Recovery of a Hero Ch. 14

I whispered to her, "Erica made the boxes," since there wasn't a card on either of them.

She thanked Erica for the beautiful gift.

I didn't know what I'd do with most of the things I'd gotten, but I new that I was going to make a list of each type of gift and who gave it. I knew what I was going to be spending my allowance on for awhile.

I'd have to say the party was a complete success. All my friends had made it, and we had fun with all the games we played. We even had a water volleyball match in the pool with the kids against the adults. I sat that one out with Uncle Dar.

He put his arm around me while we watched the game and said, "Soon you'll be back at it again. When Janny says you can, I'll help you get back in shape real quick. I promise you that you'll be doing everything just like you used to in just a few weeks. You haven't been down long, so it won't be that hard."

I said, "Thank you Uncle Dar. Maybe we can work together when Janny says that I'm well enough."

"That's the idea," he said. "When your ready to start, just let me know and I'll get you on stretching exercises first and then get you on a few weights and a bike. By the time your up to the bike, I should be too. Then we can go on bike rides and have fun while we get back into shape. Think you can handle that?"

"I can handle anything you throw at me, old man. I bet that when we go on them bike rides you'll have to call George to come get you cause you won't keep up."

"Ah," he said. "A challenge. Good. That'll make it more fun when I run your little tail into the ground."

I laughed and hugged him and said, "I don't care if you do. I'll do it just because you'll be there with me."

"Always, munchkin, always," he said.

That was good enough for me and was one of the best presents I got that day.

Later in the day, when everybody was starting to go home, Janny came up to me and said that we were going in to my doctor the next day. She said that he was going to give me a physical and if he OK'd it I'd be able to start Cheerleader practice again.

This excited me more than the party! If the doctor said OK, then I could go to practice and start swimming again! Now this was a great birthday present!

After everybody but Shelly and Sandra had left, I told my friends and Uncle Dar what Janny had told me. They were almost as excited as me, I think.

Ellen said, "Oh I hope he lets you come back. We've all missed you at practice."

"Yea," said Sandra. "It would be great if you could start again. I know that Coach Coulter has something special she wants to work on, but we need our super ball back for it to work."

"Oh?" I asked. "I wonder what that could be. Whatever it is, though, I bet it's fun."

Nancy said, "I think she wants to include Uncle Dar in something too. I don't know what, but she was talking to us all and asked if we'd mind doing something that included him. We all said yes, of course. We all love Uncle Dar."

"Well," I said. "We have to wait for tomorrow and see, I guess."

They agreed, and we all packed onto the couch to watch TV. I don't know exactly how long we were there, but eventually Janny came in and told us that it was time for me to go to bed since we had to make an early start for my appointment. I said good night to my friends and went into Uncle Dar's little room and said good night to him to, giving him a hug.

I went to my room and I got ready for bed. I was tired by that time, but it was a happy tired after a wonderful day. I put my locket up on the dresser where I had placed the pictures I had gotten. I had the box for Uncle Dar's medal in the middle and I put the locket on a pad in front of it. These had already become my most cherished possessions. That done, I got into bed.

It didn't take me long to fall asleep that night, and I slept well. Janny woke me up at about five the next morning and helped me get ready, then we went into the kitchen and had a quick breakfast before heading to the doctor.

Even leaving that early, the traffic was heavy. It took us almost an hour and a half to go a bit over thirty miles. Even with that mess, though, we got to the medical clinic where my appointment was in time.

The exam went well, and the doctor told me that I was fit to go back to my regular routine. He knew that I was a Cheerleader and was studying gymnastics, so I was real happy about that. All he said about it was, "Just don't go landing on your head any more. I don't know if it will be fixable next time."

I laughed and said, "I don't plan to do any thing like that again. Once was too many times for me."

He smiled and said, "Good. I don't want to see you as a patient any more."

I said, "Then you'll just have to come to our place as a friend some time."

"All right, I will," he said. "Might make it easier to examine Mr. DeShade anyway."

I said, "I wouldn't bet on that. He sees you coming and I bet he breaks into the storage shed and swipes the ATV we have. Then It'd probably take hours to find him."

That reminded me about my bike. I asked him, "Do you think I'll be able to learn to ride a small dirt bike now?"

He said, "I don't know about that." He paused for a moment like he was thinking then said, "Do you think your able to learn how to ride one?"

I laughed and said, "Then all I need now is a letter from you for my coach and to tell Janny I can try to learn to ride my new dirt bike."

He did up the letter and signed it then handed it to me. I put it in my purse, and thanked him. He took me back out to the waiting room and talked to Janny for a bit, then said "Good bye."

I said, "Good bye, Doctor and thank you."

He smiled and went back in to his office.

