Chapter 7:
The next morning Hailey woke up to the sun shining in through her window. She stretched her arms above her as she managed to sit up. She buzzed for the nurse, and once again she was helped into her chair. She rolled over to the window and looked out. She rolled out of the room and went to the lounge. She took the extra deck of cards and went to Noah's room. She didn't find him in his bed so she went further into the room and saw him sitting on the window sill. "Hey kiddo." She said coming up to him.
He turned his head to her. "Hi." He said very excitedly. "I wasn't sure if you were coming back."
"I said I would." She looked out the window where he was looking. She saw some kids, across the way, on a blacktop playing basketball. "Do you like basketball?"
"Yeah, I use to play it all the time." He said.
Noah was an inspiration to her. He was hit with an obstacle in life and yet he always kept his spirits up. "I brought some cards, if you want to play."
"I love playing cards. Do you remember how to play go fish?" He asked.
"Yeah." He went over to his bed and sat down. He dealt out some cards and put the rest between them. "You go first." She said.
The two played for a while until a nurse came in to get Hailey. "You have your first physical therapy today." She said.
"Ok." Hailey said. "I'll catch you later kiddo."
"Ok. Have fun." He said waving goodbye. Hailey turned behind the nurses back and made a disgusted face and Noah laughed.
Hailey followed the nurse to the physical therapy room. It looked a lot like the gymnastics camp she use to go to. The nurse left her with a man named Matt. They worked for forty minutes just stretching Hailey's muscles. He said that if the chance that I would walk again, she had to keep the muscles in shape.
Hailey was exhausted from the session, and so she went to her room and took a nap.
She woke up a few hours later and couldn't get back to sleep. It took her a few tries but she managed to get into her chair. It was late, so there were no people in the halls. Hailey wheeled to the top floor, an empty room with a piano in it. She pressed a few of the keys and they seemed to be right. She couldn't explain what was happening to her but it was like someone else had taken over her body.
She pushed herself in front of the piano and set her hands lightly on the keys. She began the slow opening of Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody number 2. The finger movements became more difficult and the tempo sped up. And then it slowed again. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the silhouette of a person in the doorway and jumped bringing her hands to her chest.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He said moving into the room.
She recognized the man from two days ago. "I didn't realize that anyone was up here." She said attempting to leave.
"Please wait." The older man said. He sat down in a chair next to the piano as Hailey faced him. "You learned how to play that when you were eleven." He said referring to the piece she was playing. "Most twenty year olds can't play that piece. You had to memorize it for a recital." He paused and looked from the piano to her. "I'm sorry, you probably don't remember any of this.
Hailey was staring at the floor, as Grissom got up to leave. "There was a green dress." Hailey said trying to think very hard about the memory.
Grissom turned around shocked. "I bought you the dress, it was your first time that you had to play from memory." Hoping that she would remember more.
A tear slid from Hailey's eye, she wanted so bad to remember, but she just couldn't. "I'm sorry." She said shaking her head.
"No, it's ok. You remembered something." He said keeping her spirits up.
Hailey looked at the man in front of her with tears in her eyes. "May I ask you something?"
"Anything." Taking the seat in front of her.
"Could you tell me who you are?"
"My name is Gil Grissom."
The name sounded like some one she heard of before. "Are you my father?"
He didn't know what to do. He didn't want to tell her what assholes her parents had been to her, she didn't need that right now. "I've been looking after you for the past four years, but I've known you all your life."
She didn't know what it was about this man but she felt like she could open her soul to him. "Dr. Julia said that if I work hard that my memory would come back, I just need things that would trigger it." She looked him in the eyes. "Would you have anything?"
"I'll try to get anything I can for you."
He noticed that she was looking tired and he helped her back to her room. He tucked her in and kissed her forehead. She liked him, he had this feeling that didn't scare her. "And a note book and a pen?" She asked as he walked to the door.
"Ok." He said closing the door, and Hailey drifted back to sleep.