Eleanor surprised herself by agreeing.
At the park, they fed ducks and watched children play. Chloe asked what Eleanor loved before the accident.
“I used to dance,” Eleanor admitted quietly. “I felt free.”
“You don’t have to stand to feel music,” Chloe replied.
Beside the pond, Chloe began swaying her arms to imaginary music. After a long pause, Eleanor slowly lifted her own arms. She closed her eyes and remembered stages, laughter, movement. For the first time in three years, she focused on what her body could still do.
“You’re not broken,” Chloe told her softly. “You just stopped believing.”
They continued meeting. Slowly, Eleanor began to feel something she had refused to allow herself since the crash: hope.
Then one evening, disaster struck.
As Eleanor was leaving the park alone, her wheelchair caught on uneven ground near the pond and tipped. She struck her head against a stone. She was rushed to the hospital unconscious with a severe concussion. Doctors warned the next 24 hours were critical.
Chloe insisted on seeing her.
After much pleading, the hospital allowed five minutes in the ICU.