Janny and I went out to the car, and she said, "Well the doctor said that it's all right for you to go back to your cheerleader practice and you can ride your bike as long as you wear that helmet and you're careful. I don't like the bike but mom did say it was OK when you were 14 so I guess I'm stuck with that.

"Thank you Janny," I said. "Since it'll be George teaching me, I'll be all right. He won't let me get hurt."

"He can't stop you if you aren't careful," said Janny. "George will teach you how to ride safely, but it's up to you to do it. That's why I'm worried. I don't want you going out and getting hurt is all. Once was enough."

I looked at her and said, "I don't intend to get hurt. Once in the hospital was enough for me, thank you. I don't want to go back again. I promise to be careful on the bike."

Janny said, "I know you will. It doesn't stop me from worrying though. I just don't want to loose my baby sister."

I hugged her and said, "Thank you big sister. I don't want to loose me either." We both laughed at that, and left the clinic.

On the way home, I saw a computer shop and pointed it out to Janny and asked if we could stop. Janny asked why as we pulled in and I said, "I want to see if we can find something special for uncle Dar. He's gotten us all nice things, so I want to get him something special. Since he likes computers so much, I think that this would be the best kind of place to look."

We went in, and I looked around to see what they had that uncle Dar might be interested in. I saw a lot of neat stuff, but nothing I could afford so I told Janny that it was a waste of time.

She asked me why, and I told her that I didn't have enough money for the things that uncle Dar would like.

She told me, "Well I wasn't planning on telling you yet, but your allowance went up from Mom and Dad's estate. You get a lot more now so I think you can afford a little bit here."

"Really?" I asked.

"Really," Janny replied. You get two thousand a month now, so you have enough. But you had better save some of that each month or I'll get real mad and make you save. You need to start planning on college and other things now. If you want to get Uncle Dar something, though, I'll advance a little bit to you for a good present. But you have to pay me back on the first."

"I promise, Janny," I said. "I'll pay you back first thing."

"That's good enough for me, sis," she said.

I went back to the area where the hard drives and stuff were. I saw a CD copier that I thought Uncle Dar would like as he hadn't gotten one for his computer when he bought it. I decided that was the perfect thing and I took it to Janny and told her how much it was.

She said, "A bit pricey, but these things are expensive. All right, I'll get it for you and we'll get a card and some wrapping paper for it and take it home. I'd suggest putting something like ‘Happy Belated Birthday' on the card. I know he didn't get any gifts for his birthday, but that trip was real nice. Now he has a gift too."

I thanked Janny and gave her a hug saying, "Thank you. I really appreciate this."

She hugged me back and said, "No problem. I want to get him something too, so you show me what he'd like and we'll both get him gifts. He out to be real happy when we give them to him."

"Uncle Dar is almost always happy," I said.

"Well, how bout happier?" Janny asked.

I laughed and said, "That works."

We went back to the area where I'd found the CD copier and I saw a web camera that I thought he might like. They also had some nice printers that were on sale. I told Janny, "I think he might like that camera or one of those printers. He uses Georges right now, and I bet he'd love having his own."

"Good Idea, sis," Janny said. "How bout one of each and the CD copier?"

I said, "I bet he'd like that. OK, I'll go in halves on the printer with you and pay you back on the first. That OK?"

"I have a better idea," said Janny. "How bout I call George and see if he wants to get one and I'll get the other? That way we can each get him a gift that he'll like. Then we'll get them home and wrapped up for him and give them to him after dinner."

"OK," I said. "Deal."

We got the stuff and put it all in the trunk to sneak in when Uncle Dar was busy. We drove the rest of the way home talking about the stuff we'd gotten for Uncle Dar and how we'd surprise him with it. We even stopped at a bakery and got a cake large enough for the bunch of us and candles for it too.

When we got home, George was waiting for us and came up to the car. He told us that Uncle Dar was out back with his girls and Shelly and Sandra. Since he was out back, we took all the stuff inside and up to George's and Janny's room to wrap.

George put the cake into the fridge in the pantry while Janny and I wrapped the gifts up. I signed my card for him and put it on the CD package. Janny did the same with the camera and when George came back in, he did his card for the printer.

We went back down stairs after we'd finished, and went out back. Uncle Dar was in the pool for the first time since my accident and was playing tag with Ellen and Sandra.

I saw the fun they were having so I ran back inside to my room and put on my suit. Going back out, I went to the side and gave Uncle Dar a cannon ball just as he turned around toward me. Got him good too.

When I came up, Uncle Dar was laughing. He ducked under and took off. "Wow," I thought. "I don't want to race him in the water." The funny thing was that he hardly seemed to use his legs, more his hands and skimmed along the bottom like a fish.

