Family Matters by Deborah Bedford Read Free Book Online Page B

the little girl on. “Let’s see turtle legs kicking…kicking…” She clapped her hands for the little girl who played beside her on the pallet. “That’s what I like to see.” She turned to the two parents sitting beside her, watching. “I can tell you’ve been working with her at home.”
    â€œWe have been,” the proud father told her. “Every day. All the time.”
    Andy motioned for the candy striper to bring her a towel from the cabinet. “Let’s try something new. Challenge time, kiddo.” Andy rolled the towel and placed it beneath the eighteen-month-old’s stomach. She showed Kara how to place her arms to balance herself. Then she dug around in the toy bin.
    â€œLet’s see what we can find that’s interesting in here.”
    Andy pulled out a tin funnel, its rim lined with holes and metal rings and six different sizes of measuring spoons.
    Kara squealed and reached for them as they jangled.
    The little girl flopped over against the towel and rolled off it.
    â€œOops.” The therapist caught Kara and laid her on the rolled towel again. “Let’s try again.”
    Kara reached over and over again for the jangling spoons. And over and over again, she toppled off the mount Andy had made for her.
    â€œShe’s right where she needs to be.” Andy reassured the parents every time she reached out to catch the child. “This will start to get easier. She’s a fast learner.”
    Andy stared out the window for a moment, her fingers cupping her chin, trying to remember her schedule. “When’s your next appointment with Kara’s doctor?”
    â€œTwo weeks from Friday,” they said together.
    â€œI’d like to see her before then.” But she caught the worry on Kara’s mother’s face immediately.
    â€œIs that a problem?”
    â€œWe won’t have enough for the train fare that soon,” Kara’s father admitted.
    â€œI’ll make an appointment for the same day she’ll see the doctor, then. You can bring her for therapy when you’re already here.”
    â€œThat would be better. Maybe next month we can bring her in more often.”
    It was the most painful thing Andy could think of, a child who needed therapy but who couldn’t get it as often as needed. She understood her brother’s financial frustrations so well. In many ways, they were her own.
    Children’s Medical Center charged its patients based on their ability to pay. But what about the children like Kara whose parents couldn’t afford the train fare to bring her in? It was for that very reason that Mark had established his bathing suit fund. For some of Mark’s water therapy patients, a new bathing suit was as unattainable as a new house.
    The other kids didn’t know how lucky they were. Kids like Cody Stratton whose parents would be able and willing to give him anything…everything…to make him well again.
    Others, like Buddy Draper, could buy the moon and it still wouldn’t be enough.
    Father, Buddy is out of my life, she prayed. I thought I knew Your will. I thought it was safe to give my heart .

Chapter Five
    B uddy Draper plopped his loafer-clad feet atop his desk and leaned back to watch the game video for the third time. He groaned as he watched Townsend struggle to catch up with the ball. He shook his head as he noted the point where the man gave up and began falling back.
    I never would have played it that way, he thought. If I had been playing full throttle I never would have given up.
    Andy’s long-ago words echoed in his head. You were happy being the celebrity soccer player as long as the goals and the fame came easy for you. But now that you won’t be the star player anymore…now that you won’t make so many goals…now that you’re going to have to work for it, you give up. How dare she compare him with those kids she worked with.