Chapter 2
N elly wanted to laugh at his reaction to the nutritional supplement drink in his hand.
She’d seen many similar expressions on other patients.
There seemed to be a universal look of quickly veiled horror when the patients first saw it, but they quickly came to understand its many benefits, especially since it tasted good.
In this case, Zander seemed to need this green drink and his three meals a day more than most.
“To a certain extent, yep, your diet is about balance,” she murmured. “Ease off the garbage carbs and focus on the good carbs.”
He hazarded a guess. “I think you mean that potatoes and yams are okay, but maybe slow down on the pastries and sugar and those things.”
“Including juice,” she noted. “If you’ll fill your system with anything, confirm it’s fully packed with nutrition.”
He nodded slowly. “Okay. I’m not exactly sure what all that might entail, but I’m willing to try.”
She asked, “Did they go over your nutrition, your food choices, and your particular diet back at the other center?”
He stared at her. “What diet?” he quipped. “I ate what everybody else did.”
She nodded. “You will eat like everybody else here too,” she clarified, “but with a caveat that what is good for you is not necessarily the same for everybody else. So you will not follow a special diet, but we will give you the leeway to choose within that diet the foods that you need.”
“So I’m not getting a special diet,” he replied cautiously.
“No, not at all,” she agreed, “but you certainly don’t get to have cinnamon buns for breakfast every day. You’ll get sausage and eggs, granola, oatmeal, or something along that line.”
“Okay, that’s fine.” He nodded. “Do I get any sweets?”
“You can have a little bit as an afterthought,” she shared.
“Food first, as dense and heavily nutritious food as possible.” She glanced down at her phone.
“It is coming up close to dinnertime. I’ll be off work here in a few minutes.
How about I come back, and I’ll take you down for dinner?
I’m going that way anyway as it’s my dinnertime too.
And I’ll introduce you to Dennis, who’ll be looking out for you and will sort out your first meal. ”
Zander hesitated. “Sounds good, but will it be complicated?”
“No, not at all,” she stated, “I don’t see any reason to make this complicated. We just want to confirm that you eat lots of good food.”
“Well, I’m hungry. I’m almost always starving.”
She nodded. “And that often is a sign that you haven’t been getting the exact nutrients that you need for the healing and the muscle-building that you have to do here,” she pointed out. “So, in your case, it’s even more important that we get you chock-full of as many vegetables as possible.”
“And let’s not forget the protein,” he added. “I’m always craving protein.”
“And again we’re talking about balance. So, get yourself settled, take a look at your iPad.
” She brought up the screen on his and showed him where all his team was listed.
“Here’s your menu for the week. Here’s your schedule—which, at the moment, should be pretty open with just testing and resting,” she said.
“It’ll give you a chance to take a look at what you’ve got coming up.
And I’ll be back in, say, twenty minutes. ” And, with that, she turned and left.
*
For the first time in a very long time, Zander found himself alone.
And that’s when he realized his bag had already arrived, too.
He climbed out of bed and sat in his wheelchair.
He rolled his way over to the closet, quickly opened it to see a lot of empty space.
He unpacked, moving slowly as he sipped away at his drink, wondering at a place that put nutrition ahead of everything else.
It’s not as if the other place didn’t care.
It’s just they didn’t have the budget, time, or energy to care much.
There were individuals who cared back there too, but there certainly weren’t a whole lot of extras in the way of attention.
And Zander didn’t want to be anybody who needed more attention because there were always those people at the various centers.
Ones who were sick, ones who thought they were sick or needed more attention, or were currying favor to get something, including drugs.
That was another huge problem in every center.
But Zander was here, and Hathaway House seemed to be a completely different story.
Man, he wanted to have all the benefits.
He was completely geared to getting better.
By the time he had unpacked his bag and had tested out his new bed in a horizontal position, a knock came on his door.
Nelly poked her head around the corner and smiled at him. “Hey. Is the bed comfy?” she teased.
“Maybe,” he muttered, as he slowly slid to the ground.
She motioned at the wheelchair. “I don’t know whether Dani mentioned it or not, but today and tomorrow you must use your wheelchair for sure, until you’re tested.
