Faces in the Water | Mark & Dylan
Class is out for the summer so I’ve been spending most of my time working at the hospital. I knew I would like working here but I didn’t know how much I would love it. Being able to put smiles on kids faces is probably the best thing about it. Knowing that what I’m doing helps lift their spirits and at the same time actual help in the healing process completely makes my day. I just wish I was as helpful in my relationship with Amber as I am in the hospital. I really worried about her. I mean, I’ve been there before… I know what it’s like… And I didn’t know how to help myself then so I don’t know how I expected myself to be able to help her now…
I need to clear my head.
Checking the time, I see that it’s ten minutes til my lunch break so I make my rounds on my patients making sure they won’t need me for the next hour. It’s tougher not having Arizona here but I’ve been trying to pick up the slack… helping out where I can when I have some free time.
After rounds, I grab my lunch and make my way out to the butterfly garden. It will always be my favorite place in the hospital. I sit down at the bench in front of the mini pond and for a moment, I just stare at my reflection in the water. I’m not sure how long later but another face appears in the pond next to me and I look up with a smile, “Hey, Uncle Mark. Sorry, I was just lost in thought…”
“It’s alright Dylan,” I say as I give her a hug. “I got a break and I heard you were out here so I was hoping to have lunch with you.” I tell her as I take out my sandwich before sitting down next to her.
“How’s the art project going for you?” I asked as I unwrapped my food. I was looking forward to spending some time with her.
“I’m all yours,” I smile in the hug. He asked if he could have lunch with me and I scoot over on the bench patting the newly open space for him to sit. He starts to peel away the paper over his sandwich and I pull out my fruit cup.
“It’s great. I’m really enjoying being able to help so many kids,” I say taking the first scoop, “I didn’t expect to like it this much…” I don’t mention the fact that I’m thinking about applying to med school. “But the kids are amazing and I just love knowing that I helped put those smiles on their faces.”
I start eating my sandwich as I listen to her talk, nodding. I get what she means and those kids deserve the best, they’re going through so much. I remembered after my injuries and being in the hospital how much everything helped that others did, it made me feel less alone.
“That stuff helps a lot. It raises spirits, and that’s a huge part in healing,” I tell Dylan. “I know people like you helped a lot after my accident, and it’s things like that that made everything a little more bearable. All the pain, the worry, the stress, it made it a bit better.”
He talks about his stint in the hospital and how having people like me there helped him a lot. I can’t help but thinking about the time I spent at his and Amy’s after my assault. He took me in, when Aunt Amy just brought me home, and in the middle of the nights when I was screaming and crying, he was there. He was always there. He was the first male that I was able to trust after the incident and I swear, if it wasn’t for him, I’d still be hiding in my mom’s house afraid of the world. I don’t know if I ever thanked him for that… Uncle Mark is like the closest thing I have to a dad. And I’ve always had a deeper connection with my father so it’s easier to talk to him.
“I wish I could do this for a living… art therapy,” I explain. Then I whisper, “I’m thinking about applying for medical school. I haven’t told anyone else yet… Do you think it would be a good idea? I mean, do you think I could do it? And like, be good at it?”
Dylan and I had gotten really close after she moved in with us. I tried to help her the best I could with healing after her attack. She was like my own daughter, and I loved her like one too.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea. You can also do therapy that way too in order to do art therapy with others.”
“Yeah?” I ask when he tells me that he thinks it would be a wonderful idea. I can’t help but smile a little to myself, “That’s what I was thinking… You know the two things that I love to do; art and helping people heal.” I leave myself a mental side note to thank Arizona for this job. It was an amazing opportunity that really opened my eyes to some things. Like the fact that I really do love helping people…
Now I just have to figure out how to do that in my romantic life. I look at myself in the pond once more gaining a little more confidence before turning back to my uncle, “Can I ask you something else? It’s, uh, about a friend of mine.”
I nodded and offered her a smile. "I think it's something you'll be amazing at if you want to do it," I tell Dylan with a small back rub. I remembered my first time volunteering in the emergency room. There was a kid that was badly injured with severe burns. I made it my goal to not let people have big scars to remind them of their most horrible days after that.
"Shoot, I'll see if I can answer it. Worse case I'll send you to your aunt with it. She knows everything," I tell Dylan with a wink.
