Page 35 of Brain Damage

I frown at him. “Just what?”

He stares at me for a minute then shakes his head. “Nothing. I’m being dumb.”

Hmm. That didn’t sound like nothing.

Clark reaches out and envelops my smaller hand in his. “Let’s go get married, Charlotte McKenna.”

Okay. Let’s do it.

25

AFTER

There are two parts to every dinner I eat:

First, the aide sets me up in the hallway, so everyone can keep an eye on me, then she puts my tray down in front of me. I eat everything on my tray and let them know that I finished.

Then comes the second part of the meal. When a nurse or nurse’s aide turns my tray around, and all of a sudden, it’s filled with food again.

Right now, I’m on part two of dinner. That guy from my Walking Group, Jamie, is sitting on my right. He’s only out here in the hallway sometimes, but now I wonder if maybe he’s here every time I’m here, but sometimes he’s on my left so I don’t know he’s there.

He’s got a plateful of chicken, cut into pieces, as well as peas on the side of his plate in a big green pile. He’s not much steadier than he was last time I saw him feed himself. Anyway, I’m not sure who thought it was a good idea to give him peas to eat, but it really isn’t. He takes a spoonful of peas and carefully brings it in the direction of his mouth. He actually gets almost all the way there, before his hand jerks in the wrong direction and the peas spill everywhere. Like, all over his plate, his tray, his pants and the floor.

And on top of that, he pokes himself in the eye with the spoon.

That’s when I burst out laughing.

Jamie rubs his eye and glares at me. “You think that’s funny, Helmet Girl?”

“Yes,” I say. Obviously, I think it’s funny. I’m laughing.

Jamie puts down his spoon. He reaches over towards his tray with his hand and scoops up a handful of peas. I watch him carefully, wondering if he’s going to start smearing them on his face. But instead, he hurls the handful of peas in my direction.

His aim is actually very good this time.

The peas wind up going everywhere, just like they did to him. A few hit me in the face but most hit me in the chest. My shirt has a pretty wide neck, just in case I need to get it on over the helmet, so several peas go down my shirt and pool in my bra.

“Mr. Knox!” There’s a nurse rushing over to us who apparently saw the whole thing. Maggie, I’m pretty sure her name is. “Did you throw peas at Charlotte?”

“No,” Jamie lies.

I don’t say anything, but then Maggie looks down at his plate and at all of the peas on my shirt. I don’t have any peas in my lunch. She can figure out the truth.

“Tell Charlotte that you’re sorry,” Maggie instructs him.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Jamie insists.

At that moment, an elderly man suddenly appears out of nowhere. Like he just materialized out of thin air. That means he probably came from the left. Also, he’s wearing a checkered shirt and khaki slacks, which means that he’s not a patient because we mostly all wear sweatpants and t-shirts or sometimes jeans. Sometimes it can be hard to tell the visitors from the patients, especially when they’re old.

“What’s going on here?” the elderly man asks.

Maggie shakes her head. “Your son just threw peas at this woman over here.”

“James!” the old man says in a stern voice. “Why did you do that?”

Jamie is quiet for a minute. Maybe deciding if he has any chance of getting away with it. Even I know that he doesn’t though.

Finally, he says, “She started it.”