A/N: Written for the Diversity Challenge, B77 – write a park scene.
The First Park Back
The last time she'd come here, she'd been able to run about and play just like the rest of them.
Now her brother was pushing her in a wheelchair, and everything was sadder. For one, it was only the two of them. No Hideki. For another, both she and her brother had changed.
Her changes were obvious, she thought. She couldn't walk. She couldn't run and play and climb trees like she wanted to. All she could do was be wheeled around: out in the sun or under shade. She couldn't join in a game of soccer starting up in some empty grass, or chase the birds like those two little kids running past.
Her brother could do all of those, but he didn't. Instead, he wheeled her under a tree and the two of them just stood there in the shade, watching everything.
Rei thought the sight seemed to upset her brother more than it did her.
'We don't have to stay if you don't want to,' she said, a little hesitantly.
'You wanted to come,' Neo returned roughly, and Rei let the subject drop.
Two sparrows squawked at each other, then took flight. Rei watched them burst out of the canopy of leaves and disappear into the blue sky.
It seemed almost like the wrong change of blue. Like the sky was about to cry.
Neo looked up as well. 'It's going to rain,' he said flatly.
'Rain is good,' Rei said. 'Maybe the plants will be a little happier.'
'You'll get a cold.'
She smiled a little. There was the Neo she knew and loved. 'Everybody will be under cover,' she pointed out. 'Except any little kid who remembered to bring a rain coat and wants to jump in puddles.'
'It'll take a while for puddles to form.' But Neo didn't wheel her away.
The rain took a while in coming. Before that the pair of them watched the soccer match break off in a squabble about the score.
Rei, though she'd been watching, had lost count.
'What do you think, brother?' she asked.
He didn't answer her. She turned back to the squabble. Eventually they broke up and went their separate ways.
'I sure hope they make up tomorrow.'
'Don't bother about them,' Neo snapped.
When Rei saw a brother and sister arguing near the fountain a little later, she kept her thoughts to herself. Until it did begin to rain, like they'd predicted. Big fat droplets that fell on the people in the open – like that brother and sister squabbling. They fell faster, becoming less distinct and more like a curtain of rain blurring the scene. The argument between the brother and sister immediately broke off. The people ran for the trees, for cover. Rei and Neo found themselves sharing with a couple of kids on the swing and an older woman who'd been watching them.
They chattered for a bit by themselves before noticing the pair.
'That's a cool chair,' one said.
'It's got wheels,' said another.
'Maybe it's called a wheelchair,' said a third, and upon a nod from the older woman, all three collapsed into laughter as if they'd said something extremely clever.
Neo gave them a sour look, fingers tightening around the handles to Rei's chair.
'I'm sorry about them,' the woman apologised, catching the look. 'It's just that they don't often see wheelchairs.'
'They're not a theme park attraction,' Neo said.
'No,' the woman replied, flustered. 'Of course not. Might I – may I ask why –'
'No.'
The woman collapsed into silence.
Rei took pity on her. People couldn't be blamed for curiosity after all. 'Brother,' she chided, before turning her head towards the woman. 'It was a car accident.'
'I – see.' She looked at the kids, who were occupied with their own things again. 'I'm sorry.'
'The rain's stopped,' Neo said, before Rei could formulate a reply. 'Time to go.'
She looked up. The sky was still a greyish blue, but there were no sheets of rain blurring the scene.
But the scene had been plenty blurred already, even before the rain. 'Let's go,' Rei sighed.
It hadn't been anything like the fun they'd used to have before.