Hooded Bandits She was supposed to clean her room, but she spent most of the day prancing around with a feather duster. I occupied my time playing with the camera. Occasionally, she would sit with me for a portrait or comment on one of the photos. She’s excited for summer to start, and she’s eager to go to camp. Though she doesn’t let on, I think she was rather pleased with her latest test results.

Standing four foot ten inches tall, she is in the 75th percentile for height in her age range–a tall, leggy beauty. She scored 60 out of 60 on an English and vocabulary test–a verbose, dizzyingly articulate, and an often downright sassy debater. And she is 108 days away from an end to chemotherapy–a testament to a will so powerful, cancer runs for the hills. Jordan finished the week putting numbers on the board like LeBron James.

Pink and purple refract from her body in kaleidoscopic patterns–a spring skirt, a bright top, a jaunty hat. She has erupted from her room, petals showing, ready to pollinate. Her latest seed ground: publishing. She informs me that she plans to edit a fashion magazine. – I have to talk about fashion, Dad. Because people need their fashion. I can’t help noticing that she has found her glasses. She wears them selectively.

We talked to the orthopedic surgeon today. And, Jordan will need surgery. Two surgeries. They want to move tendons, sculpt muscle and chip bone–on each foot. It sounds dreadful. She wants to have the feet done at the same time, but the surgeon advised against it. He told her she would be in a cast for a month and not able to stand on her foot. She said that was okay.

She rubs the underside of her fingers across the top of her hand. Her hands are in constant motion. They move nervously around themselves, tapping and scratching, grasping it seems for comforting reassurance. Her eyes are drawn off and focused elsewhere in the room. She is unaware of her fidgeting fingers. Her nervous energy transfers to a quest for food. She plunders the pantry and browses the contents of the refrigerator.