Page 13 of Saving Luke

Luke was in a weird mood yesterday after lunch. I figure it was something to do with his sister, so I let him be. He's still in a strange mood, when I go in to check on him this morning.

"You going to tell me what's bothering you?" I ask as we work on his exercises.

"My sister is just being crabby. She has this whole life planned out for us, but it’s not exactly one that I want. We fought about it yesterday, is all," he says.

"Family always has your best intentions at heart, but sometimes, you need to put your foot down on what is right for you. She’ll come around," I tell him.

Once we finish his exercises, I drop down on the couch next to him.

"I was wondering, and you can totally say no… " I start but lose my train of thought when he grabs my hand to hold.

Starting over, I clear my throat. "Maybe you’d like to get out of here for a bit. There’s a winter festival going on in town. I have off tomorrow, so we could go get some fresh air," I suggest.

He’s quiet for a moment before meeting my eyes. "Can we invite my sister? I want you two to get to know each other, and I think she'd like the carnival."

"Of course. I can't wait to meet your sister," I smile.

Why is it that I can hear my grandma's voice in my head whispering?

Famous last words.

Luke’s sister insisted on driving Luke to the carnival and meeting me there, so I'm sitting on a bench in front of the gates, waiting for them. When I spot them, they are about ten minutes late and both look a bit irritated. Luke is still in the wheelchair, and his sister is pushing him. Knowing Luke prefers most of the time to wheel himself around, I bet this is part of the irritation.

As soon as Luke's eyes meet mine, the annoyance falls away, and a grin splits his face, making his sister scowl a bit more. Oh, my. Today is going to be fun.

"Hey, guys."

"This is my sister, Gabbie. Gabbie, this is Brooke," Luke makes the introductions.

"Nice to meet you," Gabbie says, even though she doesn't look like it is.

"So, where do you want to start? I'm thinking we scope out the food, get some now, walk it off, and then grab some more food before we leave," I say.

Luke chuckles, and Gabbie fights a small smile.

"Sounds good," Luke says.

We follow our noses to the food section, and everything looks good.

"Is that fried Oreos?" His sister says, slightly giddy.

"On a stick, apparently," he says.

"I love fried Oreos," I say, trying to find something to bond with her over, but she just scowls at me.

We buy our fried Oreos and keep walking. We end up at the gingerbread house competition and have some fun checking out the different categories and casting our votes.

"Okay, my favorite is by far the old time hotel with the horse-drawn carriage in front," I tell them.

"No way. The collapsed gingerbread house with the hand drawn tornado over it was the best," Luke laughs.

"Which one did you like the best?" I ask Gabbie.

"Yeah, which one?" Luke asks when she doesn't answer me.

"I liked the beach hut that was sitting over the blue gel water. It even had sand and palm trees," she says.

"Yeah, that one was really creative. It had starfish in the sand and Swedish Fish in the water." I say but I earn no response from Gabbie.

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