Chapter 7
F or the next few days Nelly kept a close eye on Zander, something she seemed to have gotten into a habit of doing.
By the fourth day, when she walked in for the fourth time that morning alone, he sighed and muttered, “I’m fine, you know?” She frowned at him, but he nodded. “I get it. You care, and you’re worried, but I am fine.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, a little upset that she’d been quite so transparent, but he was right. So there was little to refute.
He grinned at her. “And, yes, it’s great that you care. Don’t worry. I’m not upset at all. It’s nice to know that everybody here is so concerned, but you all have to just lay off a little bit. I’m starting to feel as if I can’t even go to the bathroom without three others in the room.”
“And yet you’re sure that you’re okay?” she asked, looking for signs of the same fatigue that she had seen before.
“I’m fine,” he repeated, “feeling much better, much stronger. I just needed a day or two of rest.”
“Which is interesting,” she noted, “because you hadn’t done very much.”
“ Thanks , I didn’t need that reminder,” he quipped.
She winced at that. “Sorry. I promise that I’ll lay off.”
“Good, but while you’re here…”
“What do you need?” she asked.
“Actually I was hoping to go to the dining room and have an early lunch,” he said. “I’m really hungry.”
“If you’re hungry, we’re going.” She walked over to his wheelchair and brought it closer.
He added, “But I’m wheeling myself.”
She hesitated, but seeing the look on his face, she conceded, “Fine, be independent and all that.”
He burst out laughing. “That’s what I’m supposed to be, aren’t I?”
“Absolutely,” she agreed, with a big grin. “It’s just we try to help, but, at some point, the help becomes more of a hindrance.”
“I’m doing much better. I even had a minor workout with Shane this morning.”
“Good,” she said. “I hadn’t realized you were back to that.”
“Yep, just a little bit, just working myself back in again. I haven’t been vomiting, haven’t had any fever or any adverse reaction,” he shared. “So I’ll say everything’s doing just fine right now.”
She beamed. “I’m really glad to hear that.”
As they moved their way down toward the kitchen, he waved at a couple people and told Nelly, “You guys all have just so much heart that sometimes I wonder if you need to back off and not be so invested in everybody’s life.”
“It’s not being invested in everybody’s life,” she clarified. “It’s being enough invested to keep us caring and yet not so much invested that we can’t let you go.”
“Well, letting me go isn’t exactly what I want,” he replied, with a startled look.
She shrugged. “We have a lot of people who come for rehab here, and we have to let them go when we’ve done our best with them.
We don’t always get an update. We often don’t know what happens to anybody after they leave here.
It’s only the ones we have personal relationships with who care enough to tell us what they’re up to,” she explained.
“It’s like,… I guess it’s like being a mom and realizing that, once you’ve let your children go, you don’t have as much to do with them again. ”
As Zander wheeled himself to the dining room, she deliberately didn’t say anything about the sweat beading on his forehead.
He stopped at the open door and muttered, “Okay.”
She looked at him and asked, “ Okay , what?” She kept her tone light, as if she didn’t have a clue what was going on. When he glared at her, she shrugged. “You need to tell me what it is you want me to do. You’re being very independent, and that’s good. Yet…”
“Could you please help me the rest of the way?” he asked, followed by a deep sigh.
“Of course I can,” she replied, her smile bright, stepping behind him as he wiped the sweat off his brow. She pushed him forward and saw Dennis cleaning behind the counter. She asked, “Hey, Dennis, when’s lunch?”
He looked up, saw Zander, and smiled. “We’re still getting prepped. Some of it’s ready in the back though.” He looked over at Zander. “Do you need food now?”
Zander shrugged. “I can wait a little bit. I don’t want to be a bother.”
“It’s not a bother as long as you’ll take whatever I give you.”
“Ha, I haven’t had anything from you guys yet that wasn’t delightful.” He waved a hand at the kitchen. “So bring it on.”
Dennis looked over at her, raising an eyebrow.
“I’m fine for a bit,” she replied. “This guy is hungry though.”
“We’ll fix that real fast,” Dennis said, then disappeared into the back.
“What do you think I’ll get?” he asked her in a contemplative tone.
“Knowing Dennis, it could be anything from throwing a steak on a grill to pasta to a salad or something simple, like a bowl of cereal.”
“I could use a little more than that,” he noted hesitantly.
“I wouldn’t worry about getting cereal. They handle this stuff really well.”
“They do, don’t they?” He nodded. “I didn’t think anybody would be open and agreeable to doing the stuff I throw at them, not without complaining.”
