How to Save A Life (Anthony Rizzo)

30- Fifty Grand Gesture

Clara

"Oh Miss Clara, can you please paint me next" a little boy begs as he pulls on my arm. He jumps up and down giving me his best puppy dog eyes and I easily break.

I bend down so I can look right into his bright green eyes. He had some of his hair left but what with what little was there was starting to fall out. He had a scar on his neck from surgery he recently had and he was quite small for a seven year old. He had been in the hospital for almost a year now but just recently was strong enough to get chemo. He's a strong little boy that I have grown very fond of, just like all the other kids in this hospital.

"Of course Pat" I smile. "What would you like" I ask him.

"Can you paint me as a big strong baseball player, like Anthony" he asks and I look over to Anthony. Anthony smiles back at me as he plays with a little girl in the hallway of the play room of the children's hospital. We had been here for a while and he was a big attraction so I let him go off and say hi to everyone. Little did I know I had a fan club myself.

"Of course" I assure Patrick. I grab his hand and take over to where I had my things set up. Anthony and I come here a lot so I got a little corner in the commons area where I can paint or if the kids feel up to it, they can paint too.

I get started on his painting and it's not too long before I was done. I try to do one painting each time I'm here and I promised Patrick to get him a painting as soon as I could. So I get that done for him and I have to admit it looked great. He is going to make a great baseball player one day, if he gets his way it would be for the Cubs too, but maybe Anthony's number will be retired by then and he wouldn't be able to use that number, but I don't think Patrick would mind. Anthony is his hero, like he is to most of the kids in here, and he wants nothing more than to be just like Anthony. And I was able to give him a chance to do that even if it wasn't for real, that's what matters.

"Anthony! Lookie what Clara painted for me" Patrick says as he pulls Anthony behind him. His little hand in Anthony's as he tries his best to get him to move faster.

"Well that's one very handsome man. Is that me" Anthony jokes.

"No! It's me" Patrick argues.

"But that's my number" Anthony argues.

"But that guy has green eyes, not brown" Patrick says.

"Well I guess it couldn't be me then" Anthony agrees.

"Isn't it cool though! I love it so much, I can't wait until I get to play again so I can be just like you. But until then I'm okay with having this painting. I can't wait to hang it up in my room" Patrick insists. "Can you help me do it" he wonders.

"Of course" Anthony smiles. He picks Patrick up and I grab the painting. We put it across from his bed because he said he wanted to look at it a lot. Unfortunately he would be spending a lot of time in that bed so at least now he has some color in his room.

Patrick was pretty tired after a day of playing so we let him sleep. I go back to my little area to clean up and Anthony helps me.

"I have something for you" I say and he raises a eyebrow.

"What would that be" he asks.

"A check for $50,000" I say pulling it out of my apron and he nearly drops all my paintbrushes he just cleaned off.

"You're carrying around a $50,000 check" he asks.

"Well when you put it that way it just sounds stupid" I laugh.

"Why, in the hell, do you have a $50,000 check" he asks.

"It's for you... we went over this" I say.

"I'm not taking that check from you" he scoffs.

"Can you just look at it" I ask and he sighs. He takes he check out of my hand before reading it. He gets a big smile on his face as I wait for him to say something.

"You're donating half of the money you got from your painting to the Anthony Rizzo family foundation" he whispers.

"I am" I smile and he turns to me.

"Do you have any idea what this is going to do for these kids" I ask.

"Way more than it would ever do for me. I used some of the money to pay for Eddies funeral to help his family out and close the house. I don't plan on selling it because he was killed there, it didn't feel right. So I payed that off and it's going to stay empty until someone says something about it. Then I put some of the money back and the rest is in your hands" I explain.

"You are such a beautiful person" he claims and I start to blush.

"It's the least I can do. I might be strong and have been through a lot, but these kids, they're the real hero's. There's already so much working against them, I don't want finances to be a part of that too" I explain.

"I promise that this money will go to the kids... but there's something else I want to do with this" he claims.

"And what's that" I wonder.

"I want to get a arts and crafts room. That way you can come here whenever you feel like and paint for the kids then some days you can paint with them. Let them be kids for a little and create whatever it is they want to for a while.

You said it yourself, what art does for people in this situation can be insanely important. How they can forget about being sick and can be a kid for once. You can create a reality where their illness doesn't define them, that they live out their wildest dreams. This room can be just as important as any treatment it would pay for" he explains.

"I love it" I smile and he nods.

"Obviously I don't get to decide what happens around here, but I don't see a problem getting that done. I think the Luries would love to have a art room, it's up all over the place here" he nods.

"Well whatever you choose to do with it I know it will be in good hands" I insist.

"Have you sold any other paintings yet" he wonders.

"Not yet. I'm doing around three projects right now and they're all about done. I really like them and I hope whoever is interested likes them too" I admit.

"They'll love them, you could paint a line right now and people should break a arm to have it" he insists.

"I don't know about that" I giggle.

"I do. Whether you want to admit it or not, you're a popular artist. Not inspiring or up and coming, you're here and you're all people are talking about. They're not calling you my girlfriend or Eddies ex, you're Clara, the most incredible artist of this decade" he claims.

"I kinda like the sound of that."