Chapter 5
Maddie:
Over the next few days, Dr. Kyle tries to make me comfortable to the best of his ability. He gives me my own private room, toys to play with, movies to watch, and little foam blocks to stack "to improve your brain function."
It doesn't really matter that the toys are Barbie dolls more fit for Kenzie to play with, the movies are princess tales that our baby cousin Natalya would love, and the blocks have been completely chewed up by who-knows-what. Dogs? Autistic toddlers? Babies with whooping cough?
I guess it's the thought that counts. But I don't feel like doing anything, and nothing makes me happy until, two days into my hospital stay, my nurse, Bertha, a plump woman in her early to middle sixties, opens the door and tells me some "nice little girls" are here to see me.
It turns out to be the whole Junior Elite team-led by my favorite teacher of all-Gianna. Chloe, my beloved Chloe, brings me two boxes of chocolate-caramel truffles, which she knows are my favorite. It's impossible to hold back tears as I hug every single one of them.
They have all made me a giant card that reads "we love you, Maddie! You're the best dancer on our team, please come back to us!" It's signed with all their names and adorned with ribbons and sequins. I get cookies, still warm, from Brooke and Paige and their mom, Kelly, a beautiful scarf from Kalani and her mom Kira, and lots of art for my room.
I'm tempted to tell them I won't be here long, they all act as if I'll be in the hospital forever and ever. Before they leave, I hug them all again and tell them I'll be back on the team before they know it. Which I will!
When mom and Kenzie visit, they talk about trivial, funny, everyday things and we chit-chat. I feel almost normal again. Both mom and my sister-who brings me a box of my movie posters from the room we share at home-tell me that I've made so much progress.
I'm still not allowed to leave my bed, however, and whenever I try to move my lower body there doesn't seem to be any response. And then they're gone, and it's just me and the empty room. But now I have cheery paintings, posters, and more sweets and treats than I could eat in a month. And I think, for the first time ever, how truly lucky I am to have such loving friends and such an amazing family.