Right To Be Heard: Chapter 2
The next few hours was a blur of packing, and driving out to his mom’s. His plan was to recuperate there, even if his mom’s hovering killed him.
Surgery was scheduled at 6 AM, and Adam wondered if it was humanly possible for operations to happen at a decent hour. Plus, he wasn’t allowed to eat beforehand, which totally sucked.
Before he knew it, Adam was in one of those ridiculous hats, and he had an IV in the back of his hand. Whatever was in it made Adam feel loopy as hell, but at least it relaxed him a little.
He remembered fighting the anesthesia, trying to stay awake as long as possible. Then, it felt like he closed his eyes for two seconds and woke up feeling like a truck had driven through his throat.
Panic rippled through him as he realized belatedly that his silence started now. He couldn’t even remember what the last words he’d actually spoken were. He picked his hand up off the bed and he swore it weighed as much as a bowling ball. Adam tried to signal somehow that he was awake.
Everything was a little too bright and blurry, and Adam felt disconnected from everything. Almost like he was floating. He would have believed it, too, if not for horrendous pain he was in.
--
“Honey? Do you want something to eat?” his mom asked.
Adam shook his head, nauseated at the mention of food. Any other time, he would have jumped at the chance to eat ice cream before noon, but right now, it hurt too much.
“Are you sure?” Leila pressed. “How about I dish you up some Napoleon ice cream, huh? Like when you were little?”
Adam rolled his eyes. He’d could be 47 and his mom would still insist on calling Neapolitan ice cream Napoleon, because he mispronounced it as a kid and she thought it was cute.
He shook his head, but his mom ignored it.
“I’ll just scoop you some and set it there,” she gestured to the table beside the easy chair. “That way, you can have it if you want it.”
Moments like these, Adam wished he had his voice. He would have liked to use it to shout at his mom that he didn’t need ice cream, he just needed to be left the hell alone.
--
Adam was pretending to rest when a knock sounded at his mom’s front door. He was feeling a little less weird and nauseated, but he hadn’t anticipated the intense vulnerability he was enduring without a voice.
Sure, he could scribble little notes to his mom on his white board. He could text her. But without facial and vocal expression a lot was lost. It struck Adam as very primitive and he wished for something better.
He’d forgotten all about the visitor when Adam was suddenly and keenly aware of the scent of a Sexy Thang in his midst. Actually, that was just the perfume she wore. It came in the little aerosol cans like all the girls used in middle school. He had it on good authority that she also owned Wanna Play, but had probably foregone it, given the seriousness of the occasion.
“Alisan.”
That’s what he wished he could say. Instead, he opened his arms and let her hold him.
It was like her not to say a single word. To just hang on and be as silent as he was. Adam guessed it was her way of looking out for him, and making sure he wasn’t tempted to try and speak. Or maybe, she just wanted him to feel normal.
How are you?
He could read the question in her fathomless brown eyes, as she got comfortable in the same double-width recliner.
This sucks. I hate my life. Adam said it all with a grimace.
Then, against his will, the fear crept in.
Alisan grabbed his board and scrawled a question: “What are you scared of?”
Adam took the marker and wrote his own message under hers.
“What if it doesn’t come back? My voice.”
Smiling, Alisan grabbed the pen. “Then, you’ll have a lifetime to work on this crappy handwriting.”
He smiled in spite of himself. Adam supposed that was why Alisan had come in the first place. To remind him to be joyful, in spite of it all.
--
Katy pulled up in front of a pretty brick house. The grass was cut short and there was a little garden out front, with red and yellow flowers poking out. Katy made a mental note to herself. She had to learn more about flowers.
Before she went inside, she sent Kris a quick text, letting him know she’d arrived. He sent her one back immediately.
Thank you! I texted him. Says he’s playing tic-tac-toe with Alisan.
Katy smiled to herself, remembering the call she had received from him earlier in the week asking if she would mind using her day off to fly out and see how Adam was since he was having surgery on his vocal cord. The whole thing sounded scary to her, and she couldn’t imagine if Kris had to go through something like that, with his friends away working at the same time.
That’s why Katy made herself available. That, and both she and Kris counted Adam as a close friend.
--
Alisan was busy spooning melted Neapolitan ice cream into Adam’s mouth when she heard the doorbell.
Adam raised his eyebrows, wondering who else could be coming by. Who else even knew he was having surgery? The ice cream on the spoon was gray, and Adam always thought ice cream tasted worse when it melted, so he pushed it away and got up to answer the door himself.
He was halfway there when Leila intercepted him. “Honey, you go sit. I got it.”
Determined, Adam continued to the door and peered out the window, breaking into a wide smile when he saw Katy standing on his mom’s welcome mat.
--
Katy had known before she saw Adam’s smile that sacrificing her one day off this week would be worth it, but seeing how happy it made him to have an unexpected visitor made it all the more gratifying. “Kris asked if I’d mind checkin’ up on you, and I said, ‘Are you kidding? I’ll take an excuse to go to California any day!” she said, wrapping her arms around him.
He gripped her shoulders and planted a kiss on her cheek. Then, he led her into the living room where Alisan still sat, trying to solve the crossword in the paper. When she glanced up, he gestured at her and then at Katy, in lieu of an actual introduction.
“Hi, I’m Alisan. It’s nice to meet you,” she stood and shook hands with the sweet-faced blond woman, realizing slowly that she looked familiar and finally placing her as Kris' wife.
“Nice to meet you, Alisan, I’m Katy,” she said, noticing immediately that Alisan was startlingly gorgeous. Deep brown eyes, long dark hair and a tiny figure.
“Do I hear Katy Allen in my house?” Leila called, walking in from the kitchen, drying her hands on a dish towel.
“Yes, ma’am. How are you?” she greeted, embracing Adam’s mom, too.
“I’m fine. Adam, here, isn’t feeling the best.” Leila gestured.
Adam made a calming gesture, and grabbed his board to scribble a note.
“I’m fine,” he wrote, and underlined it for a good measure.
“He just doesn’t like being cooped up, and not feeling well. Always has to be doing something. Typical male,” Leila confided, despite the fact that Adam was right there.
Without looking, Katy could sense the irritation Adam had for his mom just then, and set out to rectify things. “What can I do to help? You have any plans for dinner yet? Now that I’m here, we should see what we can cook up together…” she said conspiratorially.
As she followed Leila to the kitchen, Katy turned around briefly, in time to see Adam breathe a sigh of relief.
“Adam, Kris is gonna call you after a little bit. He said he knew you’d miss hearing him talk your ear off.”
Adam nodded, smