little hearts

8/8/2019 Little Hearts

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/little-hearts 1/5



The beeping of the heart monitor had become an afterthought as Kayla lay, eyesclosed, in her hospital bed alongside the stuffed tiger her mother had gotten her, lazily running her fingers through its soft fur. In the hallway outside she could hear people talking and walking by and the dinging of the elevators as people got on and off. Phones rang downthe hall at the nurse’s station and outside she could hear cars honking occasionally or the

squealing of tires as they drove off. All those sounds made her head hurt and her head madeher chest throb. She did her best to stave off the pain and fatigue, and for seven-years-old,everyone had said she was a very brave little girl. Tigers were brave too and she liked that,being brave. It brought her some comfort, and that bit of comfort was much desired aftersuch a long illness.

Kayla had been born with Hypoplastic left heart syndrome; parts of her heart weretoo small to support normal blood flow. She had remembered that name a long time ago andfor some reason people smiled when she said it. She guessed she might be saying it wrong. Itdidn’t matter, though. She had gotten a new heart a few days ago; that’s why her chest hurtso badly. But Kayla didn’t really mind the pain. It was a part of her and had been ever sinceshe could remember. And she was brave, after all, like everyone said—like a tiger—and hernew heart would allow her to run with her friends and older sister. She looked forward to

that every day; it kept a big, bright smile on her face.She always tried to smile. Smiles were the prettiest things she could think of. When

people smiled, everything was at its best. She always got extra dessert when her parents weresmiling, and the nurses gave her extra popsicles too when they came in, and they smiled a whole lot.

There were other stuffed animals in her room as well and some cards and a bunch of balloons; her room was filled with them and they were all different colors, and some wereeven the silvery kind that stayed up forever. Her family had brought them and the peoplefrom her church and her teacher too had carried in a big bunch she said were from the kidsin her class. She missed her class—well, maybe not the boys, but definitely everyone else.

“Hi,” said a tiny voice from behind the curtain that sometimes surrounded her bed,

but now only acted as a divider between hers and the other bed in the room. Kayla openedher eyes to see a little girl, some two years younger than she, walking up from behind thecurtain. She hadn’t heard anyone else in the room, but with all the noise the machines andelevators and phones made, she may have missed it.

“Hi,” said Kayla. “Who are you?” The little girl took a seat in a bedside chair andlooked around for a second then studied the mass of tubes and wires attached to Kayla.

“Do those hurt?” she asked. Kayla surveyed the hardware.“No, not really. My chest hurts, though, when I move. I haven’t seen it yet. It’s got

bandages on it. Bandages are like band-aids except bigger.”“Really?” asked the girl. “What’s wrong with it?”“Oh, I got a new heart,” replied Kayla. “My old one was sick. I have Hypoplastic left

heart syndrome; I was born with it.” The little girl didn’t smile like everyone else at the word;maybe she had said it right that time. “It means that my heart wasn’t formed properly.”“Oh,” said the girl. There was a tinge of sadness in her voice and Kayla really wished

she would have smiled. She didn’t want the little girl to be sad. Nobody should be sad.“Well, that’s good,” the girl continued. Kayla frowned and the girl abruptly corrected herself.“I mean about getting a new heart; not about your old one being sick.” The two girls lookedat one another for a moment. “What did they do to your old heart?” asked the girl finally.

“I don’t know,” said Kayla. “Maybe they gave it back to God to fix it.” The girlmade a face as if thinking the matter over.

- 1 -



“Yeah, maybe. He could do that. My mom says he can do a lot of things like that.”“What’s your name?” asked Kayla.“Emily. Emily Weaver.” The little girl had curly golden hair, dark eyes and a button

of a nose, and rosy cheeks that made her look like she had just stepped in from a cold winter’s day. She wore a white gown.

“Hi, I’m Kayla. Are you sick too? Are the doctors fixing you like they did me?”“Yeah,” said Emily glumly looking around again and admiring the multitude of balloons. “I think I’m all better now, though. I’m going home soon.”

“That’s great!” piped Kayla propping herself on an elbow then wincing at the pain inher chest. She fell back softly into the pillows behind her. “Ow, that hurt.”

