Chapter 13

Later that evening, as Alba walked to the pool, after arranging a time to meet Wesley, she stopped to look up at the sky. From the pool she heard Wesley call out to her. She pointed up and said, "A storm's coming."

"Good, hopefully some rain comes with it. We could use it."

"Yeah, you're right there. It's definitely been a little bit too dry."

"It's always dry," he noted, and then he yawned.

She looked at him. "Sounds as if you've had a full day."

"I think it's the emotions as much as anything," he admitted. "Who would've thought meeting a little girl would send my feelings off the wall?"

Alba chuckled. "Annabelle was quite a sweetheart, wasn't she?"

"Yeah," he agreed, with a sigh. "Just one of those sweethearts, with some pretty powerful messages."

"That's how angels come," she agreed, with a gentle smile.

He nodded. "I just hadn't really noticed before, but I got the message this time.… Come on in and enjoy the water. It's a beautiful evening, at least for the moment."

"If the storm breaks overhead, and it gets ugly, we'll have to get out."

"That's okay. All the more reason for you to get in here soon."

And, with that, she dropped her towel and stepped into the water and dove under. When she surfaced, he was floating alongside her. "You've become quite adept in here."

"Right. Now I want to see Annabelle in here and see what she does."

"You know something? I'm sure she'll move through the water like a dolphin," Alba guessed, "if not a porpoise, if not a fish. There'll always be somebody like her out there to show you the way."

"But you don't always get the message that easily," he noted, with a good-natured complaining tone.

"And you have to recognize the message when it comes," she added, laughing. "In this case you got the message."

"Wow, did I ever. If I thought you had set that up, I would be mad, but I know you didn't."

"No, I sure didn't. And I wouldn't have set it up," she stated. "However, if arranging to talk to somebody else who's missing an arm would have given you that paradigm shift in your viewpoint, I would have done it in a heartbeat."

He smiled. "And like so many others in this place, you're very good about doing what you need to do for others."

"It's why I'm here," she said. "Helping you to adapt, to adjust, to become the best you can be. How could I do anything less?"

"Not everybody's quite so selfless," he noted. "Not everybody is quite so willing to step out and to do more than is required."

"It's not more than is required, but it is nice that I can do something to help. Not everybody wants to help others. Not everybody is here to be with somebody," she noted. "However, it's nice when you get an opportunity to help somebody turn on that lightbulb."

He chuckled. "And there we go again because I'm part of that lightbulb comment, aren't I?"

"Let's just say you had a lightbulb that needed turning on," she said, with a smile. "And thankfully Annabelle came by today as an angel in disguise."

He nodded as he kicked gently, floating alongside her.

"Just look at yourself now," she said. "You're so relaxed in the water, so comfortable, and it's a far cry from the way you started."

"At the time, I was petrified I would sink and afraid I would never swim again."

"And it's all about just getting comfortable in the new reality," she murmured.

He nodded. "Like so many other things in life," he added.

"It's all about accepting the changes that are happening and adapting," she said, "being flexible, seeing what comes up, what happens, and going with it."

"After the emotional hit I got earlier today, I should sleep well tonight," he shared. "Just so many emotions were involved today. And releasing all those emotions wore me out."

"It can be harder than anything," she said. "Just knowing that all those emotions are flowing can make life pretty special. It can also be a catalyst to other changes, other things that you need to accept, other issues in your life that you hadn't been quite ready to look into."

He looked at her and rolled his eyes. "Not sure I have too much more I can deal with," he replied, "at least not tonight."

"Oh, don't worry about it," she said, her smile even brighter. "Just think about it. Once you open that door, so many things can happen. But not today, not tonight," she repeated. "You get a reprieve and a chance to assimilate this new you."

"Good. In that case I'm almost ready to call it quits."

Just then came a clap of thunder overhead.

She laughed. "Time for us to go anyway." She waited until he got out and got into his wheelchair and asked, "No leg tonight?"

"No, I didn't want to put all that stuff back on. So it was all about just getting down here and enjoying the water."

