Shawn awoke from a nap. He didn’t know how long he had been sleeping or what time it was. He couldn’t even tell if it was light out or dark. He sat listening intently. He heard commotion and voices outside of his room.
“Hello?” He whispered trying to find out if there was anyone in the room with him. Silence. As he sighed he smelled a faint aroma of flowers. He breathed more deliberately while turning his head side to side, trying to locate them. Sensing they were on his right side he reached out his hand to check. He was right. His hand gently brushed over the tops of the flowers. His imagination tried to create their appearance and for the first time since losing his sight, he had done something on his own without using his eyes: he had found the flowers that Philip brought him. Philip…..a pit grew in his stomach. He wondered where Philip and Belle were. Where were his parents? Why was he by himself?
“Stop it. Don’t do this to yourself.” He spoke aloud. He decided that he would work on using his other senses to figure out things about the room, at least it would pass the time until Belle came back. He missed her.
*
The entire walk home Philip kept thinking about his encounter with Belle in the park. Why was he noticing those things about her? He tried to think about other things, but his thoughts always came back to her. As he reached his house he stopped walking and looked up at the sky, it was beginning to darken. A breeze sent chills through his back. He smelt the air and immediately remembered the coconut smell of Belle’s hair.
“Do I like Belle?” He asked himself. Philip continued to enter his house and go directly to his room. He plopped down onto his bed. His mind seemed to move in slow motion, just thinking of Belle brought on a strange feeling through him. He had not felt that way since he began to like Chloe. The only answer had to be that he had feelings for Belle. He smiled to himself suddenly remembering his accidental kiss with Belle at her house. Thinking of this brought smiles to his face. They quickly faded when he realized that she was taken.
“I can’t do that to Shawn. Especially not now in the condition that he is in. I’ll just have to hide the way I feel about her.” After he had said this though he wondered if that was possible.
*
Belle knocked on the Brady’s door. Hope answered with JT on her hip.
“Hi Sweetie! Come on in.” Belle entered as Hope shut the door behind her. “Is everything alright? Did you just come back from seeing Shawn?”
“Actually I left the hospital a long time ago. Shawn sort of kicked me out because he was upset. Philip said something about seeing me that upset Shawn.”
“Aw, it’s going to be difficult for all of us from now on that Shawn is going to be extra sensitive to things we take for granted. But we’ll all just work on making his recovery easier.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“That’s very sweet of you. Why don’t I show you some of the things we’ve done?” Hope led Belle around the house showing her the minor and major adaptations they’ve made to their house so that Shawn would be able to resume his life as normally as possible. They had put away sharp knives in the kitchen, cleared floors as much as possible from things that might trip Shawn, and they even shortened the cord to his own phone so he wouldn’t trip on it. Bo had invited Belle to join them for dinner. She gladly accepted. The three of them sat around the table in the kitchen, with JT in his high chair.
“Tell me Belle, how are your parents handling your brother?” Hope asked as she wiped JT’s dinner from his face.
“Well they basically paid off the judge so that Brady wouldn’t have to spend time in jail or anything. He just has to do a bunch of community service and go to counseling for anger management. Personally I think what they did is wrong. I don’t think I can face them….” Her voice trailed off.
“So is that why you’ve spent the entire evening here?” Bo asked as he touched her hand with his. Belle was stunned that Bo had said that. “Don’t get me wrong, we love your company. You are a very sweet girl and Shawn is lucky to have you in his life. He’s really going to need you now, but don’t you think that you should mend things with your family?”
“Yes, but it’s so hard. I started to shake when I saw them this morning.”
“We’re not saying we don’t want you here Belle. We love your company, in fact we hope you’re here a lot once Shawn is released from the hospital. But we think that right now it’s a very crucial time for your family and perhaps after dinner you should go home and try to fix things. You know, talk things through. It will help, that way,” She stood and picked up JT from his chair who had began to fuss, “The next time you have dinner you will be able to be completely happy and have your mind free to help Shawn.”
Belle knew that both were right. After she helped clean up after dinner she hugged Bo and Hope, kissed JT and headed home. She knew she was doing the right thing. She felt privileged to have such caring people in her life.
*
Chloe sat in her room. Her small table lamp emanating a soft golden glow around her room. She sat still on her bed as she fit the pieces of her plan together. She decided that her first day back at school she would initiate her revenge on Philip.
“Too bad that it will involve Shawn and Belle.” She said. “But if I can trick someone else to do the dirty work for me, then that’s even better. Philip is going to pay for having me locked up…….”