I'd never seen anybody swim like that before, and he sure was fast. Turned fast, I saw when he spun around and came back at me. When he reached me, he grabbed my legs and yanked me down. I didn't have a chance to escape, so down I went and got dunked.

When I came back up again, he was gone again. I looked around and he was already half way across the pool. I decided that it wasn't safe to pick on him in the pool and looked for someone safer to pick on.

The others seemed to be playing some kind of tag, so I started swimming toward them when my legs were grabbed and I got dunked again!

When I came up that time, I looked around and saw George laughing a couple feet away. He hadn't even bothered to get his suit on, since he'd been wearing shorts anyway. I glared at him and exclaimed, "Boy, are you going to get it!"

He laughed and said, "Now we're even for when you girls tossed me in awhile back."

I growled out, "Even? You deserved it!"

"Well your just going to have to catch me then," he said.

"I've got a better idea," I said, I turned around and told the other girls, "George needs another lesson, come on, lets get him!

The others immediately started splashing and throwing balls and other things at George. This lasted for a few minutes, and then he said, "All right. I surrender."

"No prisoners!" shouted Nancy. We all continued the attack on George till we all got tired and climbed out of the pool to dry off.

"I've sure missed playing in the pool," I said.

George said, "Well I think you should still take it a bit easy, but Janny told me that you can swim now, and next weekend when I'm off work, we start lessons with the bike."

"Thank you George," I said. "I've wanted to learn to ride one for a long time now."

"I know," he said. "But since I don't want Janny to kill me, I suggest you be very careful on it for awhile. No hot roding, no jumps or such like that. Take it easy till she gets used to it."

"OK," I said. "I'll behave on it."

"Good," He said. "That's all I ask."

After we had all dried off, we went in and changed. When we came back out, I said "Since Uncle Dar didn't get a party for his birthday, Janny and I got something for him."

I went back in and got the cake and brought it out to the biggest table. While I was gone, Janny and George had disappeared. They were soon back, though, with the presents that Janny and I had picked up for him.

I set up the candles for Uncle Dar and George lit them.

Uncle Dar looked at the cake then said, "I only wish Megan was here. Then all my best friends would be here."

I said, "Oh shoot. I didn't think to call her."

Janny said, "Well I did, and she'll be here in about five more minutes."

I asked Uncle Dar, "So, you think you can wait on the candles?"

"Yes," He said. I put the candles out and we waited for Megan to get there.

It wasn't long before she came around through the gate to the pool from the front.

I lit the candles again and said, "OK, now she's here. Ready now?"

Uncle Dar said, "I thought I already had a party."

"This is just us," I said. "We want to give you a real birthday today, and we're going to."

I lit the candles and we all sang happy birthday to Uncle Dar. After we finished, he blew out the candles.

George handed him a knife to cut the cake with and he cut it into pieces for each of us. When he was finished, Janny served them and George passed out the ice cream.

Uncle Dar looked at us and said, "Thank you all. I really am glad to have you all as friends."

I said, "We're glad you're here. We all love you."

Uncle Dar's eyes clouded up and he said, "I love all of you to. No matter what the future brings, I always will."

After we had finished the cake and cleaned up I told Megan, "Tomorrow I'll be at Cheerleader practice. The doctor said I can start again." I gave her the note from him.

She said, "Good. I'm glad you're back with us. We'll take it easy on you at first so you can get back into shape, and then I want to work on something with your four friends here. Having an acrobat and two dancers and two look-alikes can make an interesting combination."

"They told me," I said. "It out to be fun to try something, and the others want to go with me to my gymnastics classes if they can get permission from their parents."

Uncle Dar looked at his girls and asked, "Do you want to do this? It'll be hard work, but if you want, I'll approve it and get you signed up."

Ellen and Nancy both got up and ran over to him and Ellen asked, "Do you mean it?"

Nancy asked, "We can take the classes?"

Uncle Dar said, "No, I just said it to be mean. What do you think?"

They both hugged him and said, "Thank you Daddy Dar."

Uncle Dar looked at Megan and asked, "Can you give us a lift? I still need to get my drivers license back and I need to get a vehicle. We never did get a chance to look for one, so can you help?"

Megan said, "All you need to do is ask, and since you did and I'm not busy until the afternoon tomorrow, I'll be happy to take you around."

We made plans to get Ellen and Nancy signed up with my gymnastics instructor, and to see about whether or not Sandra and Shelly could also. Then we were going to the Department of Licensing so Uncle Dar could see about getting his license back. Sounded like a busy day to me, but it would be nice to go out with my friends too.

Later, after talking for a couple more hours, Megan left and I went to bed. I had pretty much given up my job with Uncle Dar as he had two helpers now and was getting much better. I'd miss that but I was glad for the three of them too.

This ends Chapter 14. Chapter 15 will continue with Sally telling the Story.