"Good, that sounds like progress too, knowing when not to wear the prosthetic."

He laughed, and, as he slowly wheeled away, he called out, "Have a good night."

"You too," she murmured, smiling as if she hadn't smiled in a very long time.

When progress happened, it was special, and, when progress happened to somebody you cared about, it was beyond special. And, with that, she headed back to her apartment on the property, a bright smile still on her face.

*

Wesley slept betterlast night, to put it mildly. When he got up the next morning, everything felt relaxed, almost settled, in his mind. Such an odd feeling, and he didn't even care to put his leg on because he knew that he would be doing a ton of exercises with Shane later. So Wesley hopped into his wheelchair, ready to roll down to breakfast. As he went to leave his room. he remembered the pouch that Alba had sewn for him, and he rolled back inside, secured the pouch in place, tucked in his cell phone, adding his notepad and a pen because he always wanted to jot down notes. He admired the fact that the pouch was as useful as it was and then rolled his way toward the dining room.

As he got in line, Dennis looked up at him. "Bright and early this morning."

"Yep," Wesley said, "and hungry."

"Good man." Dennis gave him a big smile. "Go grab a table."

"I wanted to get food first."

"You have to wait a moment," he said, "unless you're hungry right now."

"No, I could grab a coffee first. I didn't realize I was that early."

"It's not even so much that you're early, but we're just a few minutes behind getting everything out. So grab a table, and I'll bring you a plate over."

"Sure. Sounds good."

And, with that, Wesley headed out onto the deck in the early morning sun, pulled out his notepad and pen and jotted down all the thoughts that had been running through his head, and, boy, were there a lot. He wrote down as much as he could remember about the fateful encounter with Annabelle, not wanting to look back later and wish that he had written more down at the time.

When Dennis came by with coffee, he noted, "You forgot to grab coffee on your way."

He looked at it and shook his head, "Man, I must have been seriously not awake yet."

"Maybe." Dennis studied the pouch on his arm. "Wow, I really like that."

Wesley nodded and grinned. "Yeah, my dearly beloved doctor made that for me."

"That's really cool," Dennis said, "and very helpful."

"You're not kidding," Wesley noted, with a smile. "Alba has been surprising me over and over again."

"She's quite the woman. Go you." And, with that, he headed back to get breakfast.

Wesley realized how it meant everybody around them saw them as a twosome. And yet it wasn't anything he had broached with her yet. Neither had she asked what he would do when he left, although she had tentatively brought up the subject yesterday. He hadn't really been forthcoming because he was still working on his plan. He'd had a couple ideas come up but hadn't really thought about them too much, not yet at least. He was a little bit further off than he wanted to be from some of these plans, but, hey, it was one of the things that he just had to sit down and spend some time working on, and maybe go back to school for. He wasn't sure yet. As he sat here, staring off in the distance, Alba called out to him. He turned to look at her and waved her over. "Hey, good morning."

"Good morning," she said. "How are you doing this morning?"

"Good, more determined, more at peace—that's the word I'm looking for. I feel more at peace than I was before."

"That's excellent," she said, as she sat down beside him.

"I was also thinking," he began.

And then Dennis appeared out of the blue.

Wesley looked at the plateful of food that Dennis put down in front of him and said, "I am so going to miss your cooking when I'm not here."

"Are you leaving anytime soon?" he asked.

"Nope, I'll drag it out as long as I can."

Dennis burst out laughing. "Nope, just like everybody else, you'll be anxious to leave as soon as you can," he corrected, "and that's just the way of the world."

"I guess," Wesley agreed, "but I'll miss you guys."

"It depends how far away you go," Dennis stated. "They're starting to do inhouse day-training for people who are close by, who come back for refreshers on some of their exercises."

Wesley stared at him. "That is an excellent idea. I'm not even out of here, and I want to get signed up."

"Well, you know who to talk to, as those projects are one of Shane's babies."

"I will do that," he said, as Dennis left. He looked over at Alba. "No breakfast?"

"I'll get something," she said.

And there was that serene smile on her face again.