Troubled Child

How Do You Feel?

Emily and Holly were in Holly's room talking about the day.

"Thanks." Emily said in a small voice. "When I saw her I- I couldn't make any words come out of my mouth." She sighed.

Holly nodded. "I know."

"I thought when I met her I would yell at her, be angry, or give her attitude like I give everyone else, but when I saw her I just froze."

"Your dad did too." Holly stated.

"Yeah, what was that?" Emily shook her head. "And then he started yelling at Aunt Riley?"

"I guess he didn't like being blindsided by your mother."

"A car accident? I thought I would hear some lame excuse about being too young or even about her betraying her best friend and hooking up with her boyfriend, but a car accident?" Emily frowned. "Does that mean she would have kept me if it didn't happen? And why didn't she keep me anyway? She survived it. I survived it. Shouldn't she have changed her mind about giving me up?" Emily whined.

Holly frowned and shook her head. "Maybe it was too hard."

"Living with the McPhee's was too hard! Keeping your kid shouldn't be too hard!" Emily snapped.

Holly gave her a sympathetic look. "I know you hated them after what they did. But I don't think you can compare the two." She stated cautiously. "I think your mom wanted you. I mean she was pregnant for eight months. She was gonna keep you, but after the accident she couldn't bare it."

Emily scoffed. "We were alive. She could have kept me. There's no excuse, she lived, she should have told them to rip up the papers."

"I don't think it works that way and even if she woke up after six months, you were already gone."

"Then she could have found me! I was in some dumb orphanage with a bunch of nuns! It wasn't that hard to find!" She snapped.

"I know that you don't feel like thinking rationally right now, so I'll do it for you." Holly sighed. "Your mom wakes up six months after the accident. She asks her mom where you are and her mom tells her you were given up for adoption. She wants to find you, but she can't walk and that's when she realizes she needs to go through physical therapy."

"She has a cane!" Emily snapped.

"But you don't know how long it took until she could walk with it." Holly snapped back. "Let's say she was in a wheelchair at first."

"You're trying to make me feel bad for her so I won't be mad and it's not going to work." Emily stated stubbornly. "She could have found me so we could be together."

"It probably took a couple months to be able to stand without falling over, without help of course."

"I'm not gonna feel bad."

"We'll say three or four months until she could stand up by herself, maybe even walk a few steps." Holly got up from her bed and walked to the other side of the room. "Try to stand without using your legs." She stated abruptly.

"What?" Emily glared at her.

Holly shrugged. "It's just an experiment. Try to stand."

Emily rolled her eyes and pushed herself up from the bed.

"You used your legs."

"And you're annoying."

"I'm serious. Try to stand up without using your legs."

Emily blew out a breath and sat back down, then she gripped the bed and lifted herself slowly.

"Using your legs."