It was hard seeing Louise break down the way she did. Louise had always been so resilient, so stoic. She almost never cried, and it was even more rare for her to cry in front of people, even family. Doctor James had said it was to be expected of somebody in her condition, and that she would even go through the five stages of grief. Bob recalled from the grief counseling he had received after his mom died. That the five stages were not as linear as they were described. They could occur in any order, it was not uncommon to fluctuate IE be in one stage but rapidly flip or backslide to another, and then go back again. For some they processed in days but for others it could take years, and acceptance wasn't as simple or permanent as it seemed. They knew they were in for a long road, but that it would be even longer for Louise. They had been encouraged to let Louise feel everything and not to push the sunshine and rainbows "lots of people use wheelchairs" narrative. It was true and she would greatly benefit from meeting other paraplegics, but for right now she needed to be free to grieve.
Teddy wondered if he was overstepping any sort of boundary by going to the hospital. It was hard for him. Even though he had Kathleen now, the Belchers were still the closest thing to a family he really had. He really wanted to be there for them, but he didn't know. His therapist and Kathleen had both had numerous talks with him about inserting himself into their lives, but that was just simple stuff. This was serious. Louise was paralyzed. He really wanted to be there. No, he needed to be there. After completing his last job. He packed up his truck and headed for the hospital.
"May I help you?" The receptionist asked.
"I am looking for Louise Belcher." Teddy replied.
"Can you give me your name and relation?" The receptionist asked.
"Teddy and I am her uncle. Well not her uncle but a family friend." Teddy replied.
"Just a moment." The receptionist replied, picking up a phone.
"Yes, Mr. Belcher I have a Teddy down here asking to see Louise. He says he is a family friend. Is it OK to send him up?" The receptionist asked. "OK very well. I will send him right up." She finished.
"OK you are good to go but Louise is very tired right now and visiting hours end at seven o'clock sharp." The receptionist informed.
"I understand, thank you." Teddy replied.
The hours ticked by with Louise mostly drifting in and out of sleep. The accident and her meltdown over learning her diagnosis had taken a lot out of her. The rest of the family kept themselves entertained. While trying to stay close in case Louise woke up and needed them. Tina and Gene watched TV in the hospital room. When Louise was awake, she was allowed to pick but when she was asleep. They would watch romantic movies and shows she found disgusting. Bob and Linda would occasionally leave to meet with a new doctor or specialist. Bob was actually relieved when Teddy called. Though he worried about how Louise would handle a visitor.
"Hey Bobby, Hey Lin" Teddy greeted.
"Hey Teddy" Linda muttered.
"Hi Teddy" Bob replied.
"Oh Tina! Gene! I didn't see you guys! Hello!" Teddy cried.
"Hi Teddy" Tina yawned.
"Teddy's here now it's a party." Gene announced.
"Ha-ha thanks Gene." Teddy replied.
"We really are glad to see you, Teddy." Linda added.
"Thank you and uh I went ahead and got some pamphlets on accessible features. I can install them for just the cost of parts." Teddy offered handing Bob and Linda a small stack of pamphlets.
"Thank you, Teddy." Bob replied.
"How is she?" Teddy asked.
"She's taking it hard, and her body has been through a lot today. She is sleeping a lot and likely will for the next few days." Bob explained.
"Is there really nothing they can do?" Teddy questioned.
"Well, they are making advancements with treating or at least managing paralysis but as of now there is nothing, they can do to reverse her injury." Bob explained.
"So, she's just paralyzed forever?" Teddy gasped.
"Pretty much" Linda replied.
Visiting hours ended at eight and brought another challenge. Only one parent was allowed to stay at the hospital. Teddy had offered to pay for a hotel room for the rest of the family, but they had declined. At least for the first night. It was only twenty-five minutes away and they were going to have to collect a few personal items for Louise to have at the hospital anyway. Louise would be admitted for at least a week and then spend some time in a rehab facility. Knowing Teddy would only be able to cover a couple of nights in a hotel. They decided to wait until later on when Louise was awake more.
"Hey Louise, visiting hours are over. So, we have to get going." Linda announced.
"But the doctor said that either me or your mom could stay with you." Bob added.
"Now it can only be one of us for safety reasons." Linda finished.
"Dad" Louise announced without hesitation.
Even though it was the answer she was expecting. It was still hard for Linda to accept that Louise wanted Bob with her. She knew it was for the best, Louise had always been closer to him, and he was better in this type of situation. Still her heart ached leaving her baby girl. Part of her wished she had taken Teddy up on his offer for a hotel room, but she knew it would be better to wait until later in the week.
