And then the sweetest, most precious thing I’d ever heard drifted to my heart and shocked everyone.
“Sissy, up, pease.”
A symphony of shocked gasps played throughout the room.
She talked.
My heart pounded in my chest and happiness filled me to the brim like a hot, soothing cup of cocoa on a cold winter's night.
When I froze, Lyric jumped into action. Rounding the wheelchair, he picked Autumn up. “We have to be careful of Sissy,” he said, repeating how she referred to me. It was what Jett called me when he spoke to Autumn and she’d caught on.
Lyric carefully set her down in my lap facing sideways. I looked down at my sister who was staring up at me with a pondering look. Then she gently reached out and touched my face close to where the skin was broken and bruised. And then pointed to the bandage on my neck.
“Owie.”
As she tried to get up on her knees in my lap, Lyric helped balance her. Holding onto my shoulders she leaned over and kissed my cheek. I hugged her to me and breathed in the smell of her strawberry shampoo as I let her sweet touch wash over me.
I had no clue if Autumn had learned such empathy from watching her foster parents and the kids there or if maybe, just maybe, our mother even after making some insanely awful choices, had still shown her some compassion too.
God, I hoped she did.
“I love you, sweet girl,” I whispered to her.
She didn’t say anything else but that was okay.Baby steps.I was good with her going at her own pace. Lyric helped settle her back in my lap and then Jett was there hugging me—something that didn’t happen often—along with everyone else, which had me hanging onto the waterworks that had formed in my eyes.
But when I glanced at my grandfather standing to the side, tears sliding down his weathered face, I lost them. Wet tears of my own streamed down my cheeks. I held out my hand and he came to me, finally giving me the hug I really needed.
“You scared me,” he said, quietly. It wasn’t like him to admit stuff like that so I knew he was shaken.
“I’m alright, Gramps.”
“Stay that way, Angel.”
Then he released me and stepped back.
“How about we get you home, sweetheart,” Lyric said. “You want to ride out on Sissy’s lap,” he asked Autumn.
She just shook her head up and down.
“Okay, that’s my cue. We are off.” Lyric got settled behind me again and started to push.
Everyone followed, and when I glanced back I giggled.
The once full waiting room was quiet and bare. They sure made an impressive bunch and quite an impact wherever they went.
They all made an impact on me that was for sure.
“Wee,” Autumn said.
I closed my eyes and cherished the fact that I was there to hear her beautiful voice.
* * *
Being pampered wasn’t sobad.
It was late when we had gotten home and Lyric took charge making sure I was settled along with everyone else. He treated me like fragile glass and hovered over me from the moment he walked into the hospital room to the time he’d finally laid me down in bed.
He’d set me down in the bathroom, helped me get undressed, and into a relaxing bubble bath where he washed my back and then told me not to move until he got back from checking on everyone once more.
