We'd battled a lot with Carlos. He wasn't the same. The bouncing around happy-go-lucky Carlos that we knew before the accident was not present. Instead, we got this subdued sitting around watching the world go by Carlos. He was afraid, I knew, of causing any more damage. He wore his helmet almost 24 hours a day only taking it off when he went to bed, but even then, I knew, he would sneak it on after his mom tucked him in.
"Guess what?" Kendall appeared inside Carlos's house an hour after James and I had arrived after school. We were sitting at the kitchen table where I was trying to tutor Carlos on what we had learned in school that week. He so desperately did not want to fall behind and have to repeat the fifth grade without us. It was tough since I also had to get him up to date on the month he missed while being in the hospital. Kendall and James tried to help, but the bulk of the job fell on me. I didn't mind. Much.
"Cursive! Cursive! She wants us to write it in cursive!" I shouted.
"Sorry!" Carlos furiously scrubbed his paper with the eraser of his pencil creating a hole.
"Just get a fresh sheet," I said exasperated.
"I said," Kendall raised his voice, "guess what?"
I looked up noticing he held his left arm behind his back.
"You're holding two corndogs behind your back," Carlos guessed.
Kendall shook his head.
"You know we're not going to guess so just tell us!" James whined.
Kendall raised his left arm showing off its pale whiteness.
"I got my cast off!" He jumped into the empty chair next to James. "Now, we can play hockey again."
"Yea!" Carlos shouted.
I nodded my head at Carlos hoping Kendall understood what I meant.
"What? Oh! Right, but I don't feel like playing hockey at the moment."
"What?" James asked surprised.
"Why?" Carlos whined. "You love hockey." He looked down at the table dropping his pencil. "It's because of me. I'm ruining everything."
Well, that just broke my heart.
"No, Carlos," Kendall tried to assure him. "I just don't feel like it right now. I don't want to break my arm again anytime soon."
That seemed to satisfy Carlos who went back to writing in cursive.
"Cursive is stupid," he announced.
"You remember how to do it, don't you?" I asked.
"Yes," he mumbled.
Carlos's handwriting had improved since the block lettering of his name on Kendall's cast. It was beginning to take the shape of what it used to look like, that of a ten year old boy. But, the cursive part? That left a lot to be desired.
"I gotta doctor's appointment tomorrow," Carlos said absent-mindedly after writing the last answer. "Gonna check on my brain." He looked up at Kendall, James, and me. "I still don't remember the accident. Was it bad?"
"Well, it landed you in the hospital," I replied. "But, let's forget about that."
"Already forgotten." Carlos smiled. "Do I have to do the rest of my homework? My head hurts."
"How bad? Do you need some medicine? Do you think you need to go to the hospital?" I asked.
"Just bad enough that I think I need a break."
I rolled my eyes and then let Carlos have his break.
After school the next day we raced to Carlos's house like we had been doing for the past week or so he'd been home.
"What'd he say?" Kendall asked the moment we stepped into the Garcia house. We didn't knock. We've been to each other's houses so much that we don't bother with that.
"Who?" Tina asked. She was the only person in the living room.
"The doctor," I said.
"Where's Carlos?" Kendall asked at the same time.
"In his room," she replied not taking her eyes off the TV.
We ran to his room and stopped short when we saw him lying down in the bottom bunk. Was it bad news he received?
"Are you okay?" Kendall asked.
Carlos blinked his eyes at us and yawned.
"Yeah," he said.
"What did the doctor say?" I asked.
"Why are you lying down?" James asked at the same time.
Carlos looked at us blankly, I'm sure he was unsure of who to answer first so I slightly pointed to James.
"I'm tired so Mom told me to rest here. I'm sick of resting! I want to do something aside from going to the doctor and worrying about my head. I want to play hockey."
"Carlos—" Kendall started.
"I know, I know. I can't because my head isn't healed yet. Well, guess what? I DON'T CARE! I HATE THIS!" angry tears ran down his cheeks.
"Carlos, Carlos," Kendall tried to calm him down
"It's going to be okay, buddy," James helped.
"Tell us what the doctor said," I said.
"He said I'm doing good. But, if I was doing good I wouldn't be stuck here 'resting' all the time and not able to do anything. At least you guys get to go to school."
We laughed. Carlos must really be in dire straits if he was jealous of us going to school!
"It's not funny. Mom watches me like a hawk. I can't do anything without her appearing out of nowhere making sure I'm okay. I'm not broken."
"You kind of are," Kendall pointed out. I nudged his arm. He didn't need to add to Carlos's pain.
"Yeah, I know. That's why I don't do anything. I don't want to get hurt again. This sucks."
"Would you like to come to my house?" Kendall asked. "It's not much different than yours, but it's a change of scenery and a change of people. I'm sure Katie'd like to see you. Mom's not working this afternoon."
Carlos's mom did give him permission to go to Kendall's house as long as he kept quiet and calm. We decided we'd go to the Knight house and watch a movie or something. Video games were out as that got Carlos too riled up. Heck, it got all of us too riled up.
"Hey, Mrs. Magecowski," we greeted Kendall's elderly neighbor who was out sweeping her front porch. She waved to us before going back to her sweeping.
"Hey, Baby Sis," Kendall greeted Katie when we entered his house which was no more than a block down the street.
"Hey, Katie," James, Carlos, and I said.
"Will you help me?" She asked shoving her right tennis shoe clad foot in front of us. "My homework for the week is to learn how to tie my shoes."
Carlos double tapped his helmet and bent down.
"I just went through this myself," he said. "I'll do this shoe and you copy me on that one." He tapped Katie's left foot.
Carlos demonstrated tying his shoes using a childhood method his therapist had recently taught him.
"I can't do it!" Katie cried when her laces ended up in knots.
"You have to be patient. It only comes with practice. Keep practicing and you'll get it."
"Can you help get the knots out?" She handed her left shoe to Carlos who diligently worked on the laces.
The two of them sat there for thirty minutes working on Katie's shoes. Kendall and James left the room, but I stayed to watch, intrigued by Carlos being the teacher.
"I can't do it!" Katie whined again.
"Keep practicing and you'll get it."
"Thanks, Carlos!" She continued putting her laces in knots while Carlos and I went in search of James and Kendall.
We found them in Kendall's bedroom.
"We were wondering when you'd get done teaching Katie how to tie her shoes," James said.
"Hey, Carlos," Mrs. Knight greeted him from down the hall. "How are you feeling?"
"Better, Mrs. Knight."
"Would you boys like to stay for dinner?" Did she have to ask?
"Yes," we chorused.
"It's good to see you all." She smiled getting a little dig at us for spending so much time at the Garcias. "I'm sure Carlos's mom is glad to have you out of her hair."
"Hey, we've been well behaved," Kendall retorted.
"Well, we try to be," I added.
"I'm glad to be out of her hair," Carlos said.
"I bet you are. I heard you had a doctor's appointment today," Mrs. Knight sat down on Kendall's bed between Kendall and Carlos who had sat down originally between Kendall and James. James scooted over and was now sitting behind them.
Carlos nodded.
"You are healing. You just have to take things day by day," Mrs. Knight comforted.
Before Carlos could respond Katie burst into the room.
"I did it! I did it!" She shouted shoving her left foot in Carlos's face. "I did it! He looked down at the messily tied shoelaces.
"Go Katie!" He fist bumped her.
"Thanks, Carlos." She wrapped her arms tightly around him.
I've always heard you can't pass kindergarten without learning to tie your shoes, but somehow I did (I didn't learn how to tie my shoes until the 3rd grade).
