Hope Floats

Jump in. Splash around. Climb out. Repeat as needed.

It was all Rosemary needed as a recipe. She seemed perfectly happy... Oblivious to summer ending, an impending return to school, or even getting picked up by Mom pretty soon.

But her "tattoo" beneath the floatie was starting to smear.

"Maybe it's starting to wash off because you keep dunking yourself like a teabag, Rosie," I suggested.

Her dad, Levi, told me it was a rub on. His own tattoos weren't.

I'd stopped to ask how he was doing, attracted by the walking cast he'd been wearing for several months. The news wasn't good... nerve damage, arthritis and an irregular growth of bone in his "good" leg had brought a surgeon and neurologist into his life involuntarily.

"I know it's easy to get discouraged with that kind of diagnosis," I said. "But it's good to have them on your team. When I went into the hospital with my first stroke, it was my neurologist who first offered me the hope of anything better than dying within a week. Six and a half years later I'm still here and walking around."

Levi asked where I was going now.

I was headed to a nearby casino... I needed quarters for laundry.

He smiled a little, and said he never went in anymore.

"You know, a couple of years ago, I saw this sign inside Sam's Town. It had this big arrow pointing the way to 'Change and Redemption.' Turns out if you follow the path through the casino, all you find at the other end is a cashier."

Levi laughed.

Mission accomplished.