El

    “Just one left, right?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Which one? Math?”
    “Yep. What about you? Chemistry?”
    “Ugh, yes.”

O, Heliades, your tears flow once more down your poplar bark ragged,
Cries hushed forever below the brown wood of your transformèd eyes.
Phaethon, your brother, lies cold in the tomb ringèd round by your thicket,

    A month passed. My condition held. I had no symptoms of my illness. I still wasn’t allowed to participate in most gym classes, but if I was still healthy by senior year, Dr.

    I didn’t see Buck until the afternoon that Sunday, after Dr. Martinez x-rayed me for the second time that weekend and proclaimed my bones completely healed. “If only we could bottle that ability,” she sighed, somewhat wistfully.

    I was alive.
    As far as I could tell, I still had all my limbs. My toes worked— that was a plus. I could hear the beeping of a heart rate monitor. So my ears still functioned. Also good.

    The x-ray showed hairline fractures in my bones. Many fractures. All over my body. “Look, here’s three more in your jawbone,” Dr. Martinez said. “How on earth did you manage that? We take our eyes off you for thirty minutes—”