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He raised an eyebrow and without missing a beat replied, “Which I’m sure is cooler than my car, so maybe we should take your ride instead of mine, today.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, and his half-smile turned into a full grin. Nolan walked over to me and pushed my table to one side. Then he grabbed one of the chairs that was sitting next to me and dragged it across the porch, before he settled into it across from me.
He leaned back in the chair and crossed his hands behind his head.
“Can I ask what happened?”
“Legg–Calvé–Perthes Disease,” I replied simply.
“Say what?” he asked.
“Layman’s terms?” I asked. He nodded. “My blood flow sucked when I was 12, the ball on my femoral pretty much died and fell off. Then newer, bolder blood decided it would be a good idea to attack the necrotic bone so that it could get better. Of course, that plan backfired, and I lost a ton of bone mass, but I also gained new wheels because of it,” I explained with a shrug.
“I had to learn how to walk again, once. I could show you how some day,” he said with a smile.
“That’s kind of impossible. But I appreciate the thought.”
“Nothing’s impossible.”
I stared at him for a moment but didn’t say anything. He seemed so upbeat about it that I couldn’t bring myself to crush his spirits.
But it was impossible for me to walk. Ever since I was twelve years old and my blood decided to stop flowing to my bones, I haven’t been able to walk since.
Honestly, I didn’t mind sitting around all day. I didn’t want an electric wheelchair, so I would at least be able to get some kind of exercise in when I was out and about by rolling my wheels myself. My father once said that I could probably beat a 300 pound muscle-man in an arm wrestling match.
“If you could walk anywhere in the world, where would it be?” he asked, leaning to the left and placing a hand on his chin.
“The bathroom would be sufficient,” I replied dryly.
Nolan started to laugh, rather loudly. So loudly in fact, that my little brother and sister took their places behind me in the window again to see what was going on.
“You might as well come out here and say hello, you little monsters,” I called to them through the mesh screen.
I turned just in time to see them smile at each other and disappear from the window. The door burst open and my five year old brother and seven year old sister came barreling out of the front door.
When they saw Nolan smiling at them, they immediately became shy—as small children tend to do when someone new is around—and walked over to my side, each tucking themselves under an arm.
“Aren’t you going to say hi?” I asked them. They both looked up at Nolan from underneath my arms and waved shyly.
“Don’t let them fool you,” I said in a loud stage whisper. “These little monsters are quite the handful.”
“Nuh uh!” my little brother shouted.
“Yuh huh!” my little sister shouted back at him.
“Told ya!” I said to Nolan with a wink.
Realizing that I had just proved my point, they both looked at me for a moment, before bursting into a fit of giggles.
Nolan grinned and leaned back in his chair again. Stella was the first to move slowly in his direction to inspect him. She pushed her little brown curls away from her face and put a hand on his arm. His grin melted into a warm smile as his emerald eyes met her sapphire ones.
Stella’s already won him over. The power of children, I thought, shaking my head and smiling.
“My sister can’t walk. But I still love her,” she said to him.
For some reason, the innocence of her statement choked me up. Tears immediately blurred my vision, and I could feel that a lump had formed in my throat.
“I love her, too!” Liam insisted loudly, giving me a tight squeeze. I looked down at him and saw the pout on his face, thinking our sister’s statement would somehow make her love me more than he did.
