Maxwell's Smile

Maxwell’s Smile

Michele Hauf

www.millsandboon.co.uk

More Than Words: Bestselling authors & Real-life heroines

We all have the power to effect change—we just need to find the strength to harness it. With every good deed done and helping hand offered, we are making the world a better place. The dedicated women selected as this year’s recipients of Harlequin’s More Than Words award have changed many lives for the better, through their compassionate hearts and unshakable commitment. To celebrate their accomplishments, bestselling authors have written stories inspired by these real-life heroines.

In this book, Michele Hauf honors the work of the Barta sisters—Berni, Romi, Lexi and Marni Barta—and the not-for-profit organization that they founded, Kid Flicks.

We hope More Than Words inspires you to look inside your heart and get in touch with the heroine inside you.

Dear Reader,

For many years Harlequin has been a leader in supporting and promoting women’s charitable efforts. Through Harlequin More Than Words, each year we celebrate three women who make extraordinary differences in the lives of others, and Harlequin donates $15,000 each to their chosen causes.

We are proud to highlight the current Harlequin More Than Words recipients with the help of some of the biggest names in women’s fiction, Harlequin authors, who created fictional stories inspired by these women and the charities they support. Within the following pages you will find a touching story written by Michele Hauf—one of three ebooks available at www.HarlequinMoreThanWords.com. Be sure to look for Betina Krahn’s Hooked, and Jillian Hart’s No One But You—also available online. A book with three additional stories, written by Debbie Macomber, Brenda Novak and Meryl Sawyer, can be found on the shelves of your favorite bookstore in More Than Words, Stories of the Heart. All six of these stories are beautiful tributes to the Harlequin More Than Words recipients and we hope they will ignite the real-life heroine in you.

Thank you for your support; all proceeds from the sale of the print edition will be returned to the Harlequin More Than Words program. For more information on how you can get involved, please visit our website at www.HarlequinMoreThanWords.com.

Together we can make a difference!

Sincerely,

Donna Hayes

Publisher and CEO

Harlequin

Kid Flicks

Berni, Romi, Lexi and Marni Barta

How the Barta sisters inspire others:

Walk into the backyard pool house at the Bartas’ family home in Los Angeles, and there’s a good chance you’ll find more than bottles of chlorine, towels and a place to change. Instead, be prepared to step over piles of DVDs.

That’s because sisters Berni, Romi, Lexi and Marni Barta are the force behind Kid Flicks, a not-for-profit organization that collects and donates new and gently used kids’ DVDs to children’s hospitals and pediatric departments across the U.S. They started Kid Flicks when they were just kids themselves.

“Movies are not going to cure cancer, but Kid Flicks offers one extra step to making a child’s stay more enjoyable,” says Marni Barta, now a twenty-year-old student at Northwestern University outside Chicago. “Having a distraction can definitely help.”

Any pediatric nurse or hospital child life specialist would agree that Kid Flicks offers more than just a way to pass the time. Movies can act as a balm to soothe scared or bored children who have undergone surgery, are fighting cancer and other diseases, or are recuperating after an injury. Children in intensive care or cancer wards for lengthy stays often feel the world is going on without them, and watching DVDs can help them feel connected to “normal life.”

As one hospital professional from Washakie Medical Center in Wyoming wrote to Kid Flicks, “Having these movies to keep the children occupied helps in so many ways. The more children can be distracted from their illnesses, the quicker they can heal.”

New uses for old movies

Kid Flicks started as a simple idea that grew. In the spring of 2002, as the Bartas were doing their spring cleaning, they came across piles of childhood videos the girls, then in their teen and preteen years, no longer watched. But what should they do with all those Sesame Street shows and Disney flicks?

Lexi, then the oldest, at sixteen, came up with a plan: they’d donate their old movies to a pediatric oncology department at a local Los Angeles hospital where their friend had once been successfully treated for leukemia.

“We hated the idea of just throwing them away, especially because they were movies we loved so much as kids,” says Lexi, who now works for a creative agency in L.A. “We needed a way to make good use of them and share them with others.”