” When he glared at the wheelchair, she shrugged.
“We want to save your energy for what’s important,” she murmured.
“And what’s important is not appearances. ”
He nodded. “I’ll agree with that.” He got into the wheelchair and slowly wheeled toward her.
“So now either I can take you down or you can do it yourself.”
“I’ll do it myself,” he replied a little defensively.
Yet he was more focused on this very cute redhead with a long braid down her back—and he’d already checked out that she wore no rings.
After all, Xavier had found a partner in this crazy place, which was already incredibly amazing.
But Zander had to admit that a part of him was hoping somebody would be out there who would take a look at his weak and frail body and not care, instead seeing the warm-hearted soul inside.
As they slowly made their way down the hallway, he muttered, “I don’t mean to hold you back.”
“Hold me back?” she repeated, frowning at him. “You’re not doing that. No point in getting there early, as the people move through the line pretty fast anyway.”
“And you get dinner here?”
“Yep, sure do,” she confirmed. “I just moved into a residence on-site at one of the housing buildings.” He stared at her in surprise.
She smiled. “Dani has rehabbed and put in singles’ accommodations, and we have a few married couples’ accommodations too, so that the staff doesn’t have to do as much traveling back and forth. ”
“Wow,” he murmured.
She pointed out things as they headed to the dining room. “I don’t know if you can see over there,” she began, stopping at a hallway intersection, pointing to some huge windows. “Horse pastures are there. Up here,” she added, “we have a big pool table.”
He laughed. “I used to play pool. Matter of fact I used to be a heck of a pool shark. But that was a long time ago, when I could put my body into the positions I needed. Right now I would probably fall over.”
She smiled and patted his shoulder. “You can always tell Shane about that, and we can work hard on getting you back to normal.”
“Not even sure what normal is anymore.”
“Good, then find a new normal.” He frowned at her, but she shrugged and continued.
“We get guys coming in here, missing all kinds of body parts,” she explained.
“They all have the same adjustment period to their new normal. And the sooner you can find a way to live and to adjust to whatever normal is in your life, then you have done well for you and for your family.”
“I have a kid sister in university,” he shared. “My parents are in England, but I haven’t really had too much to do with them. They flew over when I had my accident, saw I would live, and took off again.”
“Ouch,” she muttered, “doesn’t seem they care too much.”
“I think having children was something they were expected to do, so they did, but they’re scientists and would much rather live in their lab.”
She nodded. “Got it,” she said, with a smile. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
“No, they are dedicated to what they do. I’m dedicated to what I’m doing. My sister is trying to follow in their footsteps, I think.… She’s taking science classes, but maybe she’s heading into medicine.”
“We need more doctors, so good for her in whatever field she ends up in,” Nelly shared, with a smile.
They came around a corner, and he saw huge double doors, wide open. And heard a lot of noise. “I gather from the noise that’s the kitchen and the dining room.”
“Yep,” she replied, lifting her nose.
He lifted his and moaned. “Oh, I don’t know what that is, but now I’m really hungry.”
“I did notice you finished your green drink,” she pointed out.
“I did, and it was really good.”
“Soon as we see what’s up for dinner, we’ll sort out what you should have.”
“But I get a choice though, right?” he asked, feeling a sense of anxiousness inside him. Something about his love of food and knowing from Xavier just how good the food here was, Zander was afraid he would miss out on some of it.
“Absolutely you choose,” she stated. “It’s not a case of You only get to have what you want on Sunday ,” she explained. “It’s just a matter of making sure we make the best choices, especially here at the start.”
As she walked up to the front of the buffet, and they slowly moved through the line, Zander saw people on crutches, people on arm supports, people in wheelchairs, people on prosthetics.
Right away he knew he would feel right at home here, and soon.
Yet he also noted a lot of able-bodied individuals as the staff and the patients mingled.
That was a surprise to him. At the last center it had been all about the residents getting food, and the staff were on the other side of the counter.
When Zander and Nelly reached the beginning of the buffet table, he saw a huge man on the other side, flashing a big smile.