Prince Tennyson (13 page)

“Really?” I couldn't believe it.

“Yeah, you're a celebrity, Chelsea.”

“I am?” And then something hit me. “How long was I asleep?” I titled my head back so I could see my mom better.

She looked down at me and tried to smile, but I know it must've worried her a whole bunch because she said quietly, “Just over two days.”

“Two days!” Two days? That's a very long time. “Wow.”

I would've thought about it more and probably freaked out more, but right then we came to my grandma's room. All at once, I forgot about everything else. I just wanted to see her again.

“Grandma!” She looked awful, but I didn't care. She was alive and awake and looking at me with a huge smile. Mom pushed me all the way up to her, and Grandma Haney leaned over and held my hand and told me how much she loved me and how happy she was to be saved and that I was the smartest girl in the whole world.

By the time I was done talking to my grandma about how she was doing and about all her cards and flowers, I was tired. So Mom took me back to my room to sleep.

It took longer than I wanted it to. I just wanted to go straight to bed. But Mom and a nurse had to fix my tubes and hang the watery one back up from my wheelchair to the metal pole by my bed, and make sure the nose one was still right. Then they had to check that all my bandages were okay, and that I wasn't hurting. After that, I was so wiped out that even when my mom turned on my favorite cartoon, I couldn't stay awake to watch it.

I just fell asleep.

Chapter Twenty-four

ON SUNDAY, THE HOSPITAL decided I was well enough to have visitors. I was surprised to see Tyler and his mom come in after Hannah and Cameron and Mrs. Johansson, Grandma's neighbor, left. He had a card and a bear with a big purple bow on it.

“Hi.” I smiled as he walked slowly up to the bed. I could tell he was a little bit nervous because he looked around the room a lot. Then his eyes settled on the TV.

“Cool!” He grinned. “You get your own TV? That's so not even fair. I wish I had my own TV.”

I laughed, and then he did too.

“Here,” he said as he handed me the bear and the card. Then he leaned over and whispered, “I told my mom you were too old for stuffed animals, but she wouldn't listen. So if you don't like it, you could give it to your little sister or something.”

I glanced over at his mom. She was hugging my mom and talking to her and hadn't heard a thing. “No, it's fine. I'm a girl, remember? We like dumb stuff.”

“That's for sure.” Tyler's grin grew, then it fell and he pointed to his nose. “Does that thing hurt you?”

My good hand came up to finger the tubes. “No. I don't even remember I have them in anymore.”

Tyler nodded and then leaned against a little table by me. “So, wow. You almost died, Chelsea Tennyson. That's so weird.”

I shook my head. “No, I didn't almost die.” I rolled my eyes to let him know I thought he was dramatic.

His brows lowered and I watched as he rubbed his lips together. “You haven't seen your house yet, have you?”

“No. Why? Is it bad?”

“Yeah, it's really bad. There isn't anything left. No windows, doors, nothing. It's just empty and black.”

My tummy flipped over. “Are you serious? Have you been inside?”

“No. They won't let anyone near it. It's got tape and stuff over it. It's been all over the news. Haven't you seen the news?”

I looked up at the TV and then over at my mom, who was lounging in a chair talking to Tyler's mom. “I've only been watching cartoons.”

“Oh. Well, they probably didn't want to scare you.” He flicked a couple of my balloons that were right next to him with his fingers. “Everyone has been scared about you, though. Everyone. The news, the school, all sorts of people—even I was scared.”

“Really? Why? I'm perfectly fine. See?”

Tyler shrugged. “Yeah, but your mom and the hospital won't let anyone do interviews with you yet, so all people see is your scary house, not you. That's why I came here as soon as they announced on the news that you had woken up, so I could see you for real.”

“Thanks for coming.” I held my new bear close. “It can get boring, so I'm glad you came.”

Tyler picked up a couple of cards and looked at them. “So, what was it like being in a house that was on fire? Were you terrified?”

I laughed. I
had
to laugh. “Yeah, I was really terrified.” Then I checked to make sure his mom and my mom were still talking. They were.

“Guess what.” I leaned closer so I could talk softer.

Tyler put the cards down and looked right at me. “What?”

I looked at him a moment, and then broke out in a huge smile.

He smiled too. “What?”

Then I said it. “I know God's real. He really, really is.”

Tyler's smile fell. “No way. How? What happened?”

“Well, I said a prayer to God to help me in that fire, and He did.”

“Cool. What did He do?”

I bit my lip and looked right in Tyler's brown eyes. “He sent my dad.”

“Your dad? The prince one? The one who's—”

“Yeah.” I nodded. My smile beamed.

“Wow.”

“I know. That's why my grandma and I are safe. My dad came and saved us.” Tears came to my eyes, but I didn't stop smiling. I was in too much shock, I still couldn't believe my dad was there and he saved us.

“That's amazing”

I nodded and sniffed. “Yeah, I know. Crazy, huh?”

“You're so lucky, Chelsea.”

“My mom says I'm blessed.” I leaned back and held onto the bear tightly.

“You have to be, because something like that would never happen to me.” Tyler flicked one of the flowers in a big vase on the table and looked a little sad.

I chuckled. I couldn't believe he was sad. “You don't want it happen to you, I promise.”

He looked up at me funny, and then flicked another flower.

“You want your dad to die, and then move in with your grandma, and then have your whole house burn to the ground and lose all your toys and clothes and everything?”

Tyler grinned. “No.”

I grinned too. “Me neither.”

