“Well, since we’re coming clean and all. You were right about my dad.” I watched Shay for his reaction. “I’ve never even met him.”

The corner of his lip quirked up as he said, “His loss.”

In all of my father fantasies, I’d never thought of it that way. It probably wasn’t such a bad way to look at it.

I arrived at the hospital well before I’d agreed to meet with Doc. In the hallway outside of Parker’s room I heard his father talking with the doctors.

“We haven’t found any physical justification for Parker’s condition.”

“He was in a car wreck. How much more justification do you need?”

“I understand. But there is nothing physically wrong with your son.”

“He can’t move his legs. Is that not physical enough for you? You just haven’t tried the right test. Do I need to take him to Denver?”

“Dad,” Parker said. It was the first I’d heard him speak. “I don’t want any more tests.”

“We need to know why you’re paralyzed so we can fix it.”

“I know why I’m paralyzed, Dad, I was in a car wreck.”

“Parker, there is another avenue I think we should look down,” the doctor said. “We think, perhaps, you’re having what is called a hysterical conversion reaction. I’d like to bring someone in to evaluate your situation.”

For a minute, the doctor was turned so I couldn’t clearly hear his words. But then all of a sudden, Mr. Walsh was nearly shouting, “My son’s not psycho. He was in a car wreck.”

A few minutes after the doctor left, I heard Mr. Walsh softly begging Parker to try, just try to wiggle his toes.

“You can do it. You heard the doctor. There is nothing keeping you from moving your legs. All you have to do is try. Please try, son.” The sound of Mr. Walsh’s pleas wrapped around my heart and squeezed, and I couldn’t stand there and listen to them.

A half hour later, I met Doc in the lobby and we went back upstairs.

Parker was under a blanket, his arms on top of the blue knit with one hand protectively over the remote control. His hair was matted from sleep on one side, and shaggy and long on the other. He had a hollow look that went beyond the atrophy. But he also looked better than I’d expected.

Shoving my hands into the pockets of my cut-off jean skirt, I nodded hello as I approached the foot of the hospital bed.