Okay. He was going to tell her he would come over. He glanced towards the desk's side where his cane rested. God, how he hated that cane. How he hated himself for giving in to that stupid thing.
He stared at it and then at the floor, on which this annoying object was standing. The fact that he needed it again would have been much easier to live with if he didn't give in to it as fast as he did. It had been less than a month before his bloody leg started playing tricks on him again.
During the week that followed that fateful day his leg felt quite funny, by the end of that week it ached again and three weeks later he found himself using the cane again.
When he got back from Afghanistan he had completely accepted the cane, but now that he knew it was nothing he couldn't even look at it. He knew it was all in his mind, but no matter how many times he tried to convince himself of that obvious fact, nothing changed. The limp only got worse and shown no signs of retreating.
That cane stood for everything he despised about himself and unwillingly he grabbed it and pressed it hard against the floor, laying all his body weight on it and pushing himself to a standing position. Slowly, he limped to the door, took a deep breath, forced the most convincing smile he could produce and left the office.
It took him less than a minute to locate Sarah with his eyes. She was speaking to a worried, short, young lady who was holding a little baby girl in her arms, pressed hard against her chest. They were standing next to the secretary's desk and it looked as if Sarah was comforting the woman. At the moment John closed the door behind him, both turned their heads towards the direction of the sound. When Sarah saw John was smiling at her she smiled back though her eyes seemed worried. "I'll meet you at the front door, John."
she said. Before turning he looked back to the brunette little lady who was trying to calm the little baby down.
Once the conversation was over she gave the woman a hug, a solacing look, wished her luck and led her to the front door where they both met John. Sarah opened the door and the woman rushed out. "Who was she?" John asked after she disappeared behind a tall building. "Allen," Sarah replied and open the door, "shall we?"
John exited the place and Sarah followed. They then got to the road and Sarah went to stop a cab while John was standing in a safe distance from the road. He hated that she needed to do all those things for him, it was embarrassing. A cab stopped next to her and she held the door opened so John will be able to slide in easily. He struggled to get in. Even though he was short it wasn't easy. Sarah was trying her best to help but he rejected every single one of her attempts. The cabbie was looking at him through the mirror and he could feel how his ears turned red. Finally, he was sitting at his side of the cab. No one said a thing and he wasn't going to be the one to start a conversation. He preferred the silence.
But his curiosity made him speak up at last. "Who is this Allen?" Sarah looked at him and sighed. "She is my neighbor's daughter. Her mother died when she was about seven years old. After that her father got all crazy and he's become an awful person. My mum saw what was happening there and even after the adaption request she applied was declined she kept trying to help those poor kids. She told them they could come and be at our place as much and they wanted so Allen's brother and she practically lived at our house." She looked outside her window before remaining her story. "When he reached the age of seventeen her brother disappeared. Allen never told us what happened but we could tell she knew. He was a genius, had a bright future. My mum said that he must have gone into the drugs business. I never thought so though, he was too smart for that." She stopped talking. It seemed she was in pain. John could understand her. "A year later she disappeared as well." Sarah kept gazing vacantly out of the window. "We didn't even bother to look for her. We assumed she went to her brother. But today, 8 years later, she came back. She rushed in about fifteen minutes before you left your office, she looked anxious, even scared. She replayed that she thinks her child was dying. She was right. I checked the infant but there was nothing I could do. I don't think she told me the whole truth though. I thought she was running away from something." she looked up at John. Her voice soft, desperate and quite. "But the point is, that after all my mum did for her, I am useless. Her only child was dying and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it." She finished the sentence and went back to staring out of the window. John felt that it was all she's going to tell him and frankly it was more then he has ever told her about him. The rest of the car journey passed in silence, neither of them spoke or made any sort of movement. Each stared out of his own window, looking troubled and focusing on finding a solution to his own problems. It's been a few minutes, but eventually the cab stopped.
It's been a while, I know and I'm sorry, I have been extremely busy. But thank you all for reading, favouriting and commenting. I hope you enjoy this chapter too and Ill try to publish the next chapter soon. I love you guys :)
