A Time To Love

Read A Time To Love for Free Online

Book: Read A Time To Love for Free Online
Authors: Barbara Cameron
Tags: love
protest.
    "I'd like to take you for the appointment," her grandmother said as they stepped outside into the cold, crisp air.
    "I don't want to put you to any trouble," Jenny said. "I can call a taxi or something."
    "It's no trouble."
    Jenny hesitated and then she nodded. "That would be nice. Danki."
    Phoebe smiled. " Gem gschehne."
     

     
    "I was afraid of this."
    Tears ran down Jenny's cheeks. "Me, too. It hurts!"
    "You should have made an appointment as soon as you got here," Sue, the physical therapist, told her.
    "But I've done my exercises."
    "You need more for a while. I know they explained this to you." She looked at Jenny. "Right?"
    Jenny had never been able to tell the smallest untruth."Right." She wiped away the tears with the heels of her hands.
    The therapist, a woman not much older than she was, patted her arm. "So take a deep breath, and let's do some more work. Okay?"
    Nodding, Jenny took the deep breath and began again. As soon as I get back home, I'm taking a warm bath, she thought. Climbing into bed. Doing nothing for the rest of the day. Maybe not even climbing out of bed to eat. Then she remembered how her grandmother had put a pot roast with winter vegetables in the oven before they'd left.
    Well, maybe she could make it to the kitchen table. It wouldn't be right to let it go to waste, especially since her grandmother had worked so hard to cook it! And she was right—Jenny knew she was too thin.
    "Let's set up a schedule of appointments," the therapist said at last.
    She helped Jenny to sit up, then stand, and handed her patient her cane. They walked to an office where Jenny sank down gratefully into a chair. The therapist took a seat at a computer and worked out a several-times-weekly schedule of appointments, then printed it out and handed it to Jenny.
    "I've seen you on television," the therapist said, leaning back in her chair. "I watched you go to all those countries where war is making the lives of children so horrible."
    Jenny nodded. The woman spoke of it in past tense. And it was, after all.
    "Sometimes I wondered how you could stand what you were witnessing, what you were making sure we saw was happening," the woman said quietly. "But it was so clear how much you cared about the children."
    "Thank you." Jenny looked away, uncomfortable with the praise. "But anyone would have done it."
    "That's not true," the other woman said. "No one's rushed in since you were hurt to take your place. I'd like to help you get back in shape to return if that's what you want."
    "I—" Jenny didn't know what to say. "Thank you."
    Nodding, Sue stood. "See you Friday."
    "How was it?" her grandmother asked when she joined her in the waiting room.
    "Okay." She kept her head down so her grandmother wouldn't see that she'd been crying.
    They walked outside and got in the buggy. "Would you like to have something to eat while we're in town?" Phoebe asked her.
    "Would you mind if we didn't today?"
    Her grandmother patted her hand. "Of course not. I wondered if you'd be tired afterward."
    Tired wasn't the word. She felt like her limbs were filled with lead. Depression threatened to overwhelm her, but she smiled when her grandmother glanced her way.
    The ride home in the buggy seemed longer than the ride to therapy. By the time she climbed the steps to the house, Jenny was miserable. She offered to help put the horse and buggy in the barn but was secretly grateful when her grandmother refused her help. Somehow she'd make it up to her later.
    "Well, if you don't mind, then, I think I'll take a warm bath and soak for a while."
    "Let's eat first."
    Jenny shook her head. "I'm not hungry. You go ahead and eat."
    Phoebe frowned. "If you're in pain, perhaps you should take one of your pills."
    "I might." She leaned over and kissed her grandmother's cheek. "I'll be fine. I just need to soak and I'll be fine."
    But as she pulled off her clothes and started the tub filling, she felt the tears coming.
    They slipped down her cheeks and

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