"What if Louise gets scared in the middle of the night?" Tina asked; besides her birth she had only spent one night of her life in the hospital. She was small but she remembered being scared. Her heart broke imagining Louise scared in the hospital.
"Your dad is with her, and the hospital has one of those Boom computer things. Where we can talk to Louise on the laptop," Linda assured.
"It's Zoom but yeah I guess we could do that." Tina sighed.
"It's just for a few days. We will get a hotel later on." Linda assured.
"What about when Louise goes to the other hospital? They said they were all hours away." Gene questioned.
"Well, your father and I haven't really discussed that yet, but we will probably leave you with Teddy or Pop-Pop." Linda replied.
"Teddy or Pop-Pop?!" Tina cried.
"Well, you know how Gayle gets in tenses situations and Jen is spending her twenty first birthday at Dizzy Land." Linda replied.
"Disney Land?!" Gene cried.
"No Dizzy Land it's a bar." Linda corrected.
"I don't mind Teddy or Pop-Pop it's just why can't we go with you to the rehab hospital?" Tina questioned.
"Because we are going to be there for a week and you guys would be missing a lot of school. You can stay home tomorrow and maybe a few days next week, but we don't want you guys to fall behind." Linda explained.
"Is Louise going to fall behind? Is she going to be held back?" Tina gasped.
"Well, it could happen but probably not. We will talk to the school about it once we know more." Linda explained.
Deep down Tina was glad to be home, glad to be away from the hospital. She knew she could not run away from it, but it was nice to have some distance. After having a shower, she put on her jammies and returned to her room. She took a seat at her desk. Normally when she was stressed like this writing took the edge off. Today she had no inspiration. She soon gave up and slammed her journal closed. She shoved the notebook to the edge of her desk. A regular book fell to the floor. Sighing, she stood up and bent down to pick up the book. Her heart skipped a beat when she read the title "The Buddy Bench Chronicles." It was a book she had found at the book fair. It was part of a series, but she only had one book. The premise of the book was that when kids were bullying or being mean they had to play together. At the start of the book a boy was being really mean to a girl, and they were forced to play together. They realized how much they had in common and were best friends by the end of the book. Tina remembered mentioning the plot during a "Conflict Resolution Club" meeting and Mr. Frond thought it was a brilliant idea. A week later it was implemented. Three weeks later Louise chose the program instead of detention, after fighting with Chloe Barbash. Two hours later she was paralyzed. Tina's stomach churned and quaked. Louise's injury was her fault. She may as well have pushed Louise off the monkey bars herself.
"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" Tina moaned.
"Are you OK, Tina?" Gene asked.
"Fine" Tina lied.
"Worried about, Louise?" Gene guessed.
"Yeah" Tina lied.
"Me too but you know how strong Louise is. She will get through this." Gene assured.
Rudy tossed and turned in his bed. He had just narrowly avoided being hospitalized for his asthma attack. If he had another one, he would be admitted. He knew he needed to calm down but staying calm was impossible. His best friend was in the hospital, and she was hurt really bad. What was worse was his parents would not tell him anything about it. Even though he knew an update had been posted to the school's Facebook page. He just wanted to know if Louise was OK or not. It was scary for him to think about Louise being in the hospital. He had always been the sickly kid, but Louise had always been healthy as a horse. At least as long as he had known her. Her being in the hospital was a foreign concept to him. He just prayed she was going to be OK. Louise was his rock, he needed her.
Friday morning was painfully quiet in the Belcher house. Without Louise messing around playing with her collectables and or trying to scheme her way out of school. Without Bob walking around trying to come up with a burger of the day. Even Gene was unusually quiet. Tina sat at the kitchen table with her had buried in her hands. Gene sat beside her leaning back listlessly in his seat. While Linda cooked breakfast. A sick knot formed in her stomach when she realized she had accidentally prepared five plates. Covering her mistake, she gave herself and the kids extra big helpings.
"When are we going to the hospital?" Gene asked.
"I am going after breakfast. Then your dad and I will leave some time this afternoon to talk to the school about what happened and possibly Chloe's parents." Linda explained.
"Why only maybe Chloe's parents?" Gene questioned.
"We are going to talk to Louise this morning and make sure Chloe is at fault." Linda explained.
"Do you have a lawyer yet?" Tina asked.
"Your dad is calling the one the hospital recommended this morning." Linda replied.
"Wait why did you say that YOU were going to the hospital?" Tina questioned.
"Yeah, I thought you said we could skip school today?" Gene added.
