[ I stand in the doorway of Mark's room, an observer, at first. It is happy chaos inside. Josh is on the tile floor with Jade. They have toy trucks pretending to zoom along some unseen-except-in-their-imagination highway. Josh has filled the bed of his truck with the sterile cotton balls that usually sit unused on the nearby counter top. He is bleating loudly. Apparently, these are sheep. Jade is laughing loudly at his antics and has her own "lumber" in the bed of her truck. The lumber, misappropriated tongue depressors from the same Formica counter top. Unwrapped individually the peeled white paper is strewn over the floor along with gloves blown up into balloons and tied. Who can resist? Mark is not laying helplessly in the bed but wearing part of the Exo-Shel today and sitting upright bedside. On his left, the slight figure of Ohio. I would recognize those ears anywhere. Especially from the back. On his right, in full dress uniform is The General. They are laughing like old war buddies. As I enter the room they attempt at first to hide something from my sight. Three cans of beer. Mark's has a damned straw in it. I laugh out loud.]
"Hey Doc! I told you I would make it happen!"
[The General is in fine form today, grinning broadly, and very proud of his orchestration of this reunion. Once again, I find myself wondering if there is anything this Retired Lion couldn't pull off if he wanted.]
Jade is still busy with her truck full of lumber, as well as a few of her brother's sheep he seems to have willingly (or perhaps unwillingly) shared. Josh has returned to his father and has climbed on his Exo-shel "lap" and Mark has encircled the boy, who is not quite lap size any more, with mechanical arms. It is impossible to tell whose smile is wider. His or Mark's.
Mark's good eye meets mine and I see they have done a remarkable job with the plastic surgery and his prosthetic eye. They have matched the blue almost perfectly. From a casual glance you wouldn't even know.
"Dad, this is sooooo cool!" he says, tapping the hard exterior of his father's new arm.
Jade drops the truck at the word "Dad". She pushes her way in like a small puppy that sees its litter-mate getting all the attention.
I study her little facial features and hair, and realize that what Jerry had told me in our past sessions was true. There was no way to discern which of them had been her father short of DNA testing.
The General pops the top off another beer and tries to hand it to me. I rise and close the door to his room and draw the drape near his bed. It is afternoon and the nursing staff is busy with report. They won't be by for a while.
(or we would all be, as the General laughs and says, in deep shit)
Then I enjoy the first cold swig, as we toast to Mark's Progress.
