Chapter 3

My soul separated from my body. For the first time, I was finally myself. Now Simon was the only one left inside that body.

A moment later, I drifted over to my family.

Carla held up the short straw from the drawing and smiled warmly. "Simon will wake up tomorrow."

Then she seemed to remember something and frowned with worry.

"But Harry's injuries haven't healed yet. Simon will still have to feel the pain."

She turned to Amanda. "Mom, call the doctor. Have some pain medicine ready. Simon has hated taking medicine since he was little."

Amanda quickly nodded.

I laughed bitterly. Yesterday, when I was still there, why hadn't they thought about treating my injuries?

I felt pain too.

Early the next morning, Simon opened his eyes and saw Mick, Amanda, and Carla waiting beside him.

A wave of pain hit his body.

His eyes quickly turned red, and he looked completely miserable.

"Carla, it hurts so much. Why didn't you let Harry finish healing before waking me up?"

Amanda's eyes instantly filled with tears. "I'm sorry, Simon. I didn't think it through."

Mick rushed over with the family doctor, sweat covering his forehead.

"The doctor's here. You'll get pain medicine right away."

While comforting the pale-faced Simon, Carla frowned and reminded the doctor, "Please be gentle when you treat his wounds."

The doctor wiped the sweat from his forehead and quickly gave Simon a painkiller injection. He moved with extreme care, as if he were handling fragile glass.

Once the medicine took effect, Simon finally looked better.

Then he remembered something.

"Harry took care of everything, right? The Redknapps won't come after me anymore, will they?"

Carla nodded. The way she looked at Simon was nothing like the cold look she always gave me. Her eyes were full of warmth.

"Don't worry. Everything has been settled. Even if the Redknapps still aren't satisfied later, we'll just have Harry take the punishment for you again."

Simon immediately smiled.

"Thanks, Carla!"

He spoke in a spoiled voice, "Carla, you promised you'd take me to a soccer game!"

Carla paused.

"The soccer game? But I promised Harry I'd take him too. Does that mean we'll have to go twice?"

When she saw Simon's unhappy face, she immediately changed her mind.

"All right. I'll take you instead. When Harry wakes up later, I'll just explain it to him."

I quietly floated nearby, watching everything.

I never understood why I could see everything Simon experienced over the years, but he could never see me.

So, I knew exactly how Mick, Amanda, and Carla loved him.

I knew how differently they treated the two of us.

Yet Simon always believed I would steal their attention whenever I woke up. He thought I wanted to take their love away from him. That was why he hated me so much.

I smiled bitterly.

Maybe that was for the best. Now that he had the body all to himself, he would never have to see me again.

To make it up to him, Amanda personally cooked a huge dinner that night.

Among the dishes were my favorite barbecue ribs.

Just looking at them made me hungry. I had never gotten to eat them all these years.

When I was little, I used to watch Simon eat them. Whenever I woke up, I begged Amanda to make some for me too.

But she always refused with a serious face.

"I'm busy every day. How could I have time to cook? Can you stop making trouble the moment you wake up? You're so immature."

She pushed me aside. I stood there, frozen, and cried.

After that day, I never asked her for anything again.

After dinner, Carla took Simon to the mall to take silly photo booth pictures.

"Carla, smile!"

She could never resist Simon when he acted cute.

She smiled gently for the camera.

As I watched the photos print out, I remembered the day I finished the SAT.

I had asked Carla to take photo booth pictures with me too.

She had only looked up from the pile of paperwork on her desk and impatiently said, "Get a good score first."

I wasn't disappointed. I planned to ask her again after my scores came out.

In the end, I earned an excellent score. It was good enough to get into MIT.

I went to find her, full of excitement.

But she looked at me with a serious face.

"Today is the last day of the month. Tomorrow is the new drawing."

Then she chose Simon to wake up instead.

He accepted all the interviews, praise, and attention from the media in my place.

And the photo booth pictures she had promised me never happened before I disappeared.