Chương 3
“Yes.”
“Does it work?”
“Usually.”
He looked back at Maya.
“That’s annoying.”
“I know.”
The answer came so quickly that Luca actually smiled.
This time, he did not deny it.
Maya noticed.
She did not point it out.
That was somehow worse.
She simply accepted it.
Later that night, after Maya had fallen asleep in the guest room and Elena had gone downstairs to pick up a few things from the lobby, Luca remained in the living room.
He had not moved from the window.
The apartment was quiet again.
But it was not the same quiet.
He looked down at his legs.
The same legs that had carried him through college.
The same legs that had run through airports when he was late.
The same legs that had held him steady beside his father’s hospital bed.
For years, he had looked at them like they were evidence of everything he had lost.
Now, for the first time, they looked like a question.
He reached down slowly.
His hand stopped halfway.
A strange fear came over him.
Not fear that nothing would happen.
Fear that something would.
His phone vibrated on the table beside him.
The sudden sound made him flinch.
The screen showed a name he had not expected.
Dr. Aaron Bell.
Luca stared at it before answering.
“Hello?”
“Luca?”
The doctor’s voice was older than he remembered.
Not weaker.
Just older.
“I saw the message Elena sent.”
Luca looked toward the hallway.
“She messaged you?”
“She thought it was better than letting you make an appointment while convincing yourself nothing happened.”
Luca leaned back.
“That sounds like Elena.”
A pause followed.
Then Dr. Bell spoke again.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
Luca almost gave the answer he always gave.
Nothing.
It was a habit.
A shield.
But he stopped.
“My leg moved.”
“Describe moved.”
Luca frowned.
“What?”
“Did you feel a muscle contraction?”
“I think so.”
“Think?”
“I don’t know.”
His voice became sharper.
“I haven’t felt anything there in years.”
Dr. Bell became quiet.
Luca knew that silence.
Doctors used silence when they were choosing words.
That usually meant the words would hurt.
“Luca.”
“What?”
“I don’t want you to misunderstand what this means.”
There it was.
The warning.
The careful distance.
“I didn’t say I was walking tomorrow.”
“No.”
The doctor paused.
“But you’re already somewhere dangerous.”
Luca looked at his reflection in the glass.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you are trying to protect yourself from disappointment before we even know what happened.”
The sentence bothered him because it sounded too accurate.
“I’m just asking questions.”
“You are Luca Costello.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you have never asked a question without already building a plan around the answer.”
Luca looked away.
He hated that the doctor knew him well enough to say that.
After the accident, he had fired three therapists because they told him to slow down.
He had switched hospitals twice because he believed someone else would give him a different answer.
He had spent millions chasing solutions.
Not because he was foolish.
Because accepting a permanent loss felt impossible.
“I need you to come in,” Dr. Bell said.
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
Luca looked toward the guest room.
Maya’s small shoes were sitting outside the door.
“Okay.”
The word surprised him.
He had expected himself to argue.
To delay.
To find a reason.
Instead, he agreed.
After the call ended, Luca sat alone for a while.
The apartment felt different.
Not warmer.
Not magically changed.
Just less finished.
The next morning, Elena found him awake before sunrise.
That alone worried her.
Luca was not a morning person.
Before the accident, he woke early because he had places to be.
After the accident, he woke early because sleep had become unreliable.
“You’re dressed,” she said.
Luca looked down at his jacket.
“Yes.”
“You have an appointment.”
“Yes.”
“With Dr. Bell.”
“Yes.”
Elena waited.
“What?”
“You’re not arguing.”
“No.”
“That’s unusual.”
Luca adjusted the sleeve of his jacket.
“I’m trying something different.”
Elena studied him.
“What?”
“Listening.”
The answer sounded strange coming from him.
Not because it was impossible.
Because it was rare.
Maya appeared in the hallway wearing mismatched socks.
“Are you leaving?”
Luca looked at her.
“I have a doctor appointment.”
“Because your legs moved?”
Elena immediately looked concerned.
“Maya.”
“What?”
The child looked confused.
“I’m just asking.”
Luca noticed the same thing he had noticed the night before.
She did not treat the situation like a miracle.
She did not treat it like a tragedy.
To her, it was simply something that happened.
“Yes,” Luca said.
“Okay.”
She nodded.
Then she walked closer.
“Can I come?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Maya’s face changed slightly.
Luca noticed.
He softened his voice.
“Doctors are boring.”
“I can handle boring.”
“You are eight.”
“I have survived school.”
Elena laughed quietly.
Luca almost argued again.
Instead, he looked at Maya.
For reasons he did not understand, he found it harder to disappoint her than anyone else.
“You stay with Elena.”
“Promise you’ll tell me what they say?”
Luca hesitated.
He was used to making promises he could not keep.
This one felt different.
“I promise.”
Maya nodded.
Then she walked away.
Elena watched her leave.
“She likes you.”
Luca looked surprised.
“Why?”
“Because you talk to her.”
“That’s it?”
“For some people, that’s a lot.”
The hospital smelled exactly the same as he remembered.
Cleaning products.
Coffee from a machine near the entrance.
The faint metallic smell of elevators.
Places where people waited for answers always smelled similar.
Dr. Bell met them in the rehabilitation wing.
He was thinner than Luca remembered.
His gray hair had spread further across his temples.
But his eyes were unchanged.
Still patient.
Still careful.
Still impossible to impress.
“You look terrible,” the doctor said.
Luca stared.
“That’s your greeting?”
“You used to like honesty.”
“I used to be able to walk.”
Dr. Bell nodded.
May you like
“Fair point.”
For a moment, the old version of their relationship returned.
