Chapter 9 - Page 123 - New Passion

    Jim stopped crying, but his hands still covered his face.

    Rhasha thought something bad had happened to the little girl. “Is the little girl dead?” she asked. Before the nurse could answer, Rhasha began crying again, dreading the answer to her question.

    “No, Rhasha. The first day you were in the hospital, we took this picture. This is a picture of you.”

    Rhasha wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at the picture again. She hadn’t known what she looked like when she’d first come to the hospital. She pictured herself lying in the hospital bed. She remembered Jim holding her hand between both of his as he smiled at her and told her she had pretty eyes. She remembered how good it felt when Jim kissed her on the cheek.

    Rhasha picked up the picture to take a better look. Then she looked up at the nurse, blinking back tears. “Jim loved me,” she said, “even when I looked like I did in this picture.”

    The nurse knelt in front of Rhasha. “Yes,” she replied. “You mean a lot to Jim.”

    As Rhasha looked at the picture again, Jim raised his head from his hands and looked into Rhasha’s face. “You do mean everything to me, angel,” he said, “and I love you with all my heart.” He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.

    “I love you, too, sweetheart,” Rhasha replied, “and I always will.” She couldn’t keep her eyes off her picture. “Jim, did you come into the office without me just to see this picture?” She thought her question may have sounded rude, so she rephrased it. “I mean, did you want to compare how I look now with how I looked in the picture?”