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Chapter 408 Building is healing
Chapter 408 Building is healing
Mia’s POV
The light came through the meditation room windows at an angle that made everything look softer.
Warmer. Like someone had turned down the harshness of reality just a little.
+25 BONUS
Kyle was still sitting on his heels, his hands resting on his thighs. The hospital–issue yoga pants were too big. The drawstring tied tight at his waist. His t–shirt hung loose.
But in this light. In this particular slant of sun. He looked less like someone dying and more like someone just very tired.
Maybe it was the light. But I let myself believe it anyway. Even just for a moment.
“Mama,” Alexander said, tugging on my sleeve. “Did you know Kyle’s medicine tastes like dead fish mixed with dirt?”
I blinked. “What?”
“His medicine!” Alexander’s face was earnest. “We tried it.”
“You tried his medicine?”
“Just a little bit!” He held up his thumb and forefinger, showing me the tiniest gap. “This much. Dr. Norbu said we could.”
I looked at Dr. Norbu.
He smiled serenely. “Education is important. The children wanted to understand what Mr. Kyle experiences each day.”
“It was disgusting,” Ethan added. His face was still neutral but I caught the slight wrinkle of his nose. “Like if you made tea from grass clippings and old socks.”
Madison nodded solemnly. “And fish. Dead fish that’s been sitting in the sun.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Kyle said.
Three pairs of eyes turned to him.
“It was exactly that bad,” Alexander said “you’re just used to it.”
“I’m not used to it. I just don’t complain
son.‘
“Because you’re tough?” Alexander added.
“Because complaining doesn’t make it taste better.”
“But it makes you feel better,” Alexander insisted. “When something’s bad, you should say it’s bad. That’s what Mama says. She says holding stuff inside makes it worse.”
Kyle’s eyes found mine.
I looked away.
“Your mama is right,” he said quietly.
“So the medicine is bad?” Alexander pressed.
“Yes. The medicine is very bad.”
“As bad as we said?”
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Chapter 408 Building is healing
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“Worse,”
Alexander’s eyes went wide. “Worse than dead fish and old socks?”
“Much worse.”
“But you drink it anyway?” Alexander asked.
“Every morning. Every night.”
“Why?”
Kyle was quiet for a moment. “Because Dr. Norbu says it might help.”
“Might?”
“Might.”
Alexander processed this. “That’s not a very good deal. Terrible medicine that only might work.”
“No,” Kyle agreed. “It’s not a very good deal.”
Dr. Norbu clapped his hands once. Softly. “Excellent philosophy lesson. But now we must return to the body. Mrs. Williams, you will join us for the closing sequence?”
“I really don’t do yoga.”
“You do not have to ‘do‘ yoga. You only have to breathe and move. This is something all humans do already. I am simply asking you to do it with more attention.”
“Mama, please?” Alexander’s voice was small. “Just try? For like five minutes?”
I looked at him. At his hopeful face.
“Okay.” I said.
“Yay!” He bounced slightly on his mat.
“First,” Dr. Norbu said, “we will do mountain pose. This is very simple. You stand. That is all.”
“I can stand,” I said.
“Excellent. Stand.”
I stood.
My knees cracked. Loud. Like breaking twigs.
Alexander giggled.
“Your joints are speaking,” Dr. Norbu observed. “They are saying ‘hello, we are here, we have been neglected.“”
“They’ve been fine.”
Dr. Norbu nodded. “Your body is like a house. If you do not maintain it, things begin to break. Small breaks at first. Then bigger ones.”
“Mama’s building a house,” Alexander announced to Dr. Norbu. “A real one. With rooms and everything.”
“Is this true?” Dr. Norbu asked me.
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< The Unwanted Wife and Her Secret Twins
“Yes”
“Mama’s being modest,” Ethan said. “She’s been working on the designs every night. She stays up really late. Sometimes i wake up and she’s still drawing.”
My throat went tight.
“The house she used to live in,” Madison added softly. “Rebuilding it. Making it better.”
I kept my eyes on Dr. Norbu.
“This is good,” the doctor said. “Building is healing. Creating something new from something old. This is how we move forward.”
“Let us continue,” Dr. Norbu said, mercifully dropping the subject. “From mountain pose, we will move to standing forward fold. You bend at the waist. Let your arms hang down. Let gravity do the work.”
He demonstrated. His burgundy robes pooled as he folded forward, his hands reaching easily toward the floor.
The children copied him. Alexander got about halfway down before his hamstrings stopped him. Ethan went further. Madison got her fingertips to brush the mat.
Kyle didn’t attempt it. Just stayed sitting.
“Come, Mrs. Williams,” Dr. Norbu said, his voice muffled because he was upside down. “Bend forward. See how far you can go.”
I bent at the waist.
Everything pulled. My hamstrings. My lower back. The backs of my knees.
I got maybe a foot down before everything screamed stop.
“Good,” Dr. Norbu said. “This is your edge. You stay here. Breathe.”
I hung there. Half–folded. The blood was starting to rush to my
head.
“Five breaths.”
I counted. One breath. Two breaths. Three breaths. Four breaths. Five-
Everything went a little fuzzy around the edges.
I should have had some lunch.
I came up too fast. The room spun. Tilted.
I took a step backward. Tried to steady myself.
My foot caught on the edge of the yoga mat.
I was falling. Backwards.
Then hands caught me.
Kyle’s hands on my arms. Steadying me.
“I’ve got you,” he said.
AA
Chapter
