Percy, page 9
Finally Shane interrupted one of their sessions and said, “She’s not here. Stop looking for her.”
He stared at him in shock. “What?”
“I can see you,” Shane stated. “You’re not giving 100 percent because you keep looking at the doorway, hoping that Giada will pop in.”
He flushed. “I just … I haven’t seen her for a while.” He frowned. “Is she okay?”
“She’s having some home issues,” Shane noted. “She’s working at getting it resolved now.”
He leaned forward immediately. “But she’s okay, right? Her brother isn’t stopping her?”
“I don’t think so,” Shane replied, looking at him in surprise.
“I know that we were talking about how potentially she would move here, but she told me that it would be a very hard conversation for her brother.”
“I don’t think he’d do anything to physically harm her though,” Shane stated. And then he stopped, looked at Percy, and added, “Unless you know something I don’t know.”
“I don’t know very much at all.” Percy raised both hands, feeling his body wrench with the movement. He hissed at the pain and slowly laid back down again, waiting for the ripples to shudder through him.
“Well, I’ll tell you what. If it’ll make you focus better, I’ll get Dani to check up on her.”
“That would be great.” Percy waited while Shane booked it down the hallway. Percy heard the sound of Shane running, and Percy was jealous to hear that sound of power and control, something he was striving for and one day hoped to get back. Something he needed to get back.
Just that sense of being in control of your body and not having things flop when you didn’t want things to flop and not having things flip when you didn’t want them to flip. He shook his head at that. He carefully went through the exercises Shane had given him because Shane wasn’t here in case Percy ran into trouble. By the time he finished the next set, Shane was back again. “Well? Is she okay?”
He grinned. “She’s taken a couple days off.”
“Really? She didn’t say anything about that.”
“No, maybe not, but Dani said that she’ll move into an apartment over here pretty quickly, so that’s probably why.”
“Oh,” Percy said in delight. “Good for her. I guess that means everything went okay with the brother.”
“Well, Dani got a text this morning, saying Giada wouldn’t be in, but I don’t know that anybody’s heard about how the conversation with the brother went.”
He nodded but felt an odd sense of disquiet. “I don’t feel very good about that,” he replied in a low tone.
Shane settled back on his heels. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t think that brother of hers will be very happy at all that she’s leaving.”
“Are you thinking that he’ll do something stupid?”
“I would hope not,” Percy murmured. “That would be pushing things too far. But I don’t think it’ll be quite so easy to leave as she’s thinking.”
Shane nodded quietly. “Well, lots of people are here she can call on to help, if it becomes ugly.”
“True.” After he did another set, gasping and lying on his back on the floor, his mind was once again consumed with thoughts of her and what she had ahead of her. He asked Shane, “Would she even tell you guys?”
“I don’t know,” Shane admitted, “I might talk to Dani after your session.”
“That sounds like a good idea. I don’t have her phone number, so I can’t call to see if she’s okay. And that’s not exactly a smart thing to do in this instance, I’m sure. I’m just a patient here,” he noted. “Yet we kind of hit it off, but that’s all.”
“Don’t knock yourself that way,” Shane stated. “She’s been good for you, and you’ve been good for her. After your talks, that seemed to be the added impetus for her leaving, I’m sure.”
He wasn’t so sure about that. “I hate to see people take advantage of others, and it seemed like that brother was pushing things to the limit.”
“Well, I’ve seen him once, and he’s one of those sulky types, who thinks the world owes him.”
Percy winced at that. “And he’s the one getting married? Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”
“Right? But, as long as they’re happy, what we think doesn’t matter.”
“No, I know, and it’s one thing to stress over some things, but it’s another thing to over stress.”
At that, Shane laughed. “And it’s one thing to use a discussion like this to get out of your work. What we can’t do is let discussions of her overtake our work today.”
“I’m working. I’m working,” Percy stated. “Besides, we’re still experimenting to see what we can do and what we can’t do.”
At that, Shane burst out laughing.
Percy grinned at him. “See? I’m not always working the angles.”
“People always work the angles,” Shane declared. “You’re talking about her brother working angles? It’s human nature. Everybody’s trying to figure out how to get the best deal for themselves.”
“Wow, you guys must see a lot of humanity, don’t you?” Percy muttered. And he did another set of exercises, feeling the sweat break out all over his body. When he collapsed back down from this one, he groaned.
“And now you’re done,” Shane stated.
“Oh, thank God,” he muttered. “I didn’t think I could do that last one.”
“You can always do more than you think,” Shane noted. “But, in this case, I don’t want you doing more than you think you can do because, right now, like you said, we’re still testing, still exploring the limits of what your body can do, before we ask it to push past that point. So there’s life after this, and we have to make sure that you don’t end up in pain again.”
“And how will we prevent that?” he asked. “Because I can already feel it coming on.” And then he cried out, his body twitching to the left with muscle cramps.
“No, no, no,” Shane said immediately, as he shifted Percy to his side. “Just relax. I’ll do some work on the back here.” And he quickly worked the insertion points on the muscles.