"You can but you might want to stay home until we go back to the hospital this afternoon." Linda replied.
"Why would we not want to go to the hospital?" Tina demanded.
"I am sure that you do want to go to the hospital, but there is going to be a lot of waiting. Louise is still going to be resting a lot. She is going to need a lot of rest this week. Next week and the coming weeks are going to be a lot of work for her." Linda explained.
"We still want to go this morning." Tina insisted.
"Yeah, Louise needs us!" Gene cried.
Bob bit down hard on his finger as the phone rang. He could not believe he was doing this. He could not believe he was calling a lawyer, because his child had been so severely injured on the playground that she would never walk again. He wondered if he should wait until after they talked to Louise. Until they confirmed that Chloe had actually pushed Louise. Mainly he wanted to take action against the school. Clearly, they had done something wrong, but if Chloe had injured Louise. They would need to take action against her family as well.
"Thank you for calling the David Holloway law firm. How may I help you?" The receptionist questioned.
"Uh hi this is Bob Belcher my daughter Louise was injured on the playground at school yesterday." Bob replied.
"Was the injury severe?" The receptionist asked.
"She is paralyzed." Bob replied.
"I am sorry to hear that." The receptionist apologized.
"Yeah, uh she fell off the monkey bars and hit her back on something. It severed her spinal cord, and it was well within the fall zone of the monkey bars." Bob explained.
"Do you know what caused the fall?" The receptionist asked.
"We are not sure. Yesterday was hard on Louise and she was not up for much. My wife and I are going to talk to her soon, but we believe she was pushed by a classmate." Bob explained.
"Get confirmation from your daughter. So, we can know how to proceed." The receptionist replied.
"We will uh I know it's a long shot, but would David be available this afternoon? We were supposed to talk to the school today." Bob questioned.
"Nothing this afternoon but he as an opening Monday at three. I insist that you do not speak to anybody without David present. He will call you back as soon as possible." The receptionist insisted.
Louise sat in her hospital bed. "Sitting" she guessed she better get used to that. She would be sitting for the rest of her life. She knew she was being a baby about this, but it wasn't fair. She knew she wasn't a good person, but she didn't think she deserved this. Not that paralyzed people were bad. She didn't know what to believe anymore.
"Louise, can we talk to you?" Bob questioned.
"What do you need opinions on adult diapers old man? Because I've only been in them for one day." Louise scoffed.
"No, I am good." Bob laughed, grateful that Louise still had her sense of humor.
"We just wanted to ask you about what happened yesterday." Linda replied.
"Uh I fell off the monkey bars, hit my back on something and now I am crippled. It's kind of old news." Louise scoffed.
"We know Louise but we uh we are taking legal action. So, we need to know exactly what happened. Now you said something about Chloe pushing you is that true? Now I know you don't like Chloe but please remember that is a very serious accusation. That could impact the rest of Chloe's life. Please don't lie just to get her in trouble." Bob explained.
"I hate Chloe, but I am not a monster. So, I guess I should admit that she did not push me." Louise sighed.
"Then how did you fall?" Linda questioned.
"Well as you know I had to hang out with Chloe at recess. At first, she was just doing the usual gross girly stuff. Playing salon and talking about boys. Then one of the other girls suggested we do Dead Man's Drop." Louise explained.
"So, you slipped doing the corpse drop?" Linda gasped.
"Not exactly I didn't want to do the drop because it's stupid. I mean you do it once that's all you need to do." Louise explained.
"Are you still afraid of losing your hat? Even though you did that one time?" Bob questioned.
"Yes" Louise replied.
"So, if you didn't do the drop. How did you fall?" Linda asked.
"I did do the drop, but I made a pit stop first. I told the others I was going to the bathroom, but really, I snuck back into the classroom and took some double-sided tape out of Ms. Labonz desk. I taped my hat down then I went back to the playground and did the drop. Chloe noticed that my hat did not fall off and started interrogating me. I told her it was fine, but she kept pushing. Until I did the drop again. I went to do the drop again and again my hat did not budge. I was about to drop. When Chloe pulled my hat off. I guess it startled me or something because the next thing I knew I was falling." Louise explained.
"She pulled your hat off?" Bob gasped.
"Yes" Louise sighed.
"Did she try to help you when she saw you were falling?" Bob questioned.
"No" Louise admitted.
"Well, she didn't do it intentionally, but we definitely have enough to take action against Chloe's family." Bob announced.
"Why? It's my fault. I am the one who is afraid of losing my hat. Even though it happened before, and nothing happened. I put myself in this bed." Louise sobbed.