“No point in complaining,” she noted, with a smile. “Everybody here has one goal in mind, and that’s to get everybody back on their feet and out to having a good life.”
“And it’s much appreciated.” Zander smiled. “Sometimes it does feel as if we’re a little bit lost here.”
“I’m sure it often feels that way,” she said, with a wry smile. “And not just for you, for all of us.”
“Right,” he muttered. “It’s such a weird stage of life.”
“Yes, it is, but that doesn’t make it a bad stage.” She pointed to the open dining room. “Where would you like to sit?”
He pointed to the table closest to the deck. “Just inside because I won’t handle the heat well today at all.”
“No, especially when you’re still not feeling quite up to snuff.”
“I thought I was, until I started rolling here.”
“And that’s fine,” she added. “It’s a good way to judge how your strength is.”
“You mean, my nonexistent strength,” he grumbled.
She worried at the slight bitterness in his tone. “You’ve come a long way,” she murmured. “Hold the faith.” She brought him up to the table, parked him there, and asked, “What about drinks? A coffee, water, what do you want?”
“Both would be great,” he said. “I can come help.”
“Nope, just stay where you are.” She gave a wave of her hand. “At least then Dennis knows which table to set up your plate on.”
As Zander sat here and waited, she returned with coffee, water, and cutlery for him. “What about you?” he asked. “I know it’s too early for you to eat because it’s not quite lunch yet, but—”
“I’m fine, and I’m happy to wait. Let’s get you fed first.”
When Dennis came back out, instead of a single plate he had a large platter.
She looked at him in surprise. “What have you got on there?”
He put it down in front of them. “A sharesy meal.”
“A sharesy meal?” She’d never heard him use that term before. “I can wait, you know?”
“Maybe, but maybe not.” He motioned at the platter now on the table.
She turned and saw the look of joy on Zander’s face. “What is it?” she asked curiously, as she sat down beside him.
“It’s loaded nachos,” Zander declared, with a huge smile. He looked up at Dennis. “Man, this looks awesome.”
“Think that’ll hold you for a bit?”
“Oh, yeah.” And he lifted up a corn chip with hot melted cheese, covered in hamburger and peppers and tomatoes. “This looks delicious. It’s a huge meal-full. Is this what’s for lunch?”
“Some variation on that,” Dennis replied. “I just made you a bigger version for the two of you now. Meanwhile, I have to get back into the kitchen.” With that, he was gone.
Nelly stared at the platter in front of them and shook her head. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like this on the menu here.”
“It’s great,” Zander mumbled, around his mouthful of food.
She chuckled. “If you say so.” And she picked up a little bite cautiously because it was so hot.
But it was also so good. By the time she slowed down eating more of this, she realized just how hungry she was.
And Zander wasn’t even slowing down yet.
She marveled at the kitchen’s ability to bring out food like this and keep everybody happy while they were doing it.
It really was something they should be proud of.
As Nelly looked up, Dani walked in, a frown on her face, heading immediately for the coffee.
She saw them, smiled, walked over, and asked, “Hey, how are you guys doing?” Then she took one look at the platter in front and added, “Wow, loaded nachos. I hope that’s for lunch for everyone.”
“Dennis said, Something like this ,” Nelly murmured. “This guy needed food, so we came down early.”
Dani nodded. “Good idea. If I had a few less things to organize in my life,” she shared, “I would have tried an early lunch this morning too.”
“How’s the organizing going?” Nelly asked.
“I think we’re just about there. Four more months maybe.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t seem to be anywhere near-enough time.”
At that, Zander nodded. “I think for any big event you always feel that way. Then, on the last day, it all comes together.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” Dani noted, with a smile, “because it doesn’t seem as if it’ll come together at all.”
“It will,” he stated, with a vote of confidence. “You’ve done an incredible job here at Hathaway House, and that’s come together in ways that most people could never even imagine. So, for you, a wedding’s simple.”
“Wouldn’t be so bad,” she admitted, “but I keep getting notice of more people who want to attend.”
“Have it outside where everybody can come and watch,” Zander suggested. “Make life easy on yourself.”
“And what if the weather doesn’t cooperate?”
“Then everybody comes inside,” he replied, with a smile, “or rent some tents. You could probably find one that goes over this massive deck here. That’ll handle a lot of people.”
She frowned at him, stared out at the deck, and raised one eyebrow. “Not a bad idea.”
He chuckled. “I aim to please.”
And, with that, Dani took her coffee and disappeared, muttering to herself again.