He ducked his head and put his hands in his pockets. “I guess I'd rather just find out God is real in the normal way—by asking Him.”

I rolled my eyes again and rubbed my nose on the soft bear. “I wish I was that smart.” “You know what I think?” Tyler leaned up against the table again. “I think my mom is right. I think everything happens for a reason.”

“What do you mean?” I sat up a little bit.

“Just think. If your mom didn't decide to move to Arizona, then you wouldn't have been here to save your grandma from that fire with her candle.”

“But my brother and sister were playing with it.”

“No.” Tyler shook his head. “They weren't. The firemen said on the news that the fire was started by the candle—not by the kids. They were just in the room playing at the same time. The window was opened just enough to cause the curtain to catch on fire.”

I fell back on the bed. “If that's the case, then God knew all along that we'd be here. And He knew that I needed to pray to save my grandma. And that means—”

“He knew about those pictures all along too.”

“And my mom was right.” I gasped. My eyes flew to my mom. She turned her head and looked over at us to see if I was okay.

I grinned.

Tyler grinned

But his mom must've thought it was time to go, because she said, “Well, thanks for letting us visit you, Chelsea. We can't stay very long. We just wanted to drop the gift by. Tyler's been really anxious. We're so glad everyone is safe.”

“Thank you.” My mom smiled and looked at me with raised eyebrows.

Oh! “Thank you for coming. I love the bear and the card.”

Tyler's mom gave him a look that said, “See, I told you so.” Then she walked over and gave me a big hug.

She accidentally squeezed my burnt side. I winced, and Tyler winced too as he looked at me over her shoulder.

“Bye!” He grinned as he walked toward the door. His mom followed and told me to get better soon.

I sighed happily.

Tyler was nice, and so was his mom.

Chapter Twenty-five

BY WEDNESDAY, THE DOCTORS let me leave the hospital. Grandma had left on Monday, but they were worried about me, because I breathed more smoke. I finally convinced Mom to let me stop by the house. I was dying to see if I could find any pictures of Dad that might've been saved. It was the only reason why she let me, even though she kept saying over and over she didn't think there were.

There weren't. I was pretty sad about it, too. It was bad enough seeing the house, but to only find a couple of beat-up pictures in a bush wasn't so great. One was just Dad's profile, and the other one had been wet and scratched up so much that you couldn't even tell it was him.

My heart hurt.

We drove to an apartment the government had given my grandma while she waited for her insurance to help her. Everyone said it would be a long time before we could move into a new house.

It was weird to come out of the hospital back to the real world, and especially to a place I'd never been before. Grandma took me down to a small room that Hannah and I would be sharing. There was a bunk bed there. Someone had gotten us matching princess bed stuff. It wasn't my pillow, or my blankets, but they were very pretty and nice. I hadn't even thought about where I'd sleep until I walked in the room and saw that it was all figured out for me.

I climbed up to the top bunk. My hand was in a large square Band-Aid now. It wasn't wrapped up like before, so I could use it without it hurting too much. When I got to the top, I saw that someone had made a small blue-and-pink pillow for me. It said
Miracle Girl: Chelsea Tennyson
on it.

That's what the newspapers were calling me. I know, because I saw an article about me tacked up on the bulletin board in the hospital hallway when I went walking yesterday. It was weird to see Chelsea Tennyson in a newspaper. It didn't feel like I had done something extra special, but lots of people knew me now.

I put my stuffed bear with the purple bow from Tyler on the bed, and the two pictures of Dad, and climbed back down. Mom had left to get Hannah and Cameron from the church lady who was watching them, now that she'd be home with me. I peeked into the other rooms and found Mom and Cameron's. I knew it was theirs because there was a small playpen for him to sleep in, because there wasn't enough room for a toddler bed. Then I found Grandma's room—everything was different and new, but I knew it was her room because she was sitting up in bed reading a book.

“Hi, Grandma.” She looked normal now, except for the large Band-Aid on the top of her forehead and a few bruises around her eye.

“Hey, you. How do you like your room?” she asked as she set the book down on a little table next to her.

“It's good.” I looked around to see if there was somewhere to sit. Just the bed.

Grandma opened her arms wide. “Come here and you can snuggle with me. Would you like that?”

Would I? I jumped right up on my grandma's new bed and I hurt my leg when I did it, but I didn't care. Slowly I crawled up to her and lay down on my good side. Grandma Haney very carefully put her arm around my shoulders and squeezed me in close.

“So how are you feeling?” she asked.

“Okay. I'm a little sad, though.”

“Sad? Why?” Grandma seemed surprised that I said that.

“I'm going to miss your house. Aren't you going to miss your house?” I couldn't help asking.

She chuckled and snuggled me closer. “Not as much as I would've missed you.”

“Really?”

“Sure. A house is just a house. You'll see. Soon, we'll have a whole big house again with all new furniture and pictures and everything—you will hardly even remember the old house anymore. But you know what you will remember?”

“What?”

“Me.” She smiled. “And your mom and your brother and your sister.”

“Yeah, I guess you're right.” I wrapped my good hand around my grandma's waist. “I think I'm still going to miss it, though. Every kid loves their grandma's house.”

“Aww. Yes, that's true. I didn't think of it that way.” She trailed her fingers down my arm like my mom did. It felt nice. “So are you ready for your big day?”

My big day? I was confused. “What day?”

Grandma gasped. “You mean you forgot all about your special day with your teacher? Your Prince Tennyson day?”