Girl has to have surgery and as she sits there in the hospital waiting for them to wheel her in the operation room, she turns and sees a little boy in the bed next to her gazing at a book laying on his lap. She smiles at him and says hello. He looks at her but doesn't say anything. She asks if he is going to read the book and he shrugs so she asks if he would like her to read it to him.
He looks at her for a moment before slowly nodding. She smiles and sits on his bed next to him and begins to read. As they finish the first story, the nurse comes in and tells her it is time to go. Smiling, she nods and begins to rise but a small hand on her sleeve stops her. Looking back, the little boy is gazing back at her and shakes his head. She gently takes his hand in hers and tells him that she'll be back and then they'll read another story. He slowly nods and then the nurses take her away.
Once she gets out of surgery, sitting up takes too much effort and she is laying there staring at the ceiling when she feels a tug on her sleeve. Turning her head slowly, she sees the little boy standing there with the book in his hand. He climbs up on her bed and since she can't sit up and move her arms much, he holds the book for her. Suddenly he stops her and points at the book and them himself. She looks at him and softly smiles before nodding.
The girl was surprised that he wanted to read the book because the nurses had told her that he didn't speak at all and that the parents feared he would become a mute. As they laid there, the little boy began to read and parents and nurses went unnoticed by the pair as they lost themselves in fairytales and magic. The parents had tears in their eyes before they crept away, leaving the duo in their own little world. Before the parents were able to thank her, the girl was discharged from the hospital but she made the little boy promise to not stop reading.
***3 weeks later
The girl was standing with her friends talking about a project for their video technology class in the hallway when she heard her name yelled. Startled, she whirled around and caught the little boy who came flying into her arms. They boy sunk to the ground hugging eachother and then she noticed that he was carrying the storybook. Smiling, she laughed and nodded.
Her group had caught the moment on video and were all smiling over the two. Then the little boy looked over and said hello to a boy who had just walked up. The girl turned and froze for a moment as she realized that the boy she liked was also the little boy's brother. Then she turned towards the little boy and noticed that he was playing with her hair which was long and extremely curly.
