Chapter 18 #2
“On the computer. The teacher gives me stuff to do, and when I finish, she gives me more. There’s no snack time and there’s no recess. Those are my favorites,” she added with a pout.
Lace understood then, that any friends Inez enjoyed, had been at school. Her foster home wasn’t providing any social stability for her, which was what it was supposed to do, and that sucked.
How lucky Lace had been to have her grandparents as a child, so she hadn’t become just another number in an overworked system.
“Okay. Small pinch coming up,” the technician standing behind Inez broke in and warned.
Her little face crumpled.
“It’s never a pinch,” she whimpered.
“Hey,” Vince used his best, cheery voice. “You want to know what I just learned?”
“From a teacher?” Inez asked, curiosity winning out for a moment. “You go to school, too?”
“Nope. It was a word I learned when I was doing a crossword puzzle. Do you know what those are?” he questioned.
She made a face. “Something for grown-ups?” she speculated.
“Well, mostly. They’re word puzzles. I bet you’ll start doing some easy ones once you get back into the classroom. First grade, right?”
“Uh, huh,” she said as Vince began weaving a coin back and forth across his knuckles.
Inez focused intently on what he was doing.
“That’s not magic,” she responded perceptively. “Nothing is disappearing.”
“You’re right. It’s not. It’s actually called sleight of hand, which can sometimes be the magic you’re thinking of, or just a trick like this that looks cool.”
Inez giggled, then flinched.
“Owww,” she yelped.
“Numbing agent going in, Inez,” the technician said in a soothing voice. “In a second, you won’t feel anything. I promise.”
“Inez. Look at me,” Vince cajoled.
The little girl blinked back tears and focused on him.
“Do you want to know about the word I mentioned?”
“Uh, huh.” She sniffed.
The tech guy gave Lace a thumbs up.
It looked like the worst was over.
Lace couldn’t believe that Inez had been left alone for this procedure before. It would be tough even for an adult to endure without a comforting hand to hold, and Lace immediately disliked whoever had been dropping the girl off like she was Door-Dash.
Vince, true to form, didn’t miss a bit of his focus. “The word is legerdemain,” he stated before repeating it. “Legerdemain.”
“Ledge-er-da-main,” Inez mimicked slowly.
“That’s it,” Vince grinned. “Can you guess what it means?”
Inez actually gave him a savvy look, settling into her treatment now that the worst was over. “Well, you did that…sleight-of-hand thing before, so it’s gotta be that. Right?” she guessed, somewhat smugly.
“You got it,” Vince exalted. “You’re too smart for me.” He chuckled, then went on to offer up an additional teaching moment.
“How about this? Do you know where France is?” he asked.
Inez puckered her face in concentration. “Somewhere that’s not here,” she said. “I think it’s…across the ocean? I learned…” she struggled to remember. “…compass stuff in school. Across the ocean is east,” she stated more confidently.
Lace thought that was pretty damned good for a six-year-old.
“That’s right,” Vince praised. “France is across the Atlantic Ocean to the east. I’ll show you on a map.”
He pulled out his phone and quickly pointed to the US, then dragged his finger across the ocean to pinpoint France.
“It’s over three thousand miles away,” he told her.
“That’s a lot of miles,” Inez replied with wonder in her voice.
“It is. And the word legerdemain comes from the language they speak there, which is French.”
Inez was paying close attention, as was Lace. This was all new to her.
Vince went on. “Sometimes we Americans take words from other languages and make them our own. Often, just the way they are, but occasionally by changing them a little.”
Inez was clearly no longer thinking about her spinal infusion.
Vince really knows how to weave his magic.
“Is this one a changed word?” Inez probed.
“It is. I looked it up,” Vince responded. “Leger, the first part of the word, means light or sleight in French. ‘De’ means of, and ‘main’ is hand.”
Lace could see the minute Inez put it all together.
“I get it,” she said excitedly. “Sleight. Of. Hand. That’s awesome. Are there more words like that?”
Vince chuckled. “A lot, I’m sure. But I don’t know any off the top of my head. I’ll do some research and find some others to tell you on Friday.”
“You promise you’ll be here on Friday?” she asked, brightening, but with some hesitation in her voice.
Lace knew what that was like; doubting things, when the world seemed to be against you.
“Yup,” Vince assured her. “Every Friday, and on the Tuesday’s when you get this treatment.”
For the first time today, Inez looked like an excited little girl, instead of a frightened patient.
“You, too, Lace?” Inez inquired. Although Vince had mentioned the change in schedule before, Inez must have missed it in her trepidation over what had been about to happen.
“Not exactly,” Lace informed her. “You won’t see me on Fridays anymore because I have to work, but I’ve switched my infusion days to Tuesdays so I can be with you.”
Inez looked at her as if she’d been speaking…French.
Her brows drew together in puzzlement. “Why?”
That was a no-brainer. “Because everybody deserves a friend when they’re going through something hard,” Lace clarified. “And since I’ve had to have my infusions alone, too, I thought it would be nice if we could keep each other company.”
“Fluffo isn’t with you when you get yours?” Inez asked curiously.
“Vin…Fluffo and I have only known each other for a short time, Inez. So, up until now, I’ve been alone.”
“But she won’t be anymore,” Vincent put in, definitively.
Lace sent him a warm look.
“And Inez?” he continued, with a seriousness Lace knew Inez wouldn’t miss.
“Yeah?” She wrinkled her cute, button nose.
Vince reached out a hand and tweaked that appendage; like a true clown, making it squeak.
“Neither will you.”