The girls and their mother drove to the hospital with a box of their VHS videos, and passed them over to the child-life specialist on staff, who was more than a little surprised by the donation. She had no idea it was coming. But she was also thrilled. “Movies are the first thing kids ask for when they are in the hospital,” she told them.

That day, the girls knew they were on to something, and decided to start collecting other children’s video castoffs to donate to more hospitals. They solicited friends, family, schools, churches, temples and other organizations. They even contacted movie studios and production companies and requested videos for the cause.

Movie donations started pouring in. Every time they collected a hundred videos, the girls would box them up and drive to another hospital within a five-hour round-trip radius, to drop them off in person.

Berni, the youngest sister, and today a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, says the experience of meeting children in the hospitals stays with her still.

“A lot of times we’d get a chance to talk to the kids,” she says. “They would open the box and look through the movies and get so excited. It was so heartwarming and rewarding to see the impact we were having. It kept us going.”

From small idea to big plans

Once the girls had donated 1 hundred-movie collections to all the children’s departments in Southern California hospitals, they realized they had a question to address: how could they have more of an impact? The answer was clear. They needed to find ways to generate money so they could reach their new goal of providing every children’s hospital and pediatric department in the country with a Kid Flicks “movie library.”

With the help of their father, a lawyer, they applied for not-for-profit status and were on their way. Reporters started calling, their pediatrician distributed information about Kid Flicks in her patient newsletter, and adults and kids started drives that brought in money and movies.

By April 2011, Kid Flicks had donated 58,300 movies to 583 different hospitals across the U.S., from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles to Clark Memorial Hospital in Jeffersonville, Indiana—and the number continues to grow.

Romi, the second oldest and now an actor, comedian and screenwriter in New York, is convinced that one reason for Kid Flicks’s popularity is its simplicity. The concept—donate children’s DVDs to hospitals—is easy for anyone to understand and even easier to get involved with.

“It has given me a lot of hope that one small idea can build and gain steam from other people’s support and energy. It has blossomed out of other people’s kindness,” she says, mentioning one child on his birthday who asked that party guests donate DVDs to Kid Flicks in lieu of birthday presents.

Close family far apart

Although all four girls have since grown up to become women living in far-flung locations from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles, they remain dedicated to Kid Flicks. Today the movies are shipped to their father’s law office, then brought back to the family home to be stored (in the pool house, the living room and sometimes in their dad’s car) before being delivered. So far there has nearly always been one sister living in L.A. to step in while the others finish school. Yet even while the sisters have been at school, Kid Flicks has been part of their lives to varying degrees.

“The great thing about Kid Flicks is that we can choose when we can dedicate a lot of time to it,” says Marni. “There are four of us working on it, so we can shift who has the bulk of the responsibility.”

The arrangement does seem to work. Back when Marni was an eleventh-grade student and her older sisters were away at college, the Barta sisters won the President’s Volunteer Service Award and were invited to meet the president and tour Air Force One. They visited the White House later that year.

When Marni met the president as he landed in California, her father beamed and told her, “In my fifty years, I’ve never reached a point in my career when I’ve done anything like you have.”

Marni pauses for a moment before finishing the story.

“It just shows that it’s not about how old you are. You don’t have to be a certain age to do something good.”

Michele Hauf

Maxwell’s Smile

Michele Hauf has been writing romance, action-adventure and fantasy stories for more than twenty years. Her first published novel was Dark Rapture. France, musketeers, vampires and faeries populate her stories. And if she followed the adage “write what you know,” all her stories would have snow in them. Fortunately, she steps beyond her comfort zone and writes about countries she has never visited and creatures she has never seen.

Michele can also be found on Facebook and Twitter and michelehauf.com. You can also write to Michele at: P.O. Box 23, Anoka, MN 55303.

For Ashley

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter One

The rust bucket groaned to a stop in the parking lot outside the local hospital. The small town of Birch Cove, where Sam Jones worked as a handyman, edged the Twin Cities suburbs. He patted the 1974 Ford pickup’s dashboard and then sneezed at the dust that filled the cab.

