Love Speaks Through: Chapter 23
Adam and Allison flew back to the States in first class, grateful because it meant more room and less people around to jostle Adam. He did his best to sleep, feeling strange and disconnected thanks to the pain pill. Instead, he found himself feeling let down that he couldn’t call and talk to Kris during the flight.
But soon enough, they landed for a layover, in somewhere Adam couldn’t remember if he tried. It didn’t matter that signs were everywhere. He had grown so tired he couldn’t read them.
Adam walked through the airport, shades on hand hat pulled low. Not like anyone would recognize him anyway. He was still wearing the horrible plaid golf shorts, though they were a different variety, and Kris’ shirt and hat.
He worked on calling Kris, though Adam was sure he was probably still in the air. And Allison made it her personal mission to get them food, since she hated the stuff on airplanes.
“Hey!” she exclaimed, just as he had finally gotten Kris’ voice mail and was leaving a message. They made it a point not to use each other’s names in public, to cut down on the chances of being mobbed. Even though security had flown down specifically to be with them as they came back.
“Sorry,” he apologized to the message. “Girl can’t keep her voice down if her life depends on it…”
“Shut up, and come with me! There’s ice cream up there!” she pointed to a big menu board that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
“Ooh, sorry, bud. Ice cream break. I’ll call when we land,” Adam promised and hung up.
Allison lagged behind admirably so Adam didn’t have to work too hard keeping up with her. On the way to the counter, they decided to share the amazingly huge and delicious looking banana split, covered in whipped cream, chocolate sauce, nuts and cherries.
Even though Adam was starting to really hurt, he didn’t show it, and instead joined Allison in taking pictures of them enjoying their dessert at 6:00 PM and sending them all to Kris’ phone.
“Thank God for ice cream,” he sighed, taking a huge bite, forcing himself to focus on how good it tasted and not how his hand was killing him. He stretched his neck, while he sat there and tried not to curse about it.
“Here, try this,” Allison encouraged, shoving her spoonful of mostly chocolate and whipped cream under his nose. “It’s the best.”
“How can you eat that?” Adam wrinkled his nose. “Ice cream is ice cream, girl. You can’t just eat the toppings.”
“Why not? I do,” Allison said, licking her spoon clean and digging down to the bottom of the dish where all the chocolate was pooled.
“I think we’d better get going,” Adam said, glancing at his watch.
And because they were more behind than they thought, both of them ended up running to the gate, Allison still carrying the ice cream, which she had to dump at the security checkpoint.
--
Kris landed in Arkansas at 11:00 PM. Both of his flights had been delayed either in the air or on the ground. The only good thing that was evident in any of it, was the pictures and voice messages he found on his phone from Adam and Allison, and even one from Joan, asking that he please call when he landed, to let her know he had arrived okay. Kris imagined Adam and Allison had similar messages from her on their own phones too.
Then, he found his car and drove until he found the Ronald McDonald House, checking in there near 1:00 AM, and feeling completely ready to crash. The last thing he expected was for Katy to be awake waiting for him.
“What are you doing?” he asked quietly, putting his plastic bag of belongings down, and opening his arms to embrace her.
“I waited for you,” she said yawning. The schedule thing said your plane was supposed to land at 9:30, so I thought you would have been here a while ago. I was still up visiting Kaleb. When you didn’t get here, I stayed up, worried.”
“You don’t need to worry about me,” Kris promised, though he felt run into the ground. He peeled off the awful shirt and fell into bed beside his wife.
“That’s…not a very flattering color on you…” Katy ventured.
“It would have been less flattering on Adam. One of the ladies on the trip, Joan, the one who blocked the cameras? She went shopping for him afterward, which was really awesome of her. Unfortunately she found the worst collection of polo shirts and plaid shorts ever.”
“Oh, no. Poor Adam,” Katy giggled.
“How’s Kaleb doing?” Kris asked, pulling Katy in for a kiss.
“Well, now he’s got jaundice or something, but at least that’s not too bad when they treat it with medication and stuff. It just means he looks yellow,” she filled in. “How are you feeling? You look horrible.”
“I feel worse,” he admitted. “There was some kind of stomach virus going around and I think I got it. Hopefully it’s short-lived, because I gotta see Kaleb.”
Accusation flashed in Katy’s eyes briefly. “You got exposed to some Costa Rican stomach virus and then you came in and kissed me?”
“I’m sorry,” Kris apologized, putting his hands up. “I just missed you. I hadn’t seen you for nine days. You look amazing, by the way,” Kris complimented trying to keep his eyes open.
