Back to Yesterday by Pamela Sparkman Read Free Book Online

weighing me down came off as well. I felt lighter, less burdened.
    “How does it feel?” Dr. Amberson asked, bending and extending my leg in slow, meticulous motions. “Any pain?”
    “No. Just feels itchy.”
    “All right. Let’s get you on your feet. Easy…take it slow.”
    Steadying myself, I put my weight on both legs. It felt unnatural at first and when I took my first steps, I did so with hesitation.
    “I feel like a toddler,” I admitted to my doctor. “Like I’m learning to walk for the first time.”
    Dr. Amberson handed me one crutch. He was the specialist I had been assigned to and the one who had performed my surgeries. “Put some of your weight on this and take small steps.”
    I did as instructed and practiced the art of walking for a good ten minutes until I felt confident that I could do it without the aid of a crutch.
    In a stern voice Doc said, “Now, I don’t want you overdoing it.”
    “What’s overdoing it?”
    “Too much too soon, Charles. You have screws in your leg. You’re still healing. It will take time to get your range and motion back. I want you walking and exercising in small increments throughout the day and I want you resting in between.”
    “Sure.”
    Doc went over a list of exercises for me to do each day, and by the time I left his office, I felt like a new man, unencumbered and determined to bounce back in record time.
    In the following days, the strength in my leg improved, although I had a noticeable limp. Still, I was moving through rehabilitation like a champ and had recently been assigned a desk job for the short term. Combat crew replacement. Pretty self-explanatory. Whenever we needed to replace a pilot or rotate one out, I helped with the logistics of getting our men where they needed to be as quickly as possible.
    I didn’t hate my new job. I was glad to be serving in any capacity I could, although on a base level, I was bored out of my mind. Pushing a pencil around all day did not do it for me. However, when I walked inside the café and saw the girl I could never stop thinking about all other thoughts drifted away.
    I waited for Sophie’s shift to end and then I walked her home like all the times before, only this time was different. The air felt charged, magical, and spiced with exhilarating freshness. It seeped into the pores of my skin and I felt rejuvenated. It was the oddest thing. I think Sophie felt it too, because while we walked with our arms linked, she hummed.
    “ Smile .”
    “What?” Sophie asked.
    “You’re humming Smile by Charlie Chaplin.”
    “I was? I didn’t realize.”
    “Is it the song you like or the fact that it was written by someone who shares my name?”
    “Well, it would have to be the name, of course,” Sophie said, poking me in the side. “Do you have family, Charlie?”
    I chuckled because Sophie was like a ping pong ball at times, bouncing from one topic to the next without a break in between.
    “What? What’s so funny?”
    “You are. You switch gears faster than anyone I’ve ever met.”
    “If you can’t keep up then say so.”
    “I can keep up.”
    “Good. Then answer the question.” She poked me again.
    We walked a little further before I answered. “My mother died when I was eleven. My father raised me.”
    “I’m so sorry,” she said quietly.
    “My dad and I, we did okay.”
    “Does your dad live nearby?”
    “Nah, he lives in Oklahoma.”
    “Then why are you here in Tennessee and not there?”
    “The type of injury I had required a specialist who happens to be here. I got lucky.”
    “Lucky?”
    “Yeah,” I said with a wink. “If I didn’t need a specialist then I never would have met you.”
    She shook her head and chuckled quietly. The sun was beginning to set, and the orange glow was doing amazing things to Sophie’s features. I found myself unable to look away.
    “I feel like I’m leading the blind,” she said.
    “Why do you say that?”
    That jewel of a smile that was uniquely