The American Dream 2: THE URBAN NOVEL

Chapter TWENTY ONE: Good, Great...Worse?

KENNETH

After leaving Nyla alone, I went back downstais where Landon was with Mackenzie. 

"Where's Ranae at?" I asked him.

"Mackenzie didn't feel comfortable with her here so I told her she had to go." He answered.

"That didn't bother you?" I asked him.

"Nah, Mackenzie's my neice, if she ain't with it, I ain't with it, right?" He said,  asking her.

"Right!" She smiled and jumped on my lap. 

"Daddy is mommy broken?" She asked. 

"Well...yes, but just for now. The doctors here and they're gunna fix her." I said. 

"When?" She asked a lot of damn questions.

"I don't know, MK, you'll just have to wait and see." I told her honestly. The next couple of weeks, Landon spent a lot of time with Mackenzie, while I did my best to support Nyla. Mackenzie began to become distant towards her because she never wanted to play, it wasn't like she didn't want to, she couldn't but Mackenzie was too young to understand. Sometimes, when Nyla would call her, Mackenzie would pretend she didn't hear her until I drag her into the room. Nyla had gotten to the point where she could stand, but not walk and definetly not run.

She would cry every night, and there was really nothing I could say or do to comfort her. We laid in bed that night and she began crying again. 

"What's wrong, baby?" I asked her, already knowng the answer.

"I'm just so frustrated. I can't stop thinking what if...what if I didn't even meet Tyrone..what if I just went with you instead, we wouldn't even be here. I wouldn't be here, stuck." She cried.

"You're not stuck. You get better everyday. You've got me, I'm not going anywhere, we're going to get through this together. Just worry on getting better. You can't be negative." I sighed. 

NYLA

I still couldn't stand for more than 3 minutes and definetly not without support. It was the third week into my therapy and I was exhausted and frustrated. I had been using all my upper body strength to do everything. 

"C'mon Nyla, push through." Alyssa encoraged as I dragged my feet on the floor. They still weren't strong enough for me to lift them. But I had regained half of the feeling. 

"I can't do it." I said as I took a seat. I frowned and began to cry. Kenneth came out and kneeled in front of me. 

"I can't do this, Kenneth." I cried.

"Yes, you can, baby. I'm right here with you, we're going to get through it together." He cooed, kissing my cheek. 

He stayed with me, helping me through all of my sessions. It got to the point where I was able to go to the gym and work lightly on strengthening my legs. Getting them to bend and go through the motions. The feeling was slowly coming back to me. I couldn't run, but I could do the leg press with no weights on it. I was getting better like they both had promised, I still had my breakdowns every once in a while, but they came less often. It was my third month and the moment of truth. I've never been brave enough to just get up and try to walk on my own. I was scared that I would fall or something.  

"Are you ready?" Alyssa asked me. 

Kenneth sat on a chair with Mackenzie on his lap as we were all by the pool. 

"I think so." I said in a shaky tone, I was really scared and nervous. 

I stood up and immediately grabbed my support walker. It's something I had become so accustomed to.