“May I sit for just a second?”
Lila shrugged.
Tiana sat.
“Cast making dinner difficult?”
Lila nodded.
Her eyes shone, but she held the tears back with the stubborn pride of a child who had already been watched too much.
Tiana kept her voice easy.
“You know, when one part of your body gets hurt, the rest of you starts learning new tricks. Your brain is very good at backup plans.”
Lila looked up.
“How do you know?”
Tiana hesitated.
Then she smiled.
“I used to study medicine.”
“You were a doctor?”
“Almost. I was studying to become one. For kids, mostly.”
“Why did you stop?”
Tiana’s hand paused for only a moment.
“Life needed me somewhere else.”
Lila seemed to think about that.
Tiana gently picked up the fork.
“Try holding it a little farther back. Like this. Let your wrist rest on the edge of the table so your hand doesn’t have to do all the work.”
She demonstrated first.
Then she guided Lila’s left hand only after the girl nodded.
“There,” Tiana said softly. “See? Your brain is already figuring it out.”
Lila got one small bite.
Then another.
Her shoulders dropped.
“It’s not broken,” she said suddenly, lifting the cast a little. “Just fractured. I fell off my skateboard.”
“That still counts as brave dinner work.”
“It was my fault.”
“Maybe. Or maybe the sidewalk was being rude.”
Lila blinked.
Then she laughed.
A real laugh.
Small, surprised, and bright.
Across the room, the man in the gray coat leaned forward.
Tiana saw it from the corner of her eye.
He heard it too.
Lila looked at her bowl.
“I like to draw,” she said. “But now I have to use my left hand.”
“That is impressive.”
“It looks bad.”
“Most great art starts by looking a little strange.”
Lila studied her.
“You really think that?”
“I do. And for the record, I cannot draw with either hand. So you are already ahead of me.”
Lila laughed again.
Tiana felt something inside her ache.
Not the bad kind.
The kind that reminded her of who she had once wanted to be.
A child’s fear loosening.
A small body relaxing.
A mind deciding it was safe.
She stood slowly.
“I have to check on a few tables before Darren’s eyebrows start yelling at me. But I’ll be back.”
Lila glanced toward the manager.
“Is that the man who yelled at you?”
Tiana lowered her voice.
“He thinks volume is leadership.”
Lila covered her mouth with her casted arm and giggled.
From two tables away, the man watched Tiana with a look she did not understand.
Not pity.
Not judgment.
Something sharper.
Something like recognition.
By dessert time, Lila was talking.
