trust myself too. My trust issues were well known to both of us and she was basically the only one in my whole life who I trusted, totally and completely. She was also the only one who I openly discussed them with too. She thought that I overreacted, that he sounded nice enough and that I was right to give him a chance. She, being always on the lookout for a new boyfriend, wanted to meet him. We started on the topic of boys and that stirred up entirely new fits of giggling.

Eventually the doctor came in and told us that we were disturbing the whole floor. Bree, needing to make scene out of everything, dramatically got up groaning in fake misery. I tried to hold back my giggles but failed. Both Bree and I laughed loudly as I heard the doctor stomp off, huffing and puffing. Bree said,

"I should probably be going anyways." She started to give me a big good-bye hug when she gasped.

"What!?" Expecting something horrible to have happened, she surprised me by saying,

"I almost forgot to give this to you!" I let out a sigh of relief. She thrust something heavy and glass into my hand. I could tell it was a figure of some sort, carved out of clay but there were teardrop shaped objects attached to the sculpture, pointing outward. Bree had always been very gifted in art class and she could carve anything out of nearly any material.

"It's an angel isn't it?" I asked. Bree said,

"Yep. Since there's obviously someone looking after you up there I figured I'd make something to let you know that." I snorted.

"Someone looking after me? They obviously didn't want me checking out anymore guys, now did they?" It was meant to be a joke but Bree didn't take it that way. She said seriously,

"You are really lucky, you know. Your eyes may be gone but your hearts still beating isn't it? Beside, that is all you need to use to see things clearly. Tony was right, it will tell you the truth. He's wise and, if he's a hunk, he is totally datable!" I laughed at her quick change of mood. That was Bree for you. "Bye E. Love ya!" She bent down, gave me a quick squeeze, and bounced out the door, leaving me with my truthful, beating heart.

Note from Abby: Truthful, Beating Heart!!! Get it!? Unedited, once again. (: Drop a comment or vote! Thanks to you if you've stuck with me this long! Votes, comments and reads are what keep me writing(: