From Now On I Grow Toward Spring Chapter 04
I laughed, and a tear slid down my cheek at the same time.
He hadn’t asked about the flower.
I picked up the pen and signed my name.
“Okay.”
He paused, as if he’d heard something odd in my voice. “Where are you? It sounds like there’s an announcement in the background.”
I hung up and lay down on the operating table.
By the time I woke up, the procedure was over.
My lower belly ached with a dull, hollow pain.
I walked slowly out of the surgical wing, alone.
The blood on my leg had dried.
My other wounds would heal, too. Eventually.
As I passed the emergency department, two nurses were chatting quietly by the reception desk.
“That young couple is so sweet. The parents have been here the whole time, too.”
“I know, right? The cut wasn’t even an inch long. If they’d come any later it would’ve healed on its own, but the whole family insisted on admitting her.”
I looked up instinctively.
Inside the room, my parents were crowded around Sofia’s bed while Matteo fed her grapes.
I stopped in my tracks, my hands and feet turning to ice.
My mother saw me as she was closing the door and frowned.
“Why did it take you so long to get here? You’re not even answering the group chat. Didn’t you know your sister got hurt?”
My father spoke next. “Good, you’re here. Sofia wants clam chowder from that place on the west side. Go get her a bowl.”