“Sorry,” said Emily.“It’s okay. I just get so excited sometimes. The doctors say I can play soccer when

I’m all better. I can’t wait. I couldn’t run too good before because I got really tired fast.”“Oh,” said Emily. “I was always a good runner, and fast. I beat all the boys at school.

None of them could catch me.”“I’m going to beat all the boys too when I get better,” said Kayla. “They always make

fun of me because I can’t catch them. Boys are so mean.”

“Yeah,” agreed Emily.“Why were you in the hospital?” asked Kayla after another long, silent exchange.“I got hit by a car on account of I’m so fast and couldn’t stop.”“Wow, did that hurt? I’m not allowed to cross the street by myself.”“Me neither,” Said Emily, “but I forgot and got hitted.”“Are you okay?”“Yeah, I get to go home.”“Well, maybe, when I get all better, you can teach me how to run real fast. We can

make fun of the boys together when we beat them.”“Yeah, that sounds like fun,” said Emily solemnly. She stared down at her dangling

feet as she kicked them back and forth.

“You don’t smile much,” said Kayla. “Aren’t you happy to go home?”“Yeah, I am. But I’m going to a new home now, not the old one. I’m going to miss

my old home.”“Really? It’s okay; don’t be sad. We moved one time too and I was sad at first, but I

made new friends. You’re going to make new ones too. You already made one: me!” Emily gave her best effort at a smirk but it didn’t go over too well. “Yeah, you’ll see,” reassuredKayla. “You’re real likeable. I can tell.” Emily’s eyes brightened as Kayla flashed her bestsmile. The little girl continued swinging her legs while studying Kayla. Emily never actually smiled back but Kayla thought she saw one in her eyes. That was good enough, shesupposed.

She looked down at the stuffed tiger once again. It was nice and soft. It was one of

those white tigers with blue eyes, her favorites. “My mom got me this. He’s helping me getbetter. His name is Bo.”Emily glanced at the stuffed tiger but her gaze seemed elsewhere. “Please take good

care of it,” she said finally.Kayla looked to the tiger and then back to Emily. “I will; I promise.” A little smile

touched the corners of the Emily’s mouth that time. Kayla was satisfied; it was hard to smilesometimes when you were real sad and no amount of tickling or funny faces—or tigers— could force one on. Smiles were like flowers. You really had to feed them a good amount of sunshine for them to get big and bright. Emily’s smile just needed a little more care, a little

- 2 -



more sunshine. Kayla winced; her chest was starting to hurt again so she laid her head back down on the pillow. Her eyes were tired too and she wanted to close them again.

“I have to go,” said Emily suddenly. Kayla felt the girl’s cold hand on her arm andlooked over toward her. She was standing next to the bed, her somber eyes big and dark.“Bye,” said Emily.

“Bye,” said Kayla. She watched the little girl disappear behind the curtain once againand heard the creaking of the bed next to her. She rested her head gently. All the talking hadmade her terribly tired and she had no problem drifting into dreams of exciting races whereshe ran far ahead of all the boys. In the dreams Emily ran close at her side and she smiledand they giggled as the wind rushed past. The boys were no match.

***

The doctor inadvertently woke Kayla up as he was checking the machines and charts.She looked up to see her mother there as well talking with him. They both smiled when they saw her watching.

“Hi, Kayla,” he said. “How are you feeling today?”

“Good,” replied Kayla. Her chest was still sore but she really was starting to feelbetter.

“That’s excellent,” said the doctor. “You’re doing very well, you know. That new heart of yours is really healthy and strong.” Then turning to her mother, “There are currently no signs of rejection; the cyclosporine and prednisone are definitely doing their jobs… thoseare the anti-rejection medicines she’s on. She’ll have to take those the rest of her life, but sheshould be normal otherwise. Like I was telling you before, there may be others she’ll need totake but we’ll have to assess her further before we decide.”

“That’s so good to hear,” said her mother to the doctor with a huge, beaming smileon her face. Then to Kayla she added, “The doctor told me that you’re doing so well you may be going home sooner than we thought. Isn’t that great news, honey?”

“Yeah,” said Kayla. Both her mother and the doctor smiled. She was glad she hadfinally seen Emily smile, even if it was just in a dream. “Is Emily still here?” she asked, wondering if the little girl in the next bed had shared her dreams.

