Page 36 of The Sandy Page Bookshop

“Where’s Ella now?” Lucy asked Trish. Today she would make up for her absence. She’d spend as much time as her sister wanted.

“She’s just finishing up at PT. You can go down to the gym and say hi. Danny won’t mind.”

Danny was the physical therapist, and almost as upbeat as Trish but a little firmer, like an athletic coach.

The more time Ella spent at Spaulding the more Lucy began to feel like the staff there were becoming part of their family.

Lucy had to wonder at the kind of people who worked there; they saw perfectly healthy teens and children come in with traumatic injuries.

Devastated parents. Lives upended by a single senseless accident.

And yet every member of the staff there seemed happy.

Always smiling. Encouraging. Seizing upon the smallest sign of progress and feeding it back to their patients like nourishment.

Lucy wondered if the staff there realized they were helping the family members as much as they were the patients.

She found Ella and Danny on the first floor, in what they called the gym.

Lucy hovered in the doorway, watching. Danny had Ella standing between a set of parallel bars lowered to hip level.

Lucy watched her sister, arms braced, hands on the bars as she moved slowly along.

The look on her face was pure determination, all just to walk with balance.

“That’s it, nice and easy,” Danny said. “Let’s try to rely less on the bars. Can you straighten, just a little?”

Ella lifted one hand from the bar too quickly and her lower body swung hard out from under her.

Lucy found herself leaping forward arms outstretched, though she was too far away to make any difference.

Neither Danny nor Ella saw her: like a reflex, Danny tucked one arm around Ella’s waist to steady her, and then, to Lucy’s exasperation, let go again.

“Alright, let’s try once more.”

Lucy watched nervously as Danny positioned himself alongside Ella. Why didn’t he stand closer? What if she fell? What if she hit her head again?

Ella didn’t seem afraid, however. Her long dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail, her brow knit with focus.

Lucy knew that look. She stepped closer, not wanting to interrupt, but drawn in nonetheless.

As she did, she could hear Ella’s deep intakes of breath between steps.

See the tremor in her thigh muscles. A stray strand of hair stuck to the side of her forehead.

It was then Lucy realized Ella’s face was drenched in a sheen of sweat.

A chorus of silent cheering swelled in her throat. You can do this, Ella. Keep going.

Ella made it to the end of the parallel bars and slumped against them. But her expression was all smiles as Danny cheered her on.

“Atta girl! That’s the grit I want to see.”

“You did it!” Lucy cried. She hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but she realized she had when both heads swiveled in her direction. As soon as Ella saw her, her expression shifted. Her knees sank beneath her and Danny reached around her to draw her upright.

“I think we’ve done enough today,” Danny said. “Let’s get you back to your room so you can visit with your sister.” He helped Ella back to her wheelchair. “Hey there, Lucy. What do you think of our superstar?”

“Hey, Danny,” Lucy said, but her eyes were on Ella. “I think she’s amazing.” She reached for Ella’s hand, but Ella slid it out of reach. Her expression of triumph had given way to embarrassment.

“Now, Ella, don’t think you’re getting out of tomorrow’s session just because you nailed it today,” Danny said, wheeling Ella to the door. “I think you’re ready for some steps.”

Lucy followed them back upstairs. When the elevator doors opened to the second floor, a little girl with a bandaged head was waiting outside them with her mother. “Hello, Princess Madeline!” Danny greeted her, as he wheeled Ella by. “I’ll be down to see you in just a minute.”

As she passed them Lucy smiled at the little girl, but kept her eyes averted from the mother’s. She felt bad, but she already knew what she’d see; she’d spent all summer feeling it herself.

She waited as Danny helped Ella rise from her chair, and position herself by the bed.

“Sit first, then scoot,” he directed. Lucy tried not to stare as Ella strained to tuck her knees up and swing them over, her face puckered with effort.

“Use those stomach muscles,” Danny encouraged, but he did not step in.

It was agonizing to watch. Why couldn’t Danny just help her?

Clearly she was exhausted. But when she eventually settled herself against the pillows, Lucy could see the reason why all over Ella’s face.

“See? You’re going to put me out of work,” Danny joked.

Ella was so tired she could only offer a weak smile.

Lucy excused herself and went to the bathroom. Only a few days ago she’d hid in there with the note from Jep. And here she was with it, again. It wasn’t clear to her why she’d brought it with her until she saw Ella in the PT room. Now she knew what she had to do.

Jep’s note was frayed from being carried around and read so many times. She still did not know what he’d meant. It didn’t matter. Jep had written only two lines on the page of notebook paper, with several spaces between.

I love you, Ella.

P.S. Please don’t tell.

Ever so carefully Lucy tore the page in half, splitting the message. She refolded the two pieces and shoved the one she wanted in her front pocket.

Back in Ella’s room, Lucy pulled up a chair. “You were amazing today,” she said. “You’re getting stronger and stronger.” Again, Ella looked pained by the praise. She didn’t want Lucy to see her struggle.

There would be no reading of Anne of Green Gables today. Instead, Lucy pulled the note out of her pocket and set it on the blanket across Ella’s lap.

At first Ella stared at the folded paper. Lucy watched her pick it up, her fingers shaky still. But the light that registered in her eyes when she saw the handwriting was instant.

“You know who that’s from?” Lucy asked.

Ella couldn’t tear her eyes from the note, still folded. She nodded.

“Would you like me to read it to you?”

With trembling fingers Ella opened it. When it lay open, Lucy watched Ella’s eyes travel across the message once, then twice. Then up at her.

Ella made a noise in her throat, her lips moving. Lucy couldn’t understand what she was saying. She tried to guess. “Jep came to see me. He wanted you to have it.”

Ella made another noise, still unintelligible.

“I was afraid to give it to you,” Lucy went on. “I didn’t want it to upset you. Is it okay that I did?”

Ella nodded her head. Without warning, her face crumpled, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Shit.” Lucy grabbed her sister’s hand and the note dropped on the bed between them. “It did upset you.” She never should’ve let Jep get to her; she should’ve listened to her gut. Lucy began to well up, too. “I’m sorry,” she cried, laying her head on Ella’s lap.

Ella’s hand went to Lucy’s hair, stroking it.

It was what she’d done when they were little girls and Lucy would bring her hurt feelings to her big sister.

When Lucy looked up, Ella was shaking her head back and forth, a smile so full and so beautiful spreading across her face. “You’re not upset?” Lucy managed.

Ella shook her head again, bringing the note to her chest. She pressed it there, tight against her heart, and finally Lucy understood.

When Ella opened her arms, Lucy surrendered.

In one mercurial motion she slipped from her chair and onto the bed, spilling into Ella like water, all the punctures and hollows between them filling once more.

Heads pressed together, the sisters wept, Jep Parsons’s note collecting their tears like raindrops.