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My father eventually had to intervene to get my mother off my back so I could really fly. I loved the outdoors, loved the ranch, but never did find myself as connected to it as the rest of the family, after losing those years to the disability caused by my birth injury.
Instead… I focused on football.
My neuropathy was still not completely understood, and certainly not pristinely managed, so it was rough for a while. Mean ass kids with ugly things to say about my sometimes less-than-graceful movements didn’t make things better. I learned how to fight though, so there was a silver lining even in that.
Sports therapists helped my family better understand how to navigate my disability, how to manage symptoms with specific supplements, where to build strength in certain muscles to take pressure and stress off certain nerves, all that.
Football…
“Changed your life.” Rori nodded from beside me in the four-wheeler.
After breakfast, I’d finally gotten her away from Mama and Tam, and had been driving her around to show her the property as I fielded her questions about my childhood. Mama had told her part of the story… now she wanted mine.
“Yeah,” I agreed, stopping at the top of a hill for a moment to let her take in the view. From here, more than half the property was visible, albeit much of it at a distance. The residential zone, the oversized vegetable garden, the crops, the cattle fields, all the way to the river that marked the property line on that side.
It was beautiful.
“What’s that?” she asked, pointing at a large home set between the vegetable garden and a huge field of colorful flowers.
I grinned. “You know how BabyBee is your life’s work?” I asked, and she nodded. “Well… Wildflowers is my mother’s,” I explained. “It’s a pediatric therapy center, the kind of thing she wishes had been more readily available to me as a kid.”
“Really?!” Rori gushed. “That’s amazing! She didn’t say anything about it when we were talking though.”
I nodded. “She can’t talk about it without talking about me and my experience,” I chuckled. “Which, from your reaction to the NICU thing, she probably knew I hadn’t shared yet, so…”
“She was waiting for us to talk,” Rori mused. “Makes sense. Why am I just now finding out about all this, by the way?”
“The same reason I just found out about your sister today,” I countered, and she pressed her lips together, nodding.
“Fair enough. I wasn’t keeping it a secret though. It’s just… kinda heavy, you know? And we’ve been vibing, having a good time. This isn’t supposed to be about heavy stuff, so I wanted to keep it light.”
“Fa sho,” I agreed. “That doesn’t mean we can’t talk, get to know each other… get harassed by the other’s family,” I added, cringing. “Sorry about that, by the way. I should have given you a little more warning.”
“They were fine,” Rori said, waving me off. “Trust me, if you ever happen to run across my mama… that lady is gonna embarrass both of us. Bad.”
“Wait, how she gonna embarrass me?”
Rori laughed. “You’ll see. Just you wait,” she said, and then must’ve had something flash in her mind, ’cause she wrinkled her face. “I… sorry,” she said. “That’s so presumptive, and a little creepy. Why would you be meeting my mother? I?—”
“Nah,” I said, grabbing her hand to stop her spiral down the road of second-guesses. “I definitely gotta meet her now.”
FOURTEEN
AURORA
Early mornings were very quiet at Wildwood.
Not silent, just replete with a middle-of-nowhere sort of stillness that not even the finest of lo-fi music in nice noise-canceling headphones could replicate. My room had a little balcony, furnished with a seating area where I’d spent my first waking hours every day since we arrived. This was day four of letting the sun unthaw any morning grumpies while I sipped my coffee and people-watched.
Well… kinda.
Ranch hands pulling horses into a paddock near the house, somebody in the distance mowing, cows grazing a nearby field, a line of birds conducting spring travel.
Lots to see, not just people.
And still… it was quiet.
I hadn’t realized how much I needed it until I was immersed in it, letting someone else worry about work, not preparing my own meals, not wondering if the man I was sleeping with was sleeping with someone else.