“You may not be pretty,” he said to the vehicle, which was held together in some spots with a lacing of rust, “but you are reliable.”

Swinging his well-worn work boots out of the cab, he landed on the ground with a purposeful jump. Flakes of sawdust sifted from his shoulders and the creases in his jeans. Best way to shake off the morning’s work. He thumbed the hardened wood glue smeared along the thigh of his jeans, grimaced, then decided he looked better than on the days his face was coated with white Sheetrock dust.

From the truck bed, he grabbed the cardboard box of DVDs he’d cleaned out from the entertainment center in his basement last night. Boots clomping on the pavement, he strode inside the airy lobby of the newly refurbished hospital. The receptionist gave him directions to the patient resources office.

Sam clutched the box a little tighter, feeling a weary sadness spread across his shoulders. His plan was to get in and get out without passing through the children’s ward. Unfortunately that was the straightest path to patient resources. He turned a corner and walked by a room where a young girl sat on a big, imposing bed. A pink bandanna covered her tiny head, and no light shone in her tired eyes.

Sam nodded to her and offered a quick smile, but she merely stared. With a swallow, he shifted the box in his arms and forged ahead. He could do this. He had to do this. For Jeff.

Running the route the receptionist had given him through his mind, he turned left, but instead of walking down a hallway, strode into a patient’s room by mistake. The wood floor gleamed and the walls were papered in subtle stripes. Wood-slat blinds had been pulled, blocking out the bright sunshine, and the chemical smell of disinfectant punched Sam in the gut.

“Uh, sorry.”

He turned to go, then stopped in the doorway. The tousled-haired boy sitting cross-legged on the bed didn’t even lift his head to acknowledge Sam’s presence. He was hunched over what looked like schoolwork, the tip of his tongue sticking out the corner of his compressed lips. An iPad sat next to the notebook he wrote in. An IV drip was attached to his left arm.

“Homework?” Sam asked.

The boy nodded. And frowned.

Sam cast a glance down the bare hallway in search of a parent. It wouldn’t be right to stay without permission, but a niggling impulse to linger struck him. The kid’s messy mop of brown hair reminded him of his little brother. Jeff had never known the real purpose of a comb, preferring to launch spit balls from the end of it—heck, neither of the Jones boys had mastered the comb. And when he was leaning over a bowl of Super Crunchies for breakfast, his brother’s concentration had been as fierce as this kid’s was right now. Jeff had never been into schoolwork, though, so that’s where the similarities ended.

“Hey,” Sam called out, feeling compelled not to leave without at least speaking to the boy. “Who does homework when they’re in the hospital? Shouldn’t this be a free pass to get out of schoolwork?”

The kid sighed, but didn’t look up. Instead, he plucked a colored pencil from the box on his lap and started drawing in the notebook spread out on the movable table that hugged the bed. “Who would have thought getting my work done would be less important than lounging around.”

Okay. The kid didn’t look old enough to have mastered the snarky comeback he’d just flung at Sam, but Sam took the verbal hit like a pro. Besides, if anyone deserved to be in a grumpy mood it was a kid sitting in the hospital. Sam knew that all too well.

“What are you in for?” he asked, then dropped the smile. Stupid, Sam. The kid hadn’t been incarcerated. And if he answered something like “cancer,” Sam wouldn’t know how to respond.

“Appendicitis. They took out my appendix last night.”

Whew. And yet anything that put a kid in the hospital wasn’t to be made light of.

Sam read the chart hung at the end of the motorized bed. “Maxwell, eh?”

“Maxwell McHenry,” the boy stated, as he set the pencil down with a smart snap and finally looked up. “And you are a stranger.”

“Oh, right. I am. Sorry. Name’s Sam Jones.” He offered his hand to shake.

Maxwell ignored the gesture and instead crossed his thin arms over his narrow chest. “A name doesn’t make you any less a stranger. You’re not wearing an ID badge. I don’t think you should be in my room, Sam Jones.”

