Invincible

  “Good,” I say. “Hungry.” My parents do their look again, like they need to congratulate each other on everything I do that resembles healthy teenage behavior.

  Kasey doesn’t seem satisfied by that answer. She wants something bigger, deeper, more cancer-y.

  “It’s so great to have you back,” Will says, placing his hand on mine. He leaves it there, on my hand holding the chopsticks. He is keeping me from my food. “How does it feel?” he says.

  “Good,” I say, pulling my hand away to continue eating.

  Jenica and I are the only ones eating. Everyone else is just sitting around looking at me.

  “So, Kasey,” Mom says, always the first to rescue us from uncomfortable silences. “How is the cheer squad this year?”

  “Oh, great,” she says. “We have some really great choreography. And there’s a freshman who made varsity who’s been training as a gymnast for the Olympics.” She looks at me guiltily. “But of course, it’s not the same without Evie. We all miss her so much.”

  I give her a broccoli-toothed smile.

  “Dr. Jacobs says that if physical therapy goes well, Evie could be down to a cane in just a few weeks!” Mom says. “She’s healing so fast.”

  “Wow,” says Kasey.

  “She’s so strong,” says Will.

  I have gotten so used to people talking about me in the third person.

  “Our little survivor,” Dad says.

  “Our miracle,” Mom says, her voice cracking at the end as her eyes well up with tears.

  It goes on like that for another hour. I focus on my food and try not to feel guilty for not feeling the gratitude I know I should. A week ago, I thought I wouldn’t live more than a month, yet now I find myself annoyed that I’m going to be limping around with a cane like an old lady. As we sit around the table sampling the ice cream flavors Dad picked up from Tara’s—avocado, lavender, white pepper chocolate chip, and Mexican chocolate—my leg starts hurting. It’s probably nothing a couple of Advil can’t fix, but I’m grateful for the Norco prescription they gave Mom when I left the hospital. It’s up to me when I need it. All I have to do is ask.

  I want to hug Mom when she shoos Will and Kasey away after dinner. “I know you two want to stay and hang out with Evie, but she needs to rest.” They take turns hugging me and telling me how great it is to have me back. I want to agree with them, but something inside me says not so fast. I’m not the girl they remember. I’m not anyone they know.

  After they leave, the house is quiet. Mom helps me with the humiliating task of going to the bathroom. “Just a few more days and you’ll be on crutches and you can do this on your own,” she reminds me from outside the door after she gets me situated. Even with the door closed, I am never alone.

  I wish Dr. Jacobs hadn’t told her to hold my prescription. I wish I could be in control of how much and when I take it. If it were up to me, I’d take three pills right now, but that is not an option. I’m only allowed a maximum of two every four hours. So I ask Mom for two. I don’t tell her I already took a few Advil. I don’t tell her about the theory I’m testing: maybe the Advil will take care of the dull ache in my leg; maybe the Norco will then be free to work its other magic and make the rest of my life a little softer.

  UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

  HarperCollins Publishers

  ..................................................................

  fourteen.

  I MISS YOU, SAYS CALEB’S TEXT. I START TO WRITE I miss you too, but then I delete it and change the channel on the TV.

  I just got home from getting my cast off and now we’re waiting for the physical therapist to show up. Luckily, Orthopedics is on the first floor right by the entrance to the outpatient hospital, so I didn’t have to go up to the second floor; I didn’t have to go near Oncology or the injection clinic where Stella and I spent so much time together. It was weird to be across the street from the inpatient hospital where I spent the past few weeks, the place where Stella died, where Caleb still is, where Dan, Nurse Moskowitz, Dr. Jacobs, and everyone else are still showing up every day to hang out with sick kids. I used to be one of those kids, one of the sickest, but today I was just someone getting a cast taken off. In and out in less than an hour when only a few days ago I was dying.

  Two days into life outside the hospital and, so far, I’m not impressed. I watch the same mind-numbing daytime TV I watched in the hospital. I take naps. Mom asks me five million times per hour, “How are you feeling?” and five million times I answer, “Fine.” I answer, “No, thank you,” to her “Do you need anything?” Helicopters could take lessons from her in hovering.

