Unsuspecting Blessing.

xvi

xvi

History class was one of those classes that Brian found interesting, but mostly unimportant. Not denying the fact that history, especially of one's own country, is important; but more pronounced the fact that a general idea of history is of more importance than the nitty-gritty details. He enjoyed his teacher, a veteran in the professing district who had the possibility to retire probably ten years ago, and he lectured in such detail it was like reading a book. History class would have been more enjoyable if encroaching exams didn't loom over him every other week—however he did not have to store a hundred dates in his head for each one because his instructor did not believe in such nonsense. A common ground, Brain thought.

He walked while pushing Julia in the wheelchair. He understood, in spite of never having a serious injury in his life—at least not as serious as hers—that having any sort of pain was, well, painful. At a younger age, in his mid teens, he fell in a hole dug by a gopher in a classmate's yard and bent his foot so far the other way that his tendons felt like they snapped. Though they were just inflamed, walking still felt like a bitch for months afterward with even the sight of holes in the ground making his foot tingle. Brian had empathy for Julia, real empathy, and he did not let it go to waste. So he pushed the wheelchair, feeling his forearms burn less and less each time, and walked in the opposite direction of her apartment.

"Brian," Julia said, "you know this isn't the way to where I live, right?" She sounded sincere.

"I know, it's the way to the hospital," he returned cheerfully, almost as if there were a skip in his step.

"Do I have an appointment that I am unaware of? Or forgot about?"

"No," he said, "I just want to go walk by the pond, don't you?"

Julia said nothing, but the silence held nothing hostile. She seemed pleased.

As they approached the pond—about a hundred yards away—Julia asked Brian to take a more roundabout way, which brought them down sidewalks in the less kempt part of town. Using the wheelchair became a great deal more bumpy, but despite the subtle pain Brian was sure Julia experienced from the roughness of the path her tender beaming did not fade. The sidewalk was cracked and moss and grass grew through each absence of concrete. Brian did not like to call this area the 'poor' or 'ghetto' district in town because the connotation of those words harmed the residents more than most people knew; he would know from experience. Trees loomed above, splitting the sunlight in a million different streaks with the shadows their branches and boughs cast along every passerby. The light skipped on each of their faces, flickering minute blindness as they strolled.

The path that they took brought them literally around the back side of the hospital, and seemed in retrospect unnecessary to most people, Brian was sure, but to him the joy it brought Julia was all he needed to pursue a longer course. The air changed as soon as they grew closer to the water, it became cooler and felt more fresh in his lungs. Eventually the sidewalk terraformed into grass as the path diverged in another direction, leaving a jagged cut off onto the side lawn of the hospital. Pushing the wheelchair through the grass was not an impossible task, because though the grass was long, it was cut just short enough to not obstruct the ability of the wheels. The ride became even more bumpy and as Julia exhaled Brian could hear the movement in her voice like driving on a gravel driveway.

They approached the pond. The sunlight reflected off of the water, but also seeped through to the bottom and revealed the entities living underneath the unbreathable barrier. An ancient tree beside the pond cast down a shattered shadow on many of the frogs and fish below. Brian could not tell exactly what Julia was thinking at this moment, as he never could, but he was sure that he had achieved the feeling he wished to instill in her with the digression.

The vibrant colors of nature caressed his eyes, and the vibrant yellows, dull oranges, and subtle reds from the Sun came conforming together as they clashed with the equally appealing greens and browns of the lush life underneath the water that mixed with the dirt beneath almost making a certain mauve that resembled the guardian tree standing above the water. Over in the west, the Sun had not started to set, but the tall buildings fought against it for dominance in the sky. When the Sun did inevitably decide to set, Brian knew that all the creatures living in the pond understood to be at ease and fall into stupor.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Julia spoke, talking aloud to herself and to the nature around her; including Brian.

"Indeed." These two syllables sat on his tongue for a while after, and made him think that not only did Julia's remark refer to all the life around them, but to the person sitting in front of him as well.

After a moment of slow gazing unto the water, the hopping frogs, swimming fish, falling leaves, and climbing squirrels that made an appearance out of a thickly made hole in the tree that resembles a doorway, Julia grabbed the arm rests of the chair and made a grunting sound. Brian watched her, as she pushed herself upwards. He did nothing to aid her but held the chair still so as to not let it fall from underneath her with the amount of pressuring leverage being put on the front end. She trembled, he could see her very skin shake above her tense muscles beneath; her power inspired him deeply in that moment.

Eventually the struggle came to an end, and she stood propped up against the wheelchair, leaning on it. Brian let go, and drifted smoothly like fallen wood in a windy lake around the chair, to stand beside her, letting Julia lean on him for support. He felt it was time to take action. She stood next to him, slanted, her injured leg making a sizable height difference. Brian turned to her, their torsos touching intimately, and wrapped his left arm around her to further support her standing position. Looking down at her felt ironic, like she should be towering above him with the vigorous strength she proved almost daily. The wind swept her black hair that became a shade lighter in the Sun's ultimate glow; a few follicles tickled at Brian's face making him grin. The chain reaction bore a heavy smile on Julia's face. She looked even more beautiful with her lips turned upwards, he thought.

Brian stared, so much so that if he were an unknown person he would be considered a creep, but he had been placed in Julia's life with the helping hand of a higher power. God or the machine, he did not really know; but what he did know was the warmth he felt radiating off of Julia, it broke the shallow coolness that would turn into frigidity in the nighttime air. But night would not fall soon...or ever. The moment paused time, and the Sun stopped moving.

Julia's skin, potent and passionately taken care of, showed its customary paleness. Though it was far from unremarkable, the pallidness and tone of her smooth and near perfect forehead and cheeks seemed more beautiful when time stopped. It wrapped around her eyes, blending the flush color of cheeks and tips or her nose with her brown eyes that stood somehow a hint darker in the certain light. Her hands, which Brian now held in his that was not holding her around the waist, felt cold but they warmed upon the frictional impact between their skin.

Brian would have wanted to say she appeared angelic, or ethereal in front of him, but Julia did not look too perfect for the world. She looked exactly what she needed to be at that moment, and the confidence of standing solely by herself stuck on her innocent face, like an unequivocal coming of age that is specific to her body and mind.

Her cheek bone pressed hard against his chest as she leaned into him. Most would say that a moment such as this would be sealed only with a kiss, but the embrace he felt from the empowering, genuine—and in some way slightly maternal—connection between their physical bodies. Their minds, Brian felt, were whole.