Hello Beautiful: A Novel by Ann Napolitano

Author:Ann Napolitano [Napolitano, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2023-03-14T00:00:00+00:00

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One afternoon, Dr. Dembia stopped Sylvie in the hospital corridor. “I’m trying to piece something together, and you might be able to help. William said you’d been talking to him about basketball.”

Sylvie nodded, pleased that the doctor was asking for her assistance. “He likes to talk about it. He’s…happier when he’s talking about basketball.”

“Yes,” the doctor said. “Why do you think basketball is so important to him?”

“Well, he’s played it since he was a kid. He was on his college team.” Sylvie thought about this. “Have you asked Kent?”

“He said that basketball was William’s first language. That he dribbled a ball more than he spoke when he was a kid.”

“His first language,” Sylvie repeated. That made sense. She had stumbled into speaking William’s first language with him, perhaps the only language he spoke fluently. That was why his pilot light had turned on.

“I do think that’s part of it.” The doctor nodded at a patient walking by but kept her eyes on Sylvie.

“He told me once that his parents didn’t love him,” Sylvie said. “I think they barely spoke to him when he was young.” Hearing the sentence out loud shocked her a little. Rose and Charlie had never stopped speaking to their girls when they were children. Sylvie tried to imagine what it would have been like to grow up in a home with no affection or laughter and envisioned a cold, echoing space. She saw a little boy dribbling a basketball in order to make a comforting, repetitive sound. Sylvie had the sensation she often had when she was reading a good novel and the story came together suddenly inside her, accompanied by a new understanding.

She said, “Basketball was the first thing in William’s life that loved him back. The only thing that loved him, for a long time.”

“Yes,” Dr. Dembia said, her eyes bright. She was a scientist, and Sylvie had just handed her a useful part of an equation. “That’s it. Yes.”

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