  I’m avoiding texts. All those I love you, babes from Will. All those So happy you’re back!s and Can’t wait to see you!s and When are you coming to school?s from everyone else. All those exclamation points.

  This is really exciting stuff. This is what it feels like to be a miracle.

  I change the channel on the TV again. I look for something new. Something louder.

  After a few episodes of yet another reality show about rednecks, the physical therapist—a large, butch woman named Sandy—arrives with pages and pages of physical therapy instructions. Mom’s beside herself, offering the poor woman beverages, snacks, my unborn child, anything, like Sandy is doing us a huge favor by coming over, like she’s the most generous person in the world, like it means something more than just her doing her job.

  She and Mom help me upright so I can practice using the crutches. It’s weird being suddenly vertical after a month of sitting and lying down. The muscles in my legs wake up from their deep sleep. They are groggy. They want to go back to bed. My leg doesn’t feel like it’s mine. It’s someone else’s, someone weaker, someone who stole my strong leg and replaced it with this pathetic, shriveled, unused thing.

  Mom watches as I take a couple practice laps around the living room. I don’t think her butt is even touching the chair, she’s so tense and springy. Her hands are in front of her mouth, palms together like she’s praying. I don’t think she’s breathing. As if holding her breath could keep me upright. As if exhaling could blow me over.

  My leg cramps. I lose my balance and Sandy catches me under my armpits. Mom springs up and hovers closer. I can feel her propellers buzzing.

  “Honey, are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” Sandy helps me to the couch. Why am I out of breath? I hobbled maybe twenty feet total.

  “You have to take it easy,” Sandy says. “Start out small and gradually work up to longer distances. It’s all in the instructions here.” She taps the pile of print-outs. “Now why don’t we try out some of these exercises?”

  She shows me how to point my toes and flex my feet. She shows me how to stretch my quads and hamstrings. This is remedial stuff. This is stuff for old people. The infirm.

  I can’t even touch my toes. A year ago, I could do splits. On both sides and the middle. In the air.

  “Good job!” Mom cheers at nothing.

  Sandy leaves us with my rehab instructions and my therapy schedule. Mom’s eyes glisten with possibility while mine cloud over with exhaustion. My phone dings with another text, but I ignore it. Time for another nap.

  UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

  HarperCollins Publishers

  ..................................................................

  if.

  Dear Stella,

  I have to go into the hospital in a few days to see Dr. Jacobs. I’m only getting blood tests, but for some reason he feels it necessary to talk to me. If he wants to see me so bad, I don’t understand why he can’t just take the elevator down a few floors and walk across the street to the outpatient building where they do blood tests just fine. It’s like he wants to torture me, making me go back to the inpatient building, back to the cancer floor, back to that place with all the memories. It’s just a thirty-minute appointment, but still. I’m trying not to think about it.

  I’m doing
laps around the house like a caged beast. I hobble in circles until I’m so exhausted I can barely make it back to the couch. Sandy said to take it easy, and I’m sure she means well, but she doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about. I doubt she’s ever been trapped in her house like a prisoner. She certainly hasn’t ever had my mother as a prison guard, constantly offering beverages.

  My armpits are chafed and red from the crutches. Physical therapy and all my circles around the house have made me sweaty. Even with the removable soft brace that replaced my cast, I still haven’t managed to take a proper shower in weeks. I’m sure you’d have something crude to say about the way I smell. I know I’m disgusting, and I know I should do something about it, but somehow it seems easier to stay in pajamas all day since all I do is sleep and watch TV anyway.

  Sometimes I want to shake everyone until the smiles fall off their faces, those smiles that try to say everything’s okay now, the hard part’s over, Evie’s alive and everything is back to normal. No one wants to talk about how incredibly un-normal it actually is, how no one knows how to talk to me now that I’m home, now that I’m not Cancel Girl anymore.

