Understanding Teenagers

30: Physical Therapy

OK, I know we've been struggling with our new story lately," I commented. "But a friend gave me an idea last night and I think this can work."

Everyone in the room was silent waiting for me to spill the beans. I was honestly surprised Line didn't have any remarks, but there he was as quiet as a mouse.

"Dystopian Novels are usually set in the future. The government looks perfect, but of course, they aren't.  In reality, our government isn't too much different from a Dystopian Government. We can easily keep in all our characters and plans for the book..."

"Bunny can still become a stripper," interrupted Piper in excitement. "Hell, she can blame the government on her cancer. My wife is doing that right now with Obama. She's a little crazy."

Ava's POV

As school ended, I met Sara in the parking lot. To my surprise, she was in crutches when she really should've been in a wheelchair. With a cast covering both of her legs, I opened the passenger door for her and helped her in. Within a short moment, I found myself in the car driving out of the parking lot.

"How was your day back to school?" I asked.

She took a deep breath as if breathing was somehow hard for her. "It was fine. A little challenging. I've had better days, but I'm excited for physical therapy."

"I guess that's good. To be honest, shouldn't you be angry or something? Crap, I'd be scared." At this point, I wanted to turn the radio on and not have the conversation I seemed to be starting.

She took another deep breath and coughed a couple of times. "Why should I be angry? I had fun on the hike. You had fun. Sometimes these things happen." There was another pause until she spoke again. "But I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared. All day today I wondered if I would never be able to walk again. So yes, maybe I am a little scared."

For the next few minutes, an awkward silence took over the car ride. When was the right time to turn the radio on? I suppose it didn't matter. Sara found herself asleep and I was able to listen to the music. After about another ten minutes we had arrived as I woke her up. Before we knew it, we found ourselves in the waiting room for another long twenty minutes.

"Sara," called out an assistant. She led us to a rather large room with other people trying to walk. I expected the room to be small and had envisioned this place to be like a regular doctor's office.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Jenson," greeted the physical therapist with a warm smile. "You can just call me Mac. And you must be Sara." His eyes were directly on Sara.

"That's me."

"Well let's come on over to the bed and we can talk." Dr. Jenson looked over towards me. "You're more than welcome to stay here and pull up a chair. Or you can wait in the waiting room."

I don't know why, but I felt at comfort with Dr. Jenson. He seemed like a nice old man likely in his sixties. I chose to pull up a chair and sit next to them. Unfortunately, my mind drifted off which left me to not pay attention to what was going on. After about twenty minutes my head came back to reality. Sara found herself laying on the bed with her knees bent. Her eyes were closed.

"OK, take a deep breath," Jenson instructed. He picked up her left leg and put it down. "Alright, not bad. Does that hurt?"

"A little, but it's not too bad."

He continued to practice this exercise for the next few minutes. My mind went into daydream mode again. Sara seemed pretty confident that it was all going to be fine. I didn't understand how she could be confident. Did this guy know what he was even doing? What if she never did get better? A few tears started going down my eyes without me even realizing it.

"Are you OK mam?" asked Jenson as he tried to get me back to reality.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine." I took a couple deep breaths as my heart was racing.

"Well OK, I'm not sure if you heard this, but I'd like for Sara to be coming to physical therapy twice a week. She agreed to come on Mondays and Thursdays. Now, what is your relationship with her?"

"Oh, I'm just a friend."

He picked up a clipboard on the counter and wrote some things down. "How often are you going to be with her? I'd like someone there with her as often as possible to help practice her exercises. Would her parents be a better fit?"

Would they? Crap, that was a good question. I wasn't even sure about her parents. "I can be there as often as I can. Where is she anyway?"

"Oh, she had to use the bathroom." He put his clipboard down and put the pen in his pocket. "Are you sure you're going to be alright. You seem a little troubled."

"I don't know. I feel like if we hadn't gone on our camping trip together over the Christmas Break, she would've never injured herself."

"You can't be too hard on yourself. These things happen." Mac lifted up his sleeve and showed me what looked like a fake arm. "I served in the military for some years. While I never actually fought in any wars, I made the mistake of going out with my buddies one night to get some drinks. Little did I realize, there would be a bomb planted at the bar leaving me the only one injured. One buddy did end up dying. But the fact is, I didn't know this was going to happen. You just have to live your life sometimes."

He had an interesting point. Sadly, my mind drifted off again as I found myself driving with Sara in the car as she found herself sleeping again.

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Next Chapter: Liam and Giselle visit Giselle's Mom.

Should Ava be taking Sara to physical therapy?

Will Sara ever be able to walk again?

Should Ava blame herself?