THE GIFT Read Online Free PDF

quietly in a nearby waiting area adjacent to her room and he looked up at her as she rolled past. She could see him much clearer now that her eyes had focused a bit and he was closer to her. In fact, she could see him well enough to make out the pain in his eyes. She wondered who he was waiting for.
    “That man. He looks so sad,” she commented to the nurse as they moved down the hallway away from him.
    “Mr. Remington...yes, he just lost someone. I’m not sure why he is sitting there. Perhaps he just still feels her presence here. People deal with grief in funny ways sometimes,” the nurse told her.
    “Poor man. I hope he finds some peace soon. I know how it feels,” Amanda replied. In fact, she knew all too well how it felt. There had been no one in her life since the accident. For a long time, she could only think of Dan and after the unbearable pain subsided, she couldn’t forget her handicap. Her emotions had run the gamut from suicidal thoughts, to self-pity, to finally accepting things for what they were and dealing with her new way of life. Still, there were things she had wondered from within the darkness.
    One of her biggest thoughts was whether she was ugly. Amanda had always been beautiful and thought she had never considered herself egotistical about it, she was aware that she was very attractive. She knew the accident had left scars, but could only feel them with her hands. She had no idea what she looked like, even now. The nurse had given her a mirror, but her vision wasn’t improved enough to see herself clearly at the time. Now, only hours later, she realized that she had been able to see the man’s face. So, by the time she got home, she would be able to see her own.
    There was a mixture of happiness and anxiety about that prospect, as she didn’t know just how much it might have changed since she looked at it last. The scars that remained, she had felt them many times and she was concerned about whether they looked as bad as they felt. A dark cloud settled over her for a moment. She had to make herself realize that she was incredibly lucky to be here and to be able to see again, even if that vision did reveal a much diminished appearance from the fresh faced eighteen year old girl who last graced her mirror.
    Her parents had arrived separately so that one could take her directly home and the other could stop by to pick up whatever supplies they would need once they knew her final condition. Slipping into the seat of her mother’s car, she spotted a pair of her mother’s sunglasses lying in the center console. She reached for them and slipped them over the wrap around plastic ones the hospital had provided her. Pulling down the rearview mirror on the sun flap overhead, she looked at herself...at least what she could see with the huge glasses on her face.
    There were a few scars, but nothing she couldn’t hide with makeup. Of course, she knew that the worst ones were around her eyes and she would have to wait to see those when she could afford to take off the sunglasses at home. Despite her admonitions to herself that she should not be vain, she found herself worrying about what she would see again even though she had been walking around looking however she looked for the past five years. The first year had been the hardest, but she had eventually gotten past her former vanity and accepted that this was the way things were. It was only now, on the verge of seeing herself again, that she felt her concerns creeping back in where there should just be gratitude.
    At home, her mother parked and then waited for Amanda to get out of the car. Knowing that Amanda was a stickler for doing things for herself, she then walked on down the sidewalk to the front door and unlocked it, waiting for Amanda to catch up a little before going ahead in. She had no way of knowing that Amanda had always been fully aware that even though her mother observed from a distance as if she was not keeping a watchful eye on her