Shane stuck his head around the door. “I saw you come down the hallway.” He came in, took one look, and said, “How’s the arm, that shoulder?”
He just glared at him. “What about them?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice? Playing the guitar will tax that shoulder,” he said. “It’s already stripped of some very important muscles.”
Slowly Lance sagged in bed. “I was really hoping it would be fine,” he said. “But every time I play—”
“I know,” Shane said, coming over and taking a look at the shoulder. “Stretch out on your stomach,” he said. “Let me work it over a bit and see if we can loosen up some of the tension there. I hadn’t realized music was a big part of your life.”
“And it could be a big part of my future,” Lance said, “but only if I can play without hurting myself.” They stretched the bed out totally flat, and, with Shane’s help, Lance flipped over onto his belly and tried to relax. He knew this arm was pretty ugly, but it was the one that he used to pick the guitar strings.
“Have you tried any other instrument?”
“Haven’t had access to anything,” he said. He waited while Shane put something on his hands, and then, slowly, working from the center of the scapula over the shoulder bone and down the elbow into the hand, he massaged each and every one of the muscles. “Some of the muscles back here are in rough shape,” Shane said. “It looks like we need to do some extra work on those.”
“Well, I wasn’t really thinking of music when we did our initial assessments,” he said. “At the time, I wasn’t even sure I could still play.”
“Yeah, but now that I know, we’ll put in some extra time and see if we can get this shoulder to work,” Shane said. “It’s just as important that we have our pursuits and the things that matter to us, as well as being fundamentally functional.”
“Well, it worked,” he said, “but it was awkward being in the wheelchair and having to hold everything differently. So I strained the shoulder.”
Shane didn’t say anything, so Lance kept quiet and just let him work. By the time he finished working on the arm, it still ached, but in a good way. It was much better than when he first came back from being outside. “Pushing the wheelchair back to the center wasn’t very helpful either,” he murmured.
“No, I heard the music and saw you out there,” Shane said. “I guess you were trying to get away from bothering others, huh?”
“Dani said there have been a few complaints,” he said.
Shane sighed. “As much as I like people, sometimes I don’t like people. But everybody is different, so not everybody may have appreciated the impromptu concert.”
“Exactly,” he said, “and I don’t have a soundproof room, and that’s way too expensive to do here. So, as long as I can find a place to go and do some playing every once in a while,” he said, “I figure at least I can stay in touch and try and build up the arm.”
“Not playing too much too quickly would also help,” Shane said. “Remember. We’ve got to do things in stages.”
“I guess I’m impatient. I saw the guitar, picked it up, and I played, never thinking it would be stopped the next day.”
“So today is what? Three days since the last time?”
“Yes,” he said. “I thought it would be fine.”
“And you thought that, if you were far enough away, it wouldn’t matter if you made a mistake, since nobody would really be listening, right?”
That prompted a surprised laugh from Lance. “I guess you could say that. I didn’t think Jessica would really mind.”
“She looked totally happy to me,” Shane said.
“Yeah, but sometimes I think she’s there as a nurse, an overcompensating nurse in some ways,” he said. “I can’t really explain it.”
“Listen, Lance. We all have a challenge,” Shane said, “of separating our personal feelings from our professional feelings. What I can tell you is that this is the first time I’ve ever seen her get so involved with a patient.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously,” Shane said. “Now let’s do some work on the other side,” he said. “We can’t have you lopsided.” He quickly worked the other shoulder and scapula, then all the way down to the fingers. When he was done, he tucked that shoulder back under the sheet. “Now, if you can power nap for a few minutes, do so,” he said. “Otherwise, when you get up, have a hot shower to keep those joints rotating,” he said, “and we’ll be adding that to our work list.”
“Sounds good,” he murmured.
And Shane just chuckled. “You’re almost asleep as it is,” he said.
“I am. I didn’t expect it, but I am.”
Chapter 9
Two days later Jessica saw Lance at lunchtime.
He looked up in surprise when she sat down quickly at his table. “You look rushed.”
“It’s been crazy,” she exclaimed, brushing loose tendrils of hair off her face. “We’re short-staffed again, so we’re all doing double duty, trying to keep things afloat.”
“That’s always tough.”
She watched him eat. “You’re favoring your shoulder.” He frowned at her. She nodded. “I can see it.” He just glared. She shrugged and said, “Fine, don’t tell me,” she said. “I’ll just have to guess what happened.”
“Nothing happened,” he said.
“If you say so,” she said.
But, as she studied him, he knew it wouldn’t be long before she
