The Patient One by Shelley Shepard Gray

Author:Shelley Shepard Gray
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books

NINETEEN

“We all thought it was broken. Marie’s ankle looked like a softball had embedded itself under her skin. And even though she tried to act like it wasn’t painful, we all knew it was.”

“Molly, you don’t have to do this,” her mother said softly from her doorway on the following Monday.

Molly had just fastened her dress and apron and was sitting on the side of her bed when her mother had opened the door. Though it wasn’t kind and there were far more important things to worry about, she couldn’t seem to stop the burst of impatience that ran through her. Once again, her mother had opened her door without knocking.

The habit drove her crazy. She was sixteen, not six. And though she’d once needed a lot of help, she didn’t anymore. However, no matter what Molly said, her mother ignored her wishes. She seemed to think that because Molly wasn’t as mobile as her brothers and sister, she didn’t need the same amount of privacy.

The opposite was true. Getting dressed took her a lot more time than it did for Amanda or her brothers. She didn’t like having to be worried about her mother wandering in while she was changing clothes.

But, of course, that didn’t matter right now. Evan would never have to worry about something so minor ever again. Today, during his funeral, the point would be driven home.

She swallowed the lump that had just formed in her throat and finally answered.

“I think I do, Mamm. I wasn’t exactly friends with Evan, but I knew him. All of his former classmates are going to the funeral.” Actually, most of Walnut Creek was going.

Though her mother’s composure seemed to slip a bit, she still shook her head. “You can mourn for him without going to the viewing and funeral.”

“Not properly. I want to do this.” She needed to. Not only for herself, but for Danny, too. Even if they never became anything other than good friends, she knew he was hurting. And if he was hurting, then so was she.

Crossing the room, her mother sat down next to her—even though Molly’s dress was still only half fastened. “Sometimes you have to think of yourself. You took Andy’s death hard.”

Andy. Molly looked down at her hands. The handsome, lively English boy’s death had been rough on her. Though she wasn’t sure anyone else knew it, he’d spent two hours by her side at the hospital a few weeks after her accident. On that day, she’d just been moved to the rehabilitation wing and had been feeling pretty sorry for herself. Half of her body was numb and the other half was in constant pain. Both had been difficult to bear.

She had also just begun to realize that her life was never going to be the way she’d imagined it. She couldn’t stop thinking about all the things she was never going to do and how she was always going to be different. She’d even gotten mad at God and told Him that she didn’t deserve to be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

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