“Who?” asked her mother.“Emily Weaver,” said Kayla, “in the bed next to me. She visited me yesterday. Is she

still here or did she go home?” Her mother frowned and shot a questioning look at thedoctor. He was frowning as well and pursing his lips.

“Who’s she talking about?” her mother asked.“I’m not sure,” said the doctor. “There’s no Emily Weaver in this room. In fact, I

don’t believe there’s an Emily Weaver in this ward.” He forced a smile. “Perhaps you werejust dreaming, Kayla.”

“No,” said Kayla adamantly. “She got hit by car but is all better and was going home.I saw her. She’s right in the next bed.”“There’s no one in the other bed, sweetie,” said the doctor. He pulled the curtain

open to reveal an empty hospital bed. Kayla frowned. She had seen her. Perhaps she hadgone home already.

Her mother noticed the pensiveness in the girl’s eyes. “Well, honey,” she saidsoothingly, “if she is here the doctor will find her and we’ll ask her to visit you again. Wouldyou like that?” Kayla gave a nod as she continued to study the empty bed. “Good. I’ll beright back, baby. You lie back and rest some more. I’m just going to speak with the doctor

- 3 -



for a bit, okay?” Kayla nodded and lay back down. With that, her mother gave her a gentlekiss on the forehead and left the room with the doctor. She closed her eyes once again. Shereally would have loved to see Emily smile in real life, though.

***

Dr. Price sat at his desk shuffling papers about as he was apt to do so close to theend of his shift. The day had been an especially grueling one and he looked forward to thedinner and night out he had planned with his wife. His practice often left him with long hours and little time for family and recreation. The phone rang and he glanced at the clock on the wall. Perhaps he should just let it go to voice mail. His hand, however, wentreflexively for the receiver. Sighing he picked it up.

“Dr. Price,” he said rubbing his eyes. Would he end up regretting this?“Hey, Tom,” said the voice on the other end, “so glad I caught you before you took

off. It’s Henry Cole from Living Legacy Foundation.”“Oh, hi, Henry. I didn’t expect to hear from you again so soon. How are things?”“Everything’s fine, thanks. This must be your lucky week, though. You won’t believe

this, but I think we’ve found a kidney match for another of your patients, uh, BenCrawford.”

Price smiled. “That’s great news, Tom. Wow, two in just over a week. Looks like I’mon a roll.”

“Yes, my thoughts exactly. We’re getting all the paperwork in order right now and will send them right over. I’ll give you call tomorrow and set up the rest of it.”

“Yes. That would be fine,” replied Price.“Okay, then. Great,” said Cole. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Then something odd occurred to Dr. Price. “Hey, Henry, before you go… You

wouldn’t, by chance, have the information for Kayla Martinez nearby, would you? Iperformed her heart transplant last week.”

“As a matter of fact I do,” said Cole. “What’s up?”“Nothing really, but do you have the donor information handy?” There was a

momentary silence on the other end.“Well, yes,” said Cole. “You know, we have procedures set up if the recipient would

like to correspond with the donor’s family. I’m not at liberty to just hand that informationout.”

“I understand,” said Price. “Normally I wouldn’t ask, but the information is not forthem, it’s for me. Something’s been eating at me and I’m just curious.”

Cole gave a sigh. “Alright… but don’t make a habit of this,” he said jokingly.“Understood,” replied Price. “I really appreciate this, Henry.”“Let’s see… Kayla Martinez,” started Cole. Price could hear the clicking of a

keyboard and mouse on the other end of the phone and Cole mumbling to himself as hesearched. He tapped his fingers on the desk in anticipation. There was a lump in his throatand he could feel his heart pounding in his ears. His hands trembled slightly as well. He wasn’t sure why this was bothering him so much, but he couldn’t get Kayla’s words out of his head. “Ah, here it is,” said Cole finally. Looks like the heart came from a five-year-old girlfrom Delaware. She was hit by a car. Her head was pinned beneath one of the tires… poorthing. She suffered massive head trauma and died shortly after arriving at the ER.”

“What was her name, Henry?” Price asked, his voice wavering.“Her name was Emily Weaver,” replied Cole.

- 4 -

little hearts

Documents