Superman

Chapter 11

In the weeks that followed, I stayed true to my word. I held Pippa's hand at her mother's memorial service and was at her side for every physical therapy session. The wheelchair frustrated her and she spent a lot of time crying not only for the loss of her mother, but the loss of her legs. I even moved in with her. The house was paid for and everything went to Pippa so it became ours. Though we had to rearrange some things as she was no longer capable of being upstairs. I cooked, cleaned, whatever she needed.

She became unnaturally quiet in the days following her mother's death. She spent most of her days hunched over a notebook or laptop writing ninety to nothing. Despite the pain she was obviously in she refused to take any of the medicine she had been given and suffered horribly for it. The only time I could get her out of the house was to go to therapy or the doctor. Otherwise, she stayed inside.

I had to push her around everywhere and carry her to bed and to the bathroom and things like that. She had a nurse that came over a few times a week to help her with showering and stuff like that. No matter how many times we went through it, she didn't want to accept my help. She wanted to do it herself. But she couldn't. And that in itself was too much for her. She stopped singing. She didn't play piano anymore. Whenever I sang to her she would roll away. I couldn't even draw her anymore because the sparkle in her eye was gone; Pippa was gone.

B.J. and Hayley often came to visit. B was still an emotional wreck, but he was going to therapy and taking his meds. Pip would mostly just stare off in the distance while we talked and would leave unannounced and not return. Though she would talk with much enthusiasm when Axel and Jimmy came to visit. They always had a new car story to tell or wedding plans to discuss. Jimmy and Mckenzie came to Pippa over every detail of the wedding down to what color the candy flowers on the cake should be. It was the only thing that seemed to excite her.

Lamar and I tried to convince her to go to Drama Camp. We told her that the kids didn't care whether she could walk or not; they loved her. But she refused so we continued on without her. We brought some of the campers by the house to cheer her up but she refused to let them see her. They were devastated. The sent her flowers and cards by the dozens; she wouldn't even look at them. I kept them all, though, in case she wanted to see them in the future.

But all of that was nothing compared to the nights. Pippa would wake up multiple times a night(on the nights that she actually slept at all) screaming at the top of her lungs and I would have to hold her in my arms until she cried herself back to sleep. Because of this, I got little to no sleep and it was beginning to wear on me. My mother came by after a particularly difficult night. I greeted her with a smile but she immediately saw right through me.

"Felix, sweetheart, I know you care for Piper and it's so sweet of you to do this for her, but you have to think of yourself. You can't help her if you don't have your health."

"It's Pippa." I replied.

"Felix-"

"What am I supposed to do, mom? Just ignore her screams? Sleep through it? I promised her I would be there for her and I have no intention of breaking that promise. It's not a big deal."

But it was. The screams were the worst. They chilled me to my bones and made me want to curl up and hide. More often than not, I could sense when it was coming and woke up just before. After she was asleep I laid awake for hours thinking about the scream. Sometimes I cried myself to sleep because of it. Needless to say, my mom wasn't buying it.

"Felix Armstrong, do not lie to me." She exclaimed. "It is obvious that it is most certainly a big deal."

"It doesn't matter. I have to be there for her no matter what."