FARGO - Jeffrey May lies partly paralyzed in a hospital here, but he manages to pose for snapshots with visitors, sometimes flashing the peace sign or bumping fists with them.

The 15-year-old even flirts with nurses, scribbling one note to friends and family that said, "My nurses are sexy."

In chalkboard messages to his mother, May recounted the day schoolmate Jeff Weise stormed into Red Lake High School on a shooting spree.

May saw his chance to help when Weise was ready to reload a handgun. May tried to tackle Weise when he dropped a handgun clip and stabbed him with a pencil. But it wasn't enough against Weise, who was wearing a bullet-resistant vest.

"I tried," he wrote. "I tried."

May, a Red Lake football lineman, was shot in the face in the March 21 attack that left nine people dead, plus the 16-year-old shooter. It was the deadliest school shooting since Columbine.

May's ninth-grade classmate, Steven Cobenais, 15, remains in critical condition at the Fargo hospital.

After he was shot, May suffered a stroke that affected the left side of his body. His mother, Jodi May, said doctors haven't been able to say much about his chances of recovery.

Jodi May proudly recounted her son's tale to the Star Tribune of Minneapolis on Wednesday in one of the few hours she stepped away from her son's bedside in the intensive-care unit.

Her son is widely known as "Rudy," a name he picked up after seeing the film about the lovable underdog Notre Dame football player. Jodi May says she would love to see her son play again, but right now she'd just love to hear his voice.

"I just wish things could go back to the way they were," she said. "I'm waiting for someone to tell me I'm dreaming."

When Jodi May leaves her son's bedside at night, she says goodbye to a boy fed through a tube in his belly and sometimes breathing with the help of a ventilator.

"I wish I was leaving him in his own bed," she said.

Jeff May tries to ease the pain others are feeling, Jodi May said. In return, he gets the cold, hard truth about what is going on.

"Did he shoot my favorite teacher?" Jeff May asked via his chalkboard.

Yes, his mother told him. English teacher Neva Rogers, 62, died.

"Did he shoot Alicia?" Jeff May asked, referring to 14-year-old Alicia Spike, on whom he had a crush.

Again, the answer was yes.

It's those times that he gets tears in his eyes, Jodi May said.

May thinks about what life will be like on the Red Lake Indian Reservation when she and her son can finally return to their Redby home.

She has begun a display in her son's room, the foundation of which is a handmade quilt from a stranger. She has emptied one bag of well-wishers' cards and has another waiting.

While she's being as strong as she can for her son, sometimes it's her son who seems to be the pillar of strength.

When visitors shed tears, Jeff May tries to help. He pulls them close. Then, using the fuzzy brown paw of a stuffed bear someone bought for him, he wipes the tears away.