Parker Lowell
“Taylor, if you don’t stop whining, I’ll make it so you actually need a wheelchair,” Mrs. Hanson joked. “It’s only until we get outside and then you’ll be free to frolic in the meadows as I’m sure you’ve been dying to do since you got here.”
“Actually I’ve been dying to take a decent shower since I got here,” he said. “But since this place doesn’t exactly lack in the department of meadows...”
We all stood up simltaneously as Mr. Hanson, Mrs. Hanson, and Taylor (who was, in fact, in a wheelchair) entered the room.
He looked up at me from under the bill of the cap he was wearing for a reason much debated over behind his back for years to come and smiled. But the smile didn’t last long. His expression changed dramatically when Lyle came up from behind me.
“Hey, Sport,” he said as if he and Taylor were old friends. He didn’t even call me “sport.” Not that I was jealous.
The smile instantly disappeared and Taylor looked away from where Lyle was standing, turning his full attention to the nurse behind the desk that his parents were talking to.
“How’re you feeling?” Gina asked him.
“If I get asked that one more time...,” he said threateningly.
“He’s fine,” Isaac said for him. “Back to his usual, sunny self.”
We laughed lightly at his joke, some more hesitantly than others.
“Oh yeah, grab your coat and get your hat,” Taylor said sarcastically. He shifted uncomfortably in the wheelchair, obviously impatient to get out of there.
“Leave your worries on the doorstep,” I sang softly.
“Just direct your feet,” Zac joined in.
“To the sunny side of the street,” we chorused.
“I don’t know the rest,” I said.
“Me either,” he said. We both chuckled.
“Okay, let’s blow this joint,” Mr. Hanson said, turning away from the desk.
“Onward, Jeeves,” he said, gesturing toward the door.
“Pardon?” Mrs. Hanson said, smiling.
“Taylor, you don’t really strike me as the type of person to watch ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ for some reason,” Gina said.
“Is that where that’s from?” Taylor said. “I heard it from someone else somewhere. I can’t remember where though.”
“Uh-oh. It seems he’s experiencing some symptoms of amnesia. It looks like we’re going to have to leave him here for another couple of days to run some tests on him,” I said.
“Will you get off of it?” he said, though he was smiling.
“Let’s just go,” Mr. Hanson said, sounding subtly annoyed by the stall.
We headed toward the door and into the parking garage.
“Well, here is where we must part,” I said dramatically.
“Huh?” Taylor said.
“Our car is that way,” Lyle spoke up, pointing in the general direction of “our” car. It was actually Gina’s but he drove it enough to be his.
“Oh,” Taylor said.
“See ya back at the ranch,” Gina said.
“Okay,” Mrs. Hanson agreed.
“Forward march,” Gina said, gesturing toward where Lyle had been pointing only moments before. We got in the car and drove away from the hospital. I prayed that it was the last time I would have to go there for a very long time.
Was it really that bad?
Index
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Three