Finally Home

93. Samantha

Junie Belle. My new baby sister. She was, is, absolutely adorable. Maybe not as adorable as Rosie, but Rosie and I have a different relationship. Not that Junie isn't also special.

I told Rosie we had to protect Junie until she was old enough to play with us. Which made me laugh inside, since I'm 16, and she's a baby. We play very differently.

But now that Junie was here, and Rosie was so eager to help me, I knew I had to work harder in physio.

Right now we were doing a lot of arm strengthening work because I would be on crutches for a while. But I'd be going home in a wheelchair because my balance wasn't right yet.

Mom and Dad ordered a wheelchair for me which was just... weird. Some guy came and took measurements of me and said the chair would be custom made for me. Mom and Dad said that even though I'd be getting a prosthetic eventually, I'd probably like getting off my foot from time to time and I could move around and do stuff faster if my hands weren't always busy keeping me upright.

I still worked harder in physio so that when I did finally go home, I'd be more self sufficient. I hoped. The last thing I needed was for Mom and Dad to think I'm a burden.

Eric, my therapist, helped me learn to navigate a wheelchair similar to what Mom and Dad ordered. I'd be going home with this borrowed one until my chair came. I wasn't thrilled because the crutches could sort of... well, not hide, but the wheelchair was so obvious. I didn't want to go back to school but Jill, Blaine, Morgan and Patricia all told me they couldn't wait to see me back at school. And coach had told me she still wanted me coaching. I wasn't sure I wanted to coach anymore. I missed basketball, but I couldn't play anymore and I didn't know if I wanted to watch my friends doing my favourite thing and I couldn't.

The team had also come to visit and no one said anything about my leg. They asked how I was feeling and when I'd be back at school. No one mentioned basketball except coach.

Three weeks after the surgery that took my leg, I was being discharged. I'd have physio three times a week after school for a while.

Uncle Brendon and Aunt Sarah were staying for a little while. And aunt Debby and Uncle Josh were nearby, too.

The day they let me go home was probably the best day after Mom and Dad adopting me and Rosie being born - well, after I woke up. I tried crutching from the car to the house but almost fell over. Dad grabbed me before I did.

"You have a wheelchair for a reason, Miss Stubborn," he said.

"But I need to work on my balance, too," I argued.

"Granted. But let's do that in physio where there are things in place to make sure you don't hurt yourself. The garden isn't one of them."

He made me sit in my wheelchair and I hated it. It was maybe twenty steps to the front door and I couldn't manage it.

Mom and Dad had had a small ramp installed so I could manoeuvre the chair up and down on my own. I sighed.

I rolled myself up the ramp and in the front door which Dad was holding open for me.

"SURPRISE!!" A cacophony of voices shouted. The living room was full.

Mom, holding Junie, Rosie, Dad, Uncle Brendon, Aunt Sarah, Zack and Kala, Uncle Patrick and Elisa, Uncle Pete and Meagan, Granny and Grandad, Uncle Zack, Uncle Jay and Aunt Madison, Jill and her family, Blaine, Morgan, Patricia, my basketball team were all standing in our living room.

I immediately turned my chair and rolled out the door and onto the porch where I'm pretty sure I was hyperventilating.

I wasn't prepared for that. I didn't want that. Why would they do that!?

I started crying and Mom came outside and sat on the porch swing beside me.

"Sweetheart," she said, touching my leg. "What's the matter?"

"Why are all these people here?"

"They're here to celebrate you coming home," Mom said.

"I don't want it! I didn't want everyone seeing me. Seeing this!" I indicated my leg. Or lack thereof.

"Samantha," Mom said. "Your friends and family don't care about your leg. They care about you. They're here to celebrate you."

"I don't want to celebrate! What is there to celebrate? And why is my whole basketball team here?!"

"Again, Samantha, because they love you and they missed you and they want to celebrate your homecoming. Sweetie, Dad and I want to celebrate everything about you. You've faced impossible odds in a short while and each time you've come through stronger than ever. We've nearly lost you too many times to count. And we want to celebrate that no matter what, you are special. And amazing."

"I'm not amazing. I'm a burden now. Now you actually need to do things for me that I could do before. For god's sake, I can't even walk from the car to the front door without falling over. And the chair is expensive, and the prosthesis, and everything else!"

"Samantha, I don't know how to say this to you so that you'll finally understand, but Dad and I would gladly go bankrupt keeping you and your sisters safe, happy and healthy."

"I bet you won't be saying that when all my medical shit starts adding up and you actually do go bankrupt!" I cried.

"That's unlikely to happen. And besides, whatever you and your sisters need, we will do our best to provide," Dad said from behind me, having, I guess, just come out.

I crossed my arms over my chest and bent over forwards. I put my head on my knee and cried. Mom rubbed my back and I sort of felt Dad sit down near me.

"Samantha, your friends and family want to celebrate that you're home. That's all," Mom said.

"Why? Why would you blindside me? Why would you think I want to celebrate being home?"

"Would you rather be in the hospital?" Dad asked.

"No. I'd rather not be in a wheelchair because I'm a one-legged freak."

"You're too late on that account. I already told you to let your freak flag fly," Uncle Josh came over and knelt beside me.

"Sammy! Is party for you. Why you sad?" Rosie said, also coming outside.

"Maybe we should move the party out here?" Dad said. I frowned at him.

Rosie was climbing on my chair.

"You has a good lap," she said, sitting on me, and curling into me. Mom smiled at me.

"Samantha, we're sorry we blindsided you with a surprise party. We didn't think everyone who'd been to see you at the hospital would be such an issue."

"I didn't think this was something to celebrate. Why would I want to celebrate this?" I indicated my leg.

"We're not celebrating your leg. We did that already? Remember? We had a funeral for it," Uncle Josh said.

"Yes, I remember," I said. "I was there. Not by choice. Sort of a captive audience."

"Samantha, let us celebrate that you're home. We missed you around the house so much. And your friends have missed hanging out with you."

"Let's see how long that lasts," I muttered.

In the end, I acquiesced. Mom and Dad were kind of right. Don't tell them I said so, though.