  If I’m not Cancer Girl, who am I exactly? Crutches Girl? Gimpy-Leg Girl? Should-Have-Died-but-For-Some-Reason-Didn’t Girl? Going-to-Get-Better-Soon-but-Right-Now-Is-Still-Pretty-Useless Girl? Caged-Lion-in-a-Too-Small-Cage-at-a-Second-Rate-Zoo Girl? Everyone is so damn polite all the time. My family, my best friend, my boyfriend, these people who are supposed to know me better than everyone—they can’t do much better than small talk and pats on the back. They stare at me with their weepy eyes and sigh. Even Will seems scared to touch me; the only affection I get is quick, dry pecks on the cheek. It’s like he’s afraid of breaking me. I miss the way he used to touch me. I miss feeling wanted, really wanted, not just cared for, not just doted on. Everyone thinks I’m still so fragile. Don’t they realize I survived? Don’t they realize how tough that makes me?

  No one knows what to do with me now that I’m alive. There’s no protocol for how to treat someone who comes back from the dead. There are so many books about grief and loss, about saying good-bye to the people you love. But there is no book about taking back that good-bye.

  Maybe things will get better when I go back to school in few days. Maybe something will happen besides this monotony of waiting. Maybe people will remember who I really am. Maybe I will too.

  Love,

  Evie

  UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

  HarperCollins Publishers

  ..................................................................

  fifteen.

  MOM HAD TO RUN TO THE STORE, SO I’M HOME ALONE. IT hits me that I haven’t really been alone in a month. I’ve either been in the hospital with a nurse checking on me every hour, or here with Mom’s constant attention.

  Now this is it, my chance to escape. Just for a few minutes, then I’ll get back in my cage like a good pet.

  I turn off the TV. The house is quiet. Mom will be back from the store soon. Will is coming over after baseball practice. I have half an hour of freedom.

  I pull on a sweatshirt and tie an old running shoe on my good foot. I pull a clean pair of sweatpants over my leg brace. I look at Stella’s hat sitting on my desk and think about putting it on, but I ultimately decide it would be cruel to subject it to being seen with this outfit.

  The doorknob is solid and cold in my hand. It feels illicit. I have been reduced to this: the most exciting thing that’s happened to me in days is opening the door to leave my house.

  I hobble out onto the sidewalk. The air is cool and breezy with early spring. This quiet residential street I used to so easily walk down is suddenly an obstacle course of cracked sidewalk, tree roots, and cars parked in driveways. A sensible voice inside my head tells me this isn’t a good idea. I’ve only been upright for a few days. I’ve only practiced with these crutches in my very flat house with walls and furniture all around to grab on to whenever I get tired. I’ve always had someone to catch me.

  But there’s another voice, the wild beast voice. The one that’s so sick of being caged. It says, What the hell? It says, Maybe a little danger is exactly what you need.

  It says, What would Stella do?

  Stella would strut down this sidewalk like she owned it.

  I try on her confidence. I imagine what it feels like to be a rock star, to be strong and fierce and fearless. I look at all the hazards in front of me and tell myself I’m not afraid of falling.

  So I walk. It feels good to be moving. It feels good to be going somewhere besides in a circle. My leg is already stronger. My muscles are already coming back. I barely even slow where a tree root breaks through the concrete. I slide past a traffic cone with perfect grace.

  I turn the corner onto a major street and the wall of sound and exhaust from a passing bus throws me a little off-balance. But my arms have gotten strong and I manage to right myself with my crutches. A cyclist narrowly avoids me on the sidewalk and I yell, “Ride in the street, you fucking asshole!” Stella would be proud.

  I walk and I walk. Most people ignore me, but a few people look with confusion and concern. It’s not very often you see a girl in sweatpants with patchy cancer hair hobbling down a busy street on crutches. But whatever. Let them look. This is the best I’ve felt in weeks. I feel like I could walk forever. I could keep going and going and never come back.

  I manage to go five full blocks before I start feeling weak. I turn around and see the expanse of sidewalk I’ll have to travel before turning onto my street. It’s farther than I remember. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Isn’t the way back always supposed to feel shorter?

  I make it one block before I realize I should have turned around a lot sooner. I lean against a tree for support. I white-knuckle the crutches. Sweat is pouring down my face and my leg is wobbly. I didn’t bring my phone with me. Something could happen. Something could happen and no one would know.

  I’m standing in the middle of the sidewalk four blocks from my house and I feel farther away from home than I’ve ever felt. I can’t go back and I can’t get away. I’m stuck here, in this limbo place where you’re only supposed to pass through. And I can’t move. I’m exhausted. My leg folds and I manage to slide down the tree onto the ground. My braced leg slides out from under me. I’m sitting in a puddle of who knows how many dogs’ pee. My hand is in something wet and squishy.

  I cry because I can’t move. I cry because I’m trapped. I cry because my body is a cage, with a door that opens and closes whether I want it to or not. I’m alone inside, while everyone I love is on the outside, pointing, watching, feeding me things through the bars, waiting for me to do tricks. And even though the door opens, I know I can never get out. There’s a moat around me I cannot cross.

  I wanted to be fearless like Stella, but I’m terrified. And she’s still gone.

  “Hey, girl,” says a tall man with long dreadlocks and a Caribbean accent. “Whatchu doin down dere?”

  “Nothing,” I say.

  A woman stops. Her dog sniffs at me. “Are you okay, honey?’

  “Why she cryin’?” the man says to the woman.

  “I don’t know. Honey, why are you crying?”

  I shake my head. I don’t look up. I don’t want to see them staring at me down here in my cage.

  A guy on a skateboard stops. A girl on a bike stops.

  “Do you need us to call someone for you?”

  “Do you need help up?”

  “Do you want to use my phone?”

  They’re all looking, waiting for me to tell them how to help me. But I don’t know. I have no idea what I need from anyone.

  “Evie!” calls a familiar voice down the street. My heart jumps. “Evie!”

  “Is that you?” the woman says. “Are you Evie?”

  “Evie!” Will’s voice calls from blocks away. My savior. My knight.

  “Over here!” the man yells in his direction.

/>   “Evie?” says the woman, crouching down in front of me. She holds her hand out, like I’m some dog she’s testing to see if it’s friendly. “Do you know that boy? Are you safe?” I look up and the concern in her eyes is real. Everyone’s concern is real. Their concern is always so real.

  I nod. I wipe my face with the back of my hand. Whatever wet, squishy thing it was in smears on my face, and it makes me start crying all over again.

  Will runs up, his skin still shiny with sweat from practice. “Evie, what happened?” But I can’t speak through my tears.

  “I think she fell down or something,” says the kid on the skateboard.

  “Are you hurt?” He crouches down and I reach my arms up, like a toddler who wants to be held. “Oh, Evie,” he says, letting me throw my arms around his neck. He somehow picks me up, cradled in his arms, as if I am the three-year-old version of myself, and I am both grateful for his strength and disgusted with myself for feeling so helpless, for needing him to rescue me.

  “Did you fall?” he says.

  I shake my head no. “I just got tired,” I say into his chest. “I just had to sit down.”

  “I got to your house and your mom was freaking out. She was getting ready to call the cops. Why did you leave the house? Why did you go so far? Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

  “I wanted to go for a walk.”

  “You can’t do that, Evie. You can’t just go. Not now. Not anymore.” There is an edge to his voice, but it is not anger. It is fear. That is my prison. It is everybody else’s fear.

  “I’m sorry,” I say, and then I’m crying so hard I can’t say anything else.

  Will carries me the entire way back home. I couldn’t get out of his arms if I wanted to. I hide my face in his neck and breathe in the musky warmth of his post-practice sweat. I remember when this smell used to turn me on, when one whiff of it would make me dizzy with desire. It is the smell of his strength. But now that means something entirely different than it used to. Now I don’t know how it makes me feel.