Uncle Zach
What? Why now? From memories of childhood, she pictured the gangly grad student who sought her out at her parents’ funeral and put his arm awkwardly around her. He was a skinny version of her dad, both with dark eyes and wavy hair. She’d often thought of her dad’s brother, too, his unexplained abandonment of her as an orphaned twelve-year-old. He’d left her with her mother’s sister one day and never called again. She refused to think about him, a reminder of another person who’d left her.
A text. From Mandy.You get in okay?
Not really, she started to type. No more Phoenix. He didn’t want to see her ever again. This sucked. Reality sunk in.He doesn’t want you.
Before finishing the text to her best friend, Orchid chose Phoenix’s name off her address list. There it was. In block letters, every detail from his business card. No social media links. Because he lived off the grid.
“No need for clients to see me with other clients,” he had explained about his lack of online presence. So, despite living in the same city, she felt as if he’d disappeared among its eight million residents. Caleb had warned her. It hadn’t even taken Phoenix three months to sway her with false charm and then leave with the flimsiest excuse, over a shorter call than she’d received from the dry cleaner.
She made up her mind.Never again.She swiped her phone and deleted his contact info.
CHAPTER 20
LOVE IS BLINDNESS
Veronica
Veronica Walker knew something was amiss. She’d witnessed Phoenix’s grief, his denial, anger and sadness. She’d also seen him pull out of it with resilience that astonished her, faster even than she was able to stop grieving for the son that had been.
She repeated the words she had heard come readily from the rehab staff. “Prostheses are amazing now. You’re lucky to have both knees and elbows. You’ll be able to try whatever you want.”
Maybe the encouragements helped. Or maybe it was the same stubborn determination that got him through grad school, pushed him in sports and led him to risk entrepreneurial pursuits despite everyone’s warnings.
Today his silence alarmed her. He refused every activity she suggested. Shopping? Restaurant? Stroll around the park? No, no, and no.
“It’s good news that you’ll be discharged and ready for outpatient rehab in just another week,” she said, trying again to make conversation.
“That’s good. You can go then, you know,” Phoenix said, striking his now familiar refrain.
“Son, there’s nowhere I’d rather be,” Veronica said firmly, kissing him on the cheek before he could turn away.
“I don’t need you.”
“I know. You don’t need anyone. It’s notneed. Iwantto be here.”
“Well, at least go sleep at my place. You don’t need to stay here on that cot anymore.” Nighttime had gotten easier. Phoenix was no longer waking too hot or too cold or frantic with bad dreams.
Leveraging the rare instance in which they agreed, she broached a new topic.
“So, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“I hurt, Mom,” he said simply.
Her gut clenched. She looked him all over, seeking signs of fluid buildup at the wound sites or some other discomfort. She suspected pain was a constant, dulled with narcotics, but not eliminated.
“More than usual?” she asked.
“No,” he admitted.
“Is there something else?” she asked, tugging the sheet straight in an attempt to do something, anything, for this independent son who wanted no help from her.
With fury she didn’t expect, he punched the mattress with his hand. “I’m missing half my limbs, Mom. Does there need to be something else?”
She stared at the desperation lining his face. The emotions she’d held in check nearly caved.
“What am I going to do when I’m not being coddled in rehab?” he demanded.