“Thank you,” Katy returned, her tone clipped. “But you’re still punished. You’re sleeping on the cot tonight with all your germs,” she pointed across the room at the tiny cot, which was the perfect size for her husband.
Silently, Kris walked over and dropped onto it, not in the mood to argue. He needed to sleep. “Good night,” he called. “I love you.”
“Love you, too,” she called back, getting up to Lysol the room before she went to bed herself.
--
Adam found himself wishing for Joan as he sat in the hospital burn ward in San Francisco. Allison had come with him - all the way in - and was bravely holding his other hand as Adam got his dressings changed.
Allison wasn’t squeamish but this whole process was pretty disgusting. Usually, she would exclaim over what was happening and make comments to try and lighten the mood, but it looked like it was still really painful for Adam.
He sat silently as a nurse scrubbed all the dead skin off his hand and cut stuff that was still attached. She noticed he swore more freely here, but never at anyone in particular. Adam knew they were just doing their jobs.
“Doesn’t this hurt?” one asked.
“Yeah!” Adam exclaimed, forcing out a laugh.
“You’re just being pretty quiet about it,” the nurse ventured, impressed.
Allison shook her head, squeezing his hand. That nurse just didn’t know Adam. She didn’t know that he was holding onto her hand so tightly that she thought he might cut off circulation. She didn’t know that when Adam’s jaw tightened, that was bad pain, and that when he flinched, it was better to just keep going and get it over with. If he thought you were going to hesitate, that just made it worse.
They had talked about pain and bandage changes on the last leg of the flight when Adam wanted something to take his mind off the pain he was experiencing right then. He was the only person Allison knew that preferred to think of worse pain when they hurt, so he could realize he was lucky in the moment.
She couldn’t imagine enduring a more than six-hour flight with a layover and injuries like he had, and then coming into the hospital burn ward super late and having to deal with dressing changes. But he got through it.
Allison drove them to his house in his car, and told him that she was staying the night.
“Take the guest room, sure.” he invited, trying to remember where he had put the remote control before he left.
“Wait. Where are you gonna be?” she asked, stopping in the doorway of the living room.
“I’m just gonna hang out and watch some TV, and be grateful for technology,” Adam insisted, reclining on his couch.
Allison had never been to Adam’s place, and she was beginning to think that he hadn’t either. It hardly looked lived-in. The furniture and pictures on the wall looked brand new, and the place looked too clean.
“I’ll watch,” Allison volunteered, sitting on the other end and pulling the release on the foot-rest. She wasn’t about to let Adam hang out injured, watching TV and not sleeping with her several rooms away.
“Fine. Whatever,” Adam allowed, even though the thought of being hovered over one more damn minute made him crazy.
“We should call Kris and let him know we made it,” Allison thought aloud.
“Nah, don’t bug him,” Adam dismissed. “Call Joan if you wanna call somebody. She wants us to call her no matter how late it is so she knows we got here safe.”
Glad for something to do, Allison dialed Joan’s number and talked happily to her, watching as Adam stopped on an old rerun of the Newlyweds that was on when Allison was really young. She had loved that show, and apparently Adam did, too.
“Hey, Joan. We’re back, it’s Allison and Adam. We stopped by the hospital to get his bandages changed again, since I don’t know how to do it and neither does anyone else.” Allison kept talking, not caring that she was in the process of leaving the world’s longest message on her friend’s voice mail.
Adam held his hand out for the phone, and Allison handed it over.
“Hey, it’s Adam. So, you’re way better than the hospital at all the bandage sh-- stuff,” he corrected. “They’re so careful it takes, like, days. Anyway, we’re back, and we’re watching Newlyweds,” he rambled. “That’s an old MTV show. It’s great. They’re skiing.”
“Adam, seriously. I don’t think Joan cares,” Allison interjected trying to get her phone back, and eat Ranch Doritos at the same time.
But Adam waved her away. “See? This show is an example of when reality television is a bad idea. Sometimes, like when you want to start a career, it’s not bad. It can be a vehicle to getting what you want and all that. But when you’re first married, it’s just a bad idea," he finished, finally hanging up.
“Wait,” he said, stopping short and looking at Allison. “How did you get your phone if we never went back to your house for it?” he asked.
“I had it the whole time,” she admitted quietly. “I just kept it off so that no one would know that I had it.”
“What was the point of bringing it with you if you weren’t going to use it?” Adam quipped, waving the Doritos toward him.
“My mom said to have it. As a safety thing just in case.”
Silently, Adam nodded, grateful that Allison had a way to contact home if she had really needed to. But even without asking, he knew she hadn’t used it. She was too busy helping take care of everyone else. And that’s what he admired about her. That she put others first.