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“Abby, we’re too old to have kids now. You and Ty are sixteen. She’s forty-three.”
I rolled my eyes at my father and scowled through the pain that expression caused me. “Why does she want a baby?”
“She says her life is empty.”
I touched my father’s cheek. “Daddy, you are never home.” He cleared his throat as if he wanted to protest then he stopped. “You come home between ten and ten-thirty every night. Otherwise, we see you for Tyson’s games and holidays.”
“Sundays too,” Dad declared defending himself.
“Daddy, if you were home more often do you think she would want a baby?”
He looked terrified. “I’m not sure.”
“You have that wonderful assistant manager at the plant. Let go of some of the responsibility.”
I knew that was part of my father’s struggle. He was a control freak. “I think she’s serious Abby. I don’t want to change diapers again. Lose sleep.”
“Do you want to lose Mom?” I asked.
My dad looked like he might cry. He dropped his head to cover the emotion that had crossed his face. “No, Abs. I don’t.”
“Then take care of her. Be there for her. I want to come home to both my parents.”
He touched my face this time. He stayed for an hour talking with me. It was getting close to visiting hours being over. “I’m going to find your mom so she can see you before visiting hours are over.”
“Dad,” I said. “Don’t let this go.”
He smiled at me. “I love you Abigail.”
I loved him too. Cal came back when Dad had been gone for a while. He stayed with me until visiting hours were over. Mom came back with ten minutes to spare.
She leaned over the bed and kissed me on the forehead. “I love you, kiddo.”
“I love you too. Tell me you’re going out to dinner with Dad.”
She smiled. “I assume you prompted him to ask?”
“I didn’t,” I promised her.
She nodded as if she didn’t believe me. Mom’s hair was pulled up in a high ponytail. She had on little make-up. Her heavy, cream colored sweater was bulky on her thing frame. Her tight jeans fit her like a second skin. She didn’t look forty-three. She didn’t act it either.
She smiled then she left me and Cal to say goodnight while she went out with my Dad. A lot had been happening while I slept.
Chapter 20
The hardest part of my recovery wasn’t that I lost my hair that was shaved off for surgery. It looked so bad I had the nurse shave the rest of it so it would grow back evenly. It was hair, it would grow. No, the hardest part of my recovery was the weakness in my leg and hand. My brain told them both to work but it was like a small piece in there was still broken.
I went to therapy every day while I was in the hospital. When I came home at the end of February, I was going to therapy a couple of times a week, in the morning before school. My dad took me. It was his way of cutting back and Crew Cut Chris took over for him.
I thought the hardest thing to do would be to return to school but with Tyson and Cal by my side it wasn’t so bad. Sure, people stared at me as Cal wheeled me down the hallway. I had missed two months of school. A wheelchair was the only option for me right now until my leg became stronger.
He lifted me in and out of the chair like I weighed nothing. Dad had come back home, so he and Tyson helped me there. Worst of all, my hair was no more than peach fuzz. My scar was just beginning to heal. Mom offered me a wig. I refused. I had become a different person in the two and a half months I was laid up in the hospital. I was stronger.
I was still not a badass who could fight but I wasn’t afraid of what people thought of me. I wasn’t so shy anymore. Being separated from my security, maybe? My family? I don’t know what it was but gone was the nerdy girl. In her place was a more confident Abby Gardener.
In first period, English I laid a journal I had been writing on Miss Hillard’s desk. It told my story. The Nobody. Nerdy girl just didn’t cover the gamut of my story.
“Thanks Abby. I’ll read it over the week and give you a grade by Friday,” she said.
