The Secret Language of Sisters by Luanne Rice

Author:Luanne Rice
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2015-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

I heard the razor buzzing, scraping my scull when they shaved my head. I felt wisps of hair falling past my ears, and my bare head felt cold. What would I look like without hair? Back in Connecticut they had cut it, shaved patches, but now it was all gone.

Christina gave me a preanesthetic tranquilizer. Waiting for the chip implant surgery, even under medication, I wanted to jump out of my skin. Tilly was right; it was experimental, and I was terrified. I wanted to reach up, touch my smooth scalp to see what it felt like, but I couldn’t move my arm. Being both bald and incapacitated made me want to shriek.

Drugs zoomed through my veins. They didn’t drive the grief and rage away but made me feel like I was floating on them.

Dr. Howarth came into the operating room, dressed in blue scrubs. He had a small blue cap covering his long hair and a mask over his warm smile—but I could see it in his blue eyes, the way they crinkled at the corners.

I fought the drugs. I didn’t want to go under. What if I didn’t wake up? Or what if I did and everything was worse? I wanted to claw the tubes out of my body, run from the operating room.

“It’s going to be okay, Roo,” he said. “I’ve got you.”

No, you don’t, I wanted to say. No one does. I’m alone and it’s horrible.

Somehow he knew. He crouched down so he was eye level with me. I had to fight to stay alert, to see what he was trying to say with his eyes. I saw them asking me to relax, to trust him.

“Beautiful girl,” he said.

I’m quadriplegic and I’m bald! I wanted to scream.

“So lovely and brilliant. I can’t wait to be able to talk to you. And this operation will allow it.”

I don’t want it! Stop! Make everything go back to the way it was, make me whole, make me real again. I shouted with all I had. But then something weird happened—the longer I stared into his eyes, the more I saw the smile, the patience. He was waiting for me to calm down. He knew I was wrecked inside, and he was giving me a chance to pull it together.

Will I die? I wanted to ask.

“You’re going to wake up in a few hours,” he said. “And I’ll be right here with you. I am going to do everything I can for you. Everything. Okay?”

I looked up.

“Usually, I have my patients count backward from one hundred,” he said. “But I’m going to ask you to count the f-stops on your camera, all right?”

I tried to look up in assent, but I was so drowsy.

“I’ll see you when you wake up,” he said. “And no more Dr. Howarth. I want you to call me Tim.”

Tim, I tried to say, forgetting my voice didn’t work, but the anesthesiologist had injected more and stronger drugs into my IV line, and I was out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.