Love Speaks Through: Chapter 25
Adam took his weekly call from Joan in the driveway of Kris and Katy’s house. The weather was cold. To Adam’s way of thinking, forty was your age, it wasn’t a temperature.
“So, how’s everything healing?” Joan wanted to know.
She was busy preparing for Christmas, but never too busy to call her “three extra kids” as she called Kris, Allison and Adam now. Whether or not they could actually take her calls, Joan always made them, leaving messages detailing what she and McKenna were doing, or getting after them after she read that one of them wasn’t taking care of themselves properly.
Joan called Adam every Thursday. It was a rare treat when he was able to pick up a call.
“It’s pretty good I think,” Adam admitted, studying his right hand in the purple compression glove. He had worn a compression dressing on his neck for a few months, but was able to go without it. But he was told he would have to wear the glove for eighteen more months. “Looks pretty disgusting, but I’m wearing my Michael Jackson glove, so that helps.”
“Now, what does that look like?” Joan asked intrigued, studying the Russian tea cakes she was making for her annual Christmas party. After a quick inspection, she decided they didn’t look done enough and shoved them back in the oven.
Adam laughed. “Well, it’s purple. I have a black one with me, too.”
“Where are you right now? Not on tour or anything. Aren’t you spending the holidays with family?”
“I spent a few days of Hanukkah with my mom, and now I’m actually in Arkansas. Kris and Katy are bringing Kaleb home tonight, and I wanted to be here.”
“No way,” she exclaimed, breathless. “Take pictures for me, will you?”
“I think they’re getting a Christmas card done as a family and they’ll try to have it out in time, but I’ll take pictures. Don’t worry. So, what are you and McKenna up to?”
Joan’s oven timer rang and she reached in with a fork to stab one of the Russian tea cakes experimentally, scowling when it crumbled in half. “Well, I’m busy giving Betty Crocker a run for her money in the kitchen, but my cookies aren’t cooperating. McKenna’s staying over at a friend’s.”
Adam was blinded temporarily as a car pulled in behind him, headlights on.
“Stay on the phone, okay?” he insisted to Joan and hurried out of the car to shove the phone at Kris.
“Hey! Who’s this?” he asked, grinning.
“It’s Joan,” Adam supplied, giving Katy a hand out of the car. “Tell her how huge Little Bird’s growing.”
“Hey, Joan! Yeah, I’m great. How are you? Merry Christmas. Yeah, he’s so big now. He can finally wear all his newborn stuff.” Kris talked brightly while he slung a diaper bag over one shoulder and waited for Katy to get Kaleb before locking the car.
Adam wouldn’t have believed it but when he saw Katy take the baby out of his car seat. His own breath caught, because Kaleb looked just like a newborn and couldn’t have weighed more than eight pounds.
Once they were in the house, Adam was entranced. “Oh, my God. He’s so perfect,” he gushed. He was following Katy around without realizing it until she finally settled on the couch. Adam positioned himself directly next to her. “Ooh, he’s so gorgeous,” Adam complimented, as if the baby in her arms was a piece of art. “He looks just like both of you. How does that happen?”
“Didn’t your mom already have this talk with you?” Katy teased. But she could see the love in Adam’s eyes. “You want one, don’t you?”
“Absolutely,” Adam nodded.
“Would you settle for holding him while I get his bottle ready?” Katy asked, offering the blanketed baby like a wrapped gift.
“Yeah…I mean, but what if I do it wrong?” he asked nervously as Kris hung up and walked back into the living room.
“Kris said you took care of, like, seventeen babies in Costa Rica, and you can’t hold one six-month-old?” Katy chided.
“He’s the size of a Matchbox car!” Adam objected, terrified at the thought of holding a human being so tiny and fragile that he might break if you looked at him wrong.
“He didn’t mean it,” Katy told Kaleb as he started to fuss. “You’re gonna grow up to be the biggest, strongest boy. Yes, you are,” she cooed as Kris walked into the living room, phone in hand.
“Hey, my lovely wife. Joan is making Russian tea cakes as we speak. The most delicious baked good in the world. Would you make me some?”
“Kris, it’s not Christmas without cookies,” Katy reminded, smiling and handing off Kaleb to her husband. “Show Adam how to hold the baby,” she directed and left to make a bottle.
Grinning, Kris gestured with his chin for Adam to sit on one end of the couch or the other. “Just make sure to support his head,” Kris said softly, handing his son to his best friend. “Is your hand okay with him? Nice glove, by the way.”
“Thanks,” Adam laughed. “I have a black one, but it wasn’t very festive.”
Kris wrinkled his nose and shook his head. “Nah. Purple’s way better.”
Adam’s eyebrows shot up as he thought of something. “I told Allison I’d call her, and I totally forgot. She’s going to kill me.”
“Does she know you’re here?” Kris asked, curious.
“No,” Adam sighed, jiggling Kaleb a little to see if he liked it.
Kris shrugged. “She can’t kill you if she can’t find you.” Then he walked out to pull Katy beneath the mistletoe and kiss her.
--
Allison was out with her best friend at a local coffee shop. They had made it their own personal mission to drink as many Ho Ho Mochas and Fa La Lattes as they possibly could, eat muffins and then stay up all night talking in Allison’s apartment.
They weren’t off to a very strong beginning seeing as they had missed out on sitting in the best chairs by the fireplace, even though it was California. In Allison’s mind, Christmas time meant sitting by the fire, sipping warm drinks and pretending it was snowing out, even if it wasn’t.
“Hey! Get me a straw?” Allison asked, as her phone cut her off.
Is anybody listening? Can anybody hear?
Allison smiled.
Adam.
It was about damn time.
“Hey, I thought you were never gonna call!” Allison accused, even though she’d forgotten that she had made him swear up and down that he would return her call.
“Hey, girl. How are you? We miss you,” Adam passed along, knowing it was true of Kris and Katy, and would be of Kaleb if he had any idea at all how cool Allison was.
“Who’s we?” Allison asked, sipping her latte without a straw and not caring. She just liked blowing the wrapper off anyway.
“Me, Kris, Katy and Kaleb,” Adam filled in.
“Oh, Special K?” she exclaimed. “How is he?”
“I’m holding him. Don’t you ever check your text messages? I sent you a Christmas present,” Adam informed her, still entirely obsessed, staring at little Kaleb, who stared back
Ignoring the stream of curses that she had been saving up just for him, Allison switched over to a different screen. If she lost Adam, she would call him back. The lure of a Christmas present was too strong to overlook.
When she saw the picture, it took her breath. In Adam’s arms was the tiniest, most perfect baby. He was wide awake and stared at her with Kris’ eyes. He had Katy’s nose and a shock of blonde hair that grew straight up.
“Oh. My God,” she exclaimed, finding Adam somehow on hold and having hit a button to get him back. “Tell Kris that even if I’m homeless and poor and broke, I’ll baby-sit that beautiful boy for free.”
“Hey guys,” Adam passed on, smirking. “Allison’s willing to baby sit him for free, even if she’s flat broke, and homeless.”
“Can we hold her to that?” Kris asked, raising his voice a little.
In Adam’s arms, Kaleb jumped. “Uh-oh. Somebody doesn’t like that idea…” he said quietly.
“Allison, I gotta let you go. Okay? I love you! Merry Christmas.”
“Love you, too!”
--
Kris was just enjoying sitting on the couch with Katy, watching Kaleb sleep and visiting with Adam when Adam’s phone rang. It played the first lines of the chorus of TobyMac’s One World, which was really confusing for Kris, since Adam wasn’t known for his love of Christian artists.
“Who is calling you?” Kris asked, intrigued.
But Adam was speechless, staring at the caller ID. He showed it to Kris, whose mouth dropped open.
When he took the call, he could barely muster a hello, before the familiar voice on the other end, said “Hey. This is Tyler.”
--
They had promised to keep in touch when they left Costa Rica but had done a lousy job of it. With Adam’s schedule as crazy as it was, and Tyler in school and working all hours, they had barely spoken in the six months that had passed since they last saw each other.
“Hey. How are you?” Adam managed.
There was silence on the other end. So much that Adam was afraid he had lost the connection.
“Guess where I am?” she asked, her eyes welling up suddenly as she realized how special this was.
“Why? Where are you?” Adam asked, a little suspicious. Tyler sounded emotional, and she wasn’t the emotional type.
“In Costa Rica. I came back for the holidays,” she told him brightly, swallowing the lump in her throat. “And I have someone here who wants to say hello.”
Setting the phone down, she coaxed the toddler into her arms and tickled him. She was rewarded by his giggle, and his bright smile. “Saluda,” she prompted. “Hola, Adam.”
“Oh-ah, Adam,” a little voice chattered brightly.
“Who is this?” Adam asked softly, afraid to hear the answer.
“Como te llamas?” Tyler asked, looking into beautiful brown eyes.
“Milo,” he said, nodding to himself, and then giggled.
“That,” Tyler said, taking the phone back. “Was Emilio.”
Tyler had been back for a week and now she barely registered Emilio’s scars, mostly because he was so transformed from the quiet and withdrawn kid they had known six months before. In the time since, he had come alive, asking questions, and curious about everything. He wasn’t new and scared anymore. And though he did look different, to Tyler, he had never been more beautiful. He had the deepest brown eyes and black hair that wouldn’t grow on the side of his head that scarred, but more than made up for it in the way it flopped into his eyes. His belly wasn’t smooth, and he wore a kind of body suit, but he loved to be tickled. In short, he was just like any other two-year-old.
It had been a long road, but he was here.
Adam’s throat was tight with tears, “That’s not possible. He was so bad, Tyler. So, so burned. That can’t be him.”
“It is,” Tyler reassured. “And Claudia took video of us so I can send it to you as proof.”
“That’s not possible,” Adam stammered.
“Anything is possible,” Tyler told him gently. “And I just called to let you hear it for yourself.”
“Okay,” Adam managed. “Thank you so much. I love you. Call me when you’re back.”
“What was that?” Kris asked, concerned.
That was a miracle, Adam thought, blinking tears back.
But what he said was, “That was Emilio.”