Warner has a Zen rock garden that he combs with a special rake. The rake has widely spaced teeth. He makes dinner and does most of the grocery shopping. His painting studio is above a drugstore on their town’s main street. It used to be a lawyer’s office. A hospital bought one of his pieces. A hotel bought another.
Elizabeth is a financial analyst and works in the city. She cooks very well, specializing in desserts. She and Warner ride bikes together most Saturdays. She has a personal trainer who comes two mornings a week at six a.m. Elizabeth wants to feel useful, so she takes Louise to her hairdresser, who gently massages Louise’s head, even the scarred part, in one of those special sinks full of warm water. They decide to cut her hair to a blunt, chin-length bob. It is soft and golden, and with all the layered ends cut off it looks like a child’s haircut. Elizabeth takes Louise to get pedicures, manicures. She rents movies she thinks Louise might like, buys her bright pajamas, cozy slippers, and special ice cream that comes in small cartons.
Elizabeth likes doing these things for Louise. She has never had any children of her own, and she loves Louise and her brothers. Besides, Warner needs help. He worries.
“Should she go to therapy?” he’s always asking. “A support group or something? What else? A meditation cushion?” He sits on the bed and rubs his face. He looks like he has aged ten years in the months since the surgeries: his hair now gray, a slouch evident.
“Sometimes I walk by a chair and she is just sitting there with her eyes closed,” he says.
“Tomorrow I’ll take her to my masseuse,” Elizabeth says. “We’ll go to the farmers’ market. Get lunch. Also, there’s a sidewalk sale.”
She removes her eye makeup with a cotton ball.
•
Warner is relieved to know that an occupational therapist will help Louise. His daughter will learn to complete daily tasks with her right hand, such as:
—Brushing her hair and teeth
—Buttoning her shirt, tying her shoes
—Chopping vegetables
—Washing herself
She will have a team of occupational and physical therapists and a hearing-and-speech therapist. After the surgeries, she lost some of the hearing in her left ear. And because of the facial paralysis, some words are difficult for her to say, especially words that begin with “th” and “p”—“thistle” and “peanut.” Warner notices it is hard for her to take a bite out of a sandwich because her facial muscles don’t work on the right side. When she chews, she has to move the food from her cheek with her finger.
Warner remembers taking Louise to get donuts Saturday mornings when she was little, after Michael was born. He and Janet were still married. He wanted to make sure Louise still felt special, even with two baby brothers. Louise had been small for her age, six, and talked nonstop. She always chose the cake donuts with sprinkles, and Warner liked the bear claws. Once he taught her how to dip the donut in his coffee and eat it. She had spit it out and said, Daddy!
Tomorrow he will tell her about the article he read called “Recovery Foods.” Beets are one.
•
The wheelchair is put away, folded up in a closet. Warner wants to get rid of it, but he is afraid.
•
The young woman who meets Warner and Louise in the waiting room is named Amber. She is a high school friend of Louise’s, and Louise is surprised and embarrassed to see her here. Warner sees a flash of panic on her face and thinks, Oh no. But the two girls hug and use high-pitched voices that end on the upswing, like a question. He vaguely remembers this Amber. She was allowed to sleep over at boys’ houses on weekends. Now she wears blue scrubs and is very tan. Warner listens to the girls talk about their old boyfriends, all dorks, apparently. When Amber finally takes Louise’s arm and leads her back to the therapy area, Warner is relieved. He starts to sit back down, but a nurse tells him he is allowed to watch.
•
Amber gives Louise tests. She has Louise put wooden pegs into a board, circle words in a word search, make a paperclip chain. Louise bounces a rubber ball. They talk the entire time. Warner is mesmerized. Amber says she never left the area and is still friends with their high school crew. She is engaged and will move to Indiana after she is married. Louise tells Amber about Claude. Warner concentrates on not offering his point of view. He wants Louise to enjoy her time doing something different than being at home with him and Elizabeth. Some of the things Louise does at the rehab clinic:
—Stretching on a giant rubber ball
—Tug-of-war with a therapist
—Table tennis
—Playing the game Connect Four
—Playing cards
—Building towers of blocks
Louise seems bright and happy after therapy. She says it wasn’t so bad. But the following week, Louise fakes a sore ankle and says she can’t go. At Warner’s, she sits and scoots to get up or down the stairs. She knows she can get away with it.