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found out years later when he finally had gotten the nerve to ask his father
about it. His memories were sketchy of the time after the accident, but he
remembered clearly the time leading up to it.
 Yes, I do. But it didn t make it any easier to bear. Ace told us about
the lamp and the picture frames. It was like reliving that nightmare all over
again.
Eli told her his story as he was transported back in time to those painful
memories. He took long pauses here and there, and she rubbed his back
comfortingly with her good arm. Her warmth seeped into him and eased the
telling, buffering the pain of the memories as he shared them with her.
Her Gentle Giant, Part 1: No Regrets 231
Chapter Twenty-six
Eli wanted to go see his grandma and grandpa. His grandpa said they
were going to eat turkey and jellied cranberry sauce until they both popped
then they would take a nap. He wanted to see Aunt Becky and tell her about
his Legos and give her the picture of the helicopter with the monkey piloting
it that he d drawn especially for her. He wanted to play with her long, long
blonde hair and coil it until it looked like a long snake and loop it around
his arm.
He wanted to climb Grandma s tree in the backyard with his other boy
cousins and hang upside down from his favorite branch. He hated sitting in
his car seat for hours, but it was totally worth it when his grandpa would
grab him from the car and hoist him up over his shoulder and give him a
piggyback ride.
His grandpa was big and strong like his daddy and super tall like a big
mountain, and when he laughed, it made Eli feel like the air shook around
him. His grandmother would take him from Grandpa, and he d loop his
arms around her neck and wrap his legs around her waist as she held him
and hugged him hard, and then she would say what a big boy he was getting
to be and how he d be tall someday like his daddy and his grandpa. She
always made him feel special and important, and he hoped she was right
about getting tall because right now he just felt short.
Mom had buckled him in his car seat after he d gone to the potty and
gave him his favorite big animal picture book and a cookie sheet with
bunches of magnetic figures stuck all over it. That was his special toy she
saved for long car trips. His daddy loaded the luggage in the car while she
buckled his baby sister into the car seat next to him and tucked a fuzzy
blanket around her and adjusted the neck on her fuzzy sleeper.
He looked over at his baby sister, and she grinned sleepily at him and
blew a bubble with her spit. He loved when she did that because it was so
232 Heather Rainier
gross and awesome. He loved gross stuff. His mother playfully called him
the King of Gross and said she always wondered what she d find in his
pockets on laundry day. She d gotten on him the day before about the
earthworms, but he thought it had been totally cool when she showed him
the bits and pieces they d become in the load of laundry she d just done. She
didn t think it was so funny, but he thought she hid a smile behind her hand
when he told her he loved gross stuff. She d shaken her head and sent him
outside.
After sis was loaded and he had all the magnets off and piled in his lap,
his dad started the car and they were on their way to Grandma and
Grandpa s. He made a picture with the magnets and handed it to his mom
so she could look at it. He settled down to look at his big animal book, and
she said she would make a picture for him with the magnets.
He woke up hurting badly, and people had been talking and shouting all
around him. It was too much, and he fell asleep. He woke up again and hurt
even worse. It was dark, and he couldn t see at all. He began to cry and
scream because he couldn t see right, and someone picked up his hand and
held it. A baby was crying loudly, and he thought it sounded like his sister.
He thought that his mom would never let her cry like that and reached out to
pat her, but she wasn t next to him anymore.
He fell asleep and woke up, feeling woozy, in a hospital bed. An old lady
he d never seen before sat next to him, holding his hand, and she looked up
from her book when he moved. He realized he was all bandaged and it was
nighttime. He could see now, but one of his eyes was all covered up. When
he moved, his chest and sides ached bad. The old lady got his dad, who
thanked her nicely, using her name like he d known her forever. He leaned
over and kissed him on the cheek, and he saw the terrible hurt and pain in
his daddy s eyes. It frightened him to see that. He looked like he hadn t slept
in days and days, and tears spilled from his eyes as though he hadn t seen
Eli in as long.
Daddy said they had a crash and Mom and Sissie were hurt real bad,
and so was he. Daddy said he was going to pray and would he like to come
along? He went with his dad and that was how he found out that hospitals
had little churches inside them. Once he knew it was there, though, he liked
coming alone better. When the nurses discovered him missing from his
Her Gentle Giant, Part 1: No Regrets 233
room, they always came there first. He only saw Dad a few times, but each
time he looked worse and worse.
He went every time he could to pray for Mom, Dad, and Sissie. He
promised God that if he could see them, he would be so sweet to Sissie and
kiss her and hug Mom s neck and kiss her, too. He even promised to not be [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]