“Just thought I’d try to put a smile on your face. Hate to see a frowning kid.” Sam tilted the box to display the contents. “I’m dropping off some DVDs to patient resources.”

“Why? Do they spend their time sitting around watching movies when they should be taking care of the ill and infirm?”

Whoa. The kid had a load of attitude.

“No, I just thought it would be a nice thing to do. My brother—” No, don’t go there. “Er, I know when kids are in the hospital it can be boring waiting around during some of the treatments. Watching a movie gives them something to do. Makes them smile.”

“I’m not bored.”

“So you’re not. But a little laughter never hurt anyone. In fact, laughter has been proved to help heal. Hey, you want one of the DVDs I brought in?”

The boy feigned extreme interest in what looked like a brain sketched in his notebook. “Not me. I wouldn’t have an interest in some stupid kid movie.”

Maxwell’s frown cut deep into a tender part of Sam’s heart that had been tread on only too recently.

“Oh, these movies aren’t stupid. And I brought in a range for all age groups. From Barney to Ninja Turtles, to family dramas and silly comedies.” Sam set the box on the end of the bed and opened the flaps to rummage through the contents. “I bet there’s a great flick in here you’d love to watch.”

“I have homework,” the boy said. “Of course, you can see that.”

“Sure, Max, but—“

“My name is Maxwell,” the kid corrected tersely.

“Right. Maxwell.” Sam felt as if he’d just been reprimanded by an English teacher with a tight bun and a penchant for rapping the blackboard with her ruler. “How old are you, Maxwell?”

“Nine.” He caught his forehead in a palm, colored pencil jutting skyward. “I shouldn’t have told you that. You’re a stranger.”

Sam sensed the slightest edge of levity in that statement. So the kid wasn’t entirely made of stone.

“I am a stranger, but I promise I only want to see you smile. Then I’ll leave. How ‘bout this one?” He wielded a SpongeBob SquarePants DVD.

Barely flicking his attention to the DVD, Maxwell said, “Cartoons are for kids.”

“You’re a kid.”

“I am not.” Maxwell sighed again, and Sam felt the weighty exhalation in his chest.

This boy was the furthest thing from a happy, carefree kid. Watching Maxwell keep a stiff upper lip made Sam’s heartache, and stirred up bittersweet memories he’d hoped to avoid during what should have been an in-and-out mission.

“I am a kid,” Maxwell suddenly corrected, tapping the colored pencil against his chin, “but I’m smarter than most. And if I don’t finish my homework, I’ll be less smart than required if I’m ever going to become a brain surgeon.”

Sam whistled. “That’s an awesome aspiration. And somehow, without even knowing you, I predict it’ll happen. But still. All work and no play…” Sam tugged out a movie. “How ‘bout this one? The Brave Little Toaster. Yeah? It’s a classic. I love this story!”

Maxwell wedged his cheek into his palm with what seemed to be bored disinterest. “How can a toaster be brave? It’s an inanimate object. That makes no sense.”

Stunned how easily the kid could knock the wind from his sails, Sam lowered the DVD to his side. “You really don’t watch a lot of cartoons, do you, buddy?”

The kid quirked a brow.

Sam tried again. “The toaster’s friends are a blanket, a radio and a vacuum cleaner. After waking one morning to find the house empty—because their owners went on vacation—they go on a quest to find their missing master.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No, I’m—no.” Never let it be said Sam Jones gave up the good fight. He opened the case and popped the disk into the player beneath the television. “Part of being smart is using your imagination. How else could a toaster, or a big yellow sponge, have a really big adventure?”

“I do use my imagination. Look at this graph I’ve drawn to designate the various lobes of the brain. The pink one is the cerebellum. That part fascinates me because it controls motor skills. Don’t you think the colors I’ve chosen are imaginative?”

“Yep, they are. And very precise. You’ve got mad coloring skills, Maxwell. Bet you’ll get an A on that one. But I still haven’t seen you smile. Give me five minutes with the toaster, and I know you’ll want to watch the whole thing.”

Maxwell slouched against the thick pillow and crossed his arms high on his chest. He glared at Sam. Sam matched the glare, but with a lot less vehemence. He was prepared to leave if Maxwell insisted. He had no right to be bugging some random kid with homework to do, and he’d probably catch hell when the parents showed up.

His brother had used the same pouty stare on him many a time to win an argument. Such tactics had always worked, too, ending up in a treat from the Dairy Queen or a round of Scrabble. Or both. “Both” had always been best.

With a defeated sigh, the boy nodded. He didn’t smile, but Sam felt the same triumph he had a year earlier when he’d finally gotten Jeff to lift his head from the hospital pillow and talk to him—one last time.

“Five minutes,” Maxwell said. “I’m setting the timer on my watch.”

“Deal. But you’d better turn down the alarm, because you don’t want it interrupting your enjoyment of this awesome movie.”

* * *

Rachel McHenry smiled at the nurse she passed on her way to Maxwell’s room. The staff here at the hospital was kind and supportive, but when it came down to it, customer service still didn’t change the fact that her son had been through a harrowing experience. Only yesterday afternoon he’d gotten the worst stomach pains, and she’d had to rush him to the E.R. Half an hour later, he’d been prepped for surgery.

She hated the lack of control she had felt, standing back and watching as Maxwell was wheeled away. At that moment she’d been utterly incapable of making things right for him. But it was a parent’s job to keep a stiff upper lip and smile through it all, which she had done.

Only when Maxwell was taken to recovery had she made a quick trip home to lock up and grab her work files and laptop. While standing in the darkness of her living room, Rachel had finally allowed herself a good cry. Crying always made things better.

The doctor had said Maxwell was doing fine and could be released tomorrow. Rachel had been able to stay overnight because the hospital rooms featured a pull-out sofa bed for parents and family.

This morning she’d had a house closing at a mortgage office just down the street from the hospital, so had slipped out at seven-thirty. Maxwell was an early riser, and probably woke not long after she’d left. She hoped he hadn’t felt too alone without her here, but also knew her son was industrious and enjoyed mornings on his own, puttering about the house, making toast with strawberry jelly for breakfast, doing homework out on the patio, and generally starting the day quietly.

The closing had run an hour longer than she’d expected. Had she really left her son alone in the hospital? Bad mother.

Bad mother who was trying to support a family and pay medical bills, she reminded herself. She forced a smile for Maxwell’s sake. Of course, it wasn’t hard being cheerful around her son. And she had always possessed an innate cheeriness that sometimes drove even her bonkers. She wished Maxwell had inherited that particular gene. He was such a serious child. Not depressing serious, just…astute for his age.

Rachel paused outside Maxwell’s room when she heard sniffling.

“Oh, my baby.”

She had wondered how long Maxwell would be able to hold up without showing some sign of pain or defeat. He’d led an enchanted life up until now. He’d been sick only once or twice, and had never injured himself. The doctor had assured her it wasn’t uncommon for children to undergo surgery once in their lifetime, but she hadn’t wanted it for her son.

It hurt her to know he was crying. He did it rarely, and over the most incredible things, such as finding a dead butterfly in the backyard, or hearing that a friend’s dog had died. Briefly, she wondered if he’d want her to see him crying, but she couldn’t stay outside and let him suffer alone.

Surprised at the sight of the handsome man who rose from the chair beside Maxwell’s bed, Rachel immediately looked to her son, who was wiping a tear from his eye. The television was on, and that, even more than finding a stranger in Maxwell’s room, set her off.

“You’re watching a movie?” she said to her son, trying to keep the accusatory tone from her voice. She turned her frustration toward the adult in the room instead. “And who are you?”

He extended his hand but refused to shake it.

“Sam Jones,” he said. “I was delivering movies when I happened to see your son sitting alone and looking bored. Me and Maxwell found one to watch we both liked.”

“I see. I suppose Maxwell neglected to tell you he’s not allowed to watch movies without my permission?”