Chapter 14
Rehabilitation annoyed Emily.
That was good.
Annoyance meant fear was no longer controlling every movement.
Dr. Pierce gave her exercises.
Gentle stretches.
Breathing work.
Short walks.
She complained about all of them.
I celebrated every complaint.
“Again?” she groaned one morning.
“Again.”
“You’re mean.”
“Apparently.”
She smiled.
Progress.
The old brace remained in a locked cabinet in my workshop.
Not because I wanted to preserve it forever.
Because Emily asked where it went.
I told her.
She wanted to see it.
Not yet.
That answer surprised me.
“I thought you hated it.”
“I do.”
“Then why see it?”
She shrugged.
“To know it can’t close.”
So one afternoon, I brought it out.
The cut straps hung loose.
The chain was separate.
Padlock broken.
Emily stared for almost a minute.
Then touched the brace.
“It looks smaller.”
That sentence stayed with me.
Fear changes dimensions.
“What should we do with it?”
She looked toward my workbench.
“Can we make something?”
Of course she was Sarah’s daughter.
We did not destroy the entire brace dramatically.
We removed the metal pieces.
Saved one short section of chain.
The rest went away.
Emily chose the chain section.
“For birdhouse.”
I frowned.
She had designed a wooden birdhouse with a tiny hanging roof.
The chain could suspend it from a tree.
Perfect.
Metal once used to restrict her would hold something free enough to fly away.
I did not explain the symbolism.
Emily would have hated that.
She only cared whether the birdhouse hung straight.
May you like
It didn’t.
We fixed it together.