Percy shuddered as the pain kicked in again and then again. By the time the seizing stopped, he collapsed on his stomach on the floor. He was exhausted. “I really need that to stop.”
“Slowly you’ll notice that there’ll be a distance between sessions and those cramps, and that will widen as you get better and stronger,” Shane explained.
“Maybe,” he replied, rolling over on his back, slowly gasping in agony. “They just wipe me right out.”
“Do you want to try the hot tub again?”
“Yeah, I really do. But it’s morning. Is that okay?”
“It’s about ten-thirty,” Shane noted, “and that’s totally fine, as long as you’re up for it.”
“I want to be up for it,” he admitted. “It felt a lot better in the morning, and I even slept beautifully last night.”
“Good, let’s get you into the chair.” And Shane helped Percy up and over to the wheelchair. “Now we’ll go to your room, get you changed and down there.” It took a bit, but, by the time they finally reached the pool area, Shane asked, “Hot tub or pool?”
“Hot tub for the muscles,” he said instantly.
Shane looked over at Percy. “You a swimmer? Do you want to try the pool first? Then the hot tub?”
“Sure, let’s try the pool first,” Percy agreed.
And, with that, Shane shifted the angle of the wheelchair, brought him over to the pool, and locked the wheels, so that he could stand up and then hold on to the pool railing. Shane watched as Percy placed his remaining foot along the edge of the pool, and, using the railing, pulled himself up from his wheelchair by himself. Rather than a graceful dive into the pool, Percy literally flung himself into the water and sank right to the bottom. And then he bounced right back up to the top, broke through the surface, with a cry of joy.
“Now this is more like it.” Shane laughed. “I gather this makes it all worthwhile?”
“If this is the reward every day,” Percy replied, “you will have no problem getting me to work like a madman. The water is where I belong.”
And, with that, he dove back under yet again.
Chapter 9
Giada walked into work the following morning and got busy. Taking a couple of days off was one thing but showing up late two days in a row? Well, that wouldn’t be good. And yet she was still tired, stressed, and emotionally overwrought. To say that the discussion with her brother hadn’t gone well was an understatement. And he had doubled down on his stance, letting her know in no uncertain terms that absolutely no way would she be allowed to leave.
She hadn’t even considered that he would put up this kind of a fight. She was her own person, had been for a very long time—almost a decade. Yes, she and her brother had had many family members there for them in Giada’s and Francis’s early childhood and teenage years, and they all had been very close during that time. However, since then, Giada and Francis had lost both sets of grandparents and their own parents. So what remained of their big Italian family was now more remote relatives, like second cousins twice removed and the like, many still living in Italy.
So she wasn’t at all sure that some emotional attachment to her or their extended family was causing him so much stress, as much as it could have just been the fact that she was leaving. That change was happening. She was better at change than he was, but still they both suffered with the consequences. And, in this case, it was big change all-around. She had come to terms with the fact that he was getting married and that Giada’s childhood home would no longer be her home. She had just recently made her decision as to what she would do about it.
More freedom was ahead of her. She wouldn’t lie; she’d been looking forward to it. That kind of freedom she could get behind. Francis was making major changes and bringing a partner into his life, and that was great for him. But it wouldn’t do Giada any good if she still lived there. Being the third wheel was the last thing she wanted to do, or, even worse, an unpaid housekeeper and cook for Francis and Margaret. Her brother had even started making noise about stopping her from going to work. She had never even heard him talk like that before.
Yet her father had caused quite a kerfuffle when her mother had wanted to work. But her mother had backed down, preferring to stay home, after her husband had explained what the workforce was like. Giada had often wondered at her mother’s choice, but, as her mother was very much a homemaker, Giada hadn’t really questioned it. And nobody had questioned Giada’s decision to get out and have a career, especially when it was obvious that she wasn’t looking to get married anytime soon.
Times had changed since that previous generation, and maybe that was the blessing Giada hadn’t even been aware of that she had been granted. Nothing like finding out the world around you had not changed in one fell swoop.
The house was legally her brother’s, and she hadn’t felt bad staying there all this time, but no way did she want to stay there now. And it was strange because, of course, her mother had done the same thing. Once married, she’d moved into a house already occupied by her own mother-in-law and father-in-law. However, as soon as the newlyweds could afford it, Giada’s parents had moved into their own place—the home Giada and Francis grew up in. But, in this case, the story was different because, of course, this was her brother’s place.
Confused, upset, Giada buried herself in her work all day. When she finally lifted her head and realized she was almost in danger of missing out on lunch, she quickly got to her feet and strode down the hallway. The dining area was quiet, which said a lot about the time of day. As she walked in, she saw Dennis vacuuming the room. She winced. “I guess no food is left?” she asked, looking over at the coffee to see if something along the lines of a sandwich were in the nearby coolers.
“There are leftovers,” he replied, walking over, studying her face. “Are you okay?”
She frowned but nodded. “Yeah, but taking off yesterday caused a backlog of work, and I’ve been buried since I got back.”
“What can I get you?” he asked, as he moved behind the counter.
“How about some leftovers from lunch, maybe reheated?” she asked hopefully. “I didn’t get breakfast either.”
At that, his eyebrows shot up. “I can make you something fresh, like an omelet, but we do have some leftover chicken, and I think even some fajitas.”
“Both would be good,” she noted. “Any veggies?”
“Let me make you a plate. Missing breakfast is one thing. Missing breakfast and lunch?” He shook his head. “That’s not cool.”
“No, but it happens,” she admitted, “more often than I’d like to think.”
He nodded and then headed into the back area. She wandered around, looking at the coffee, and decided the last thing she needed was yet more caffeine. She did pick up a couple cookies for dessert and grabbed a bottle of juice. Maybe also not the best choice because of the carbs in each. Would likely send her blood sugar right up and drop it again. But, hey, some choices she had to accommodate.
When Dennis returned with an overflowing tray of food, she stared in astonishment. “Just because I didn’t eat earlier today doesn’t mean there’s room to stuff in all that now.” But she laughed when she looked at it. “Wow, I won’t need dinner tonight after this.”
Almost instantly her mind was grateful for that because she could avoid going home anytime soon. She smiled at Dennis. “Thank you.”
She added the bottle of juice and the cookies to the tray, carefully making her way with it back in her office. She wanted to shut her office door to close out the world, but it wasn’t to be. She was still plowing through her lunch, when a knock came at her open door, and she looked up to see Dani standing there.
“Hey,” Dani greeted her. “How was your time off?”
“Horrible,” she replied bluntly.
At that, Dani’s eyebrows popped up. “You had a few people worried about you.”
“Why’s that?” she asked, frowning.
“Well, for one, Percy had a terrible feeling that you weren’t okay, and he sent Shane down to check that all was well with you. And when I told Shane that you had the day off, that seemed to make Percy even more fretful.”
She stared at her boss and friend in surprise, slowly lowering the fork. “Oh my.” She frowned. “Did Percy have a particular concern?”
Dani nodded slowly, leaned against the doorjamb, and crossed her arms over her chest. “Percy didn’t feel good about your brother letting you go and was afraid that he would do something stupid.”
Giada almost felt sick to her stomach, as she realized just how accurate Percy’s assessment was. “I hate to say it,” she noted, “but Percy was more right than wrong.”
Dani walked in, sat down in the spare chair, and said, “Maybe you should tell me more about this.”
Giada nodded and explained what went on.
Dani immediately frowned and shook her head. “I get that now, with his change and yours, he’ll assert his head of the household mind-set and probably be even more insufferable,” Dani replied, with an eye roll, “but that’s quite a feudal mentality.”
“And not one I expected,” she admitted quietly. “I don’t know how come, all of a sudden, he’s feeling this way, but I suspect it’s insecurity.”
“And how. In a big way. … Yet what does he have to feel insecure about?” Dani asked, looking at her in surprise.
“Change,” she replied bluntly. “My brother doesn’t handle it well.”
“Well, he’s the one getting married.”
“I hate to say it, but there’s a good chance that, even if I caused a stink about it, he might prefer to break that off in order to avoid another major disruption. If I were to still live in the house, then he would only have to deal with the addition of living with someone, sharing the house and his bedroom with his soon-to-be wife. But the addition of Margaret, plus the loss of me, not to mention the change in circumstances with the control and management of the household, and all that comes with that, namely cooking and cleaning,” she noted quietly, “is possibly too much for him.”
Dani stared at her in surprise.
Giada shrugged. “I know. It’s. … It sounds foolish. I get it. But sometimes we find certain behaviors very difficult to control, and he and I, both of us, don’t handle change well,” she admitted. “But we didn’t have to deal with it, until something major happened.”
“Of course,” Dani agreed. “But it hadn’t occurred to me that he would be …” And she hesitated, at a loss for words.
“Don’t get me wrong. He wasn’t violent,” she clarified. “He didn’t …” She stopped because she was about to say, He didn’t threaten me—yet actually he did. “I don’t think his threats had merit. Let me put it that way.”
“But he did threaten you?” Dani asked, horror on her face.
“I was trying to work my way through that just now,” Giada replied. “The answer is yes and no. I think it was an implied threat, which could be construed as a threat, yes. I don’t want to think of it as a threat, so I’ll say, No, it wasn’t a threat.” And then she burst out laughing. “You can clearly see that we can’t handle some things in life, so we shift the blame to make the change look not quite so unpleasant—in this case, the change of the beliefs and the behaviors of my brother.”
“I get all that psychobabble,” Dani stated bluntly. “But the bottom line is, are you in danger?”
It made Giada sick to her stomach that somebody would even have to ask that question. She slowly put down her fork, staring at the fabulous food she’d been eating. “I don’t think so.”
“Because, if that is a problem, you know I can send somebody to collect your stuff.”
“And you know what? As I was looking around my place, I don’t even own very much,” she explained. “It’s been my home since childhood. In case you hadn’t heard, it’s … it’s our family home. Then, with both my parents gone, of course, my brother inherited everything.”
