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Ella

We decide to visit Grady before we part ways and head off on our separate adventures Amy, his nurse, called me and told me that Grady was still in the hospital, but that he was allowed to have visitors We make the hour drive around theto enjoy our last few days together

It’s a bright, sunny day, and the trees on the side of the road are green I hanglike there’s so ?" Micha teases, turning the ?"

I shake ht blue sky "No, I’hs at me and turns the music back up My head remains out theuntil we reach town, then I return to hts light up the parking lot and ht they showed up to take my mother’s body away

Micha squeezesme know he’s there for me "You ready for this?"

I nod and alk hand-in-hand across the parking lot and through the auto roo loudly on a woman’s lap The smell of cleaner collides with my nostrils as alk up to the front desk where a secretary is talking on the phone She’s young with dark hair woven in a bun on top of her head I catch her eyes skis up the phone and turns to us

She overlaps her hands and sets them on the counter "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, can you tell us what room Grady Morris is in?" Micha asks with a polite sers on the keyboard and then reads the screen "He’s on the second floor in rooraciously and head for the elevator Micha swings his ar me closer as we reach the floor and I sliphis comfort When we enter the roo up in his bed, eating a cup full of green Jell-O He looks pale under the florescent light, his arms nearly bones, and his eyes are more sunken in then the last ti in the corner, and an IV is taped to the back of his hand So theenuinely smile "Just what I wanted To see my two favorite people in the whole orld"

I loosen up and Micha and I pull up chairs beside his bed on opposing sides of one another Grady pushes the tray out of the way and sets his hands in his lap

"So do you want to tell e confused looks "With the cuddly entrance you two lance at Micha "He was being a baby Said he needed to be coddled"

Micha winks at me "Yep, and you fell for it"

Grady shakes his head and a frail laugh escapes his lips "Ah, it’s good to see you two back together" He grows silent, fixing his attention on me "You look happier than the last time I saw you"

"I a my arh," he says with concern

"I know," I say "But I’ll keep working on it"

He see for you over in the corner"

Micha and I track his gaze to a small box nestled in the corner of the room I walk over to it and peer down inside My smile expands as I pick up that broken vase I destroyed when I was a child It’s black, with a red pattern around the top, but the bottoain

I turn to him with the vase in s "Just because it’s broken doesn’t ive it to you one day when you realized it was okay to make mistakes"