Holly's Story by Lurlene McDaniel

Author:Lurlene McDaniel [McDaniel, Lurlene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-43312-1
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2014-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

Holly’s first date with Chad was a trick-or-treat party on the hospital’s pediatric floor. She suggested it when he asked her out because she figured it would create the least amount of attitude from her parents. In actuality, they’d hardly asked any questions when she told them, which surprised her, since it was the first real date she’d ever had. The pediatric floor had been decorated for more than a week in the black and orange of Halloween, and when Chad and Holly arrived at the recreation room at four, someone had set up tables and chairs and activity centers. The cafeteria had prepared a large sheet cake, and some clever person had set up drinks in IV bags and hung the bags on the familiar stainless steel poles. Holly laughed when she saw it, realizing that she, Raina and Kathleen might have thought up something like that in better days.

Chad seemed to know all the nurses, and they welcomed him with smiles and small talk. Holly watched him laugh and joke with them before commenting about it to him. He said, “I’ve been coming here on and off for treatment since I was three.”

“That long?”

“Some years were better than others,” he said with a self-conscious smile. “Last year I got a flu that I couldn’t shake. It sent me here four times in six months.”

“That’s awful.”

“Not so awful,” he said. “It helped me meet you, didn’t it?”

The way he looked at her when he said it sent a fluttering sensation to her stomach. “Hard way to meet girls,” she mumbled, embarrassed by the fluttering. She shouldn’t be feeling such things, not after what had happened to her brother, to her family.

The children who were mobile came to the rec room. Four teens from the Pink Angels group showed up to help, and soon the room was rocking with squeals and laughter. Holly and Chad took bags of candy to the kids who couldn’t make the trip down the hall. When they returned, the supervisory nurse announced, “We’ve arranged for wheelchairs to be brought up and for a few of you volunteers to take the older kids around to the nurses’ stations on other floors.” She passed out orange plastic pumpkin-shaped buckets and a list of the areas that were expecting the trick-or-treaters. “You’ll end up in the cafeteria for another party. Just remember, everybody has to be back in their rooms by eight. Go have fun.”

Much later, after all the patients had been tucked into their rooms, Chad walked Holly to her car in the mammoth parking garage. “Where are you parked?” she asked, unlocking the car door.

“Next level up.” Before she could open the door, Chad caught her arm. “Wait. I—I want to ask you something.”

She turned to face him and saw that his expression was anxious. She knew what he wanted before he even asked.

“Holly, I know that tonight was a trial run, but I want a serious date with you. A real one, where we go to the movies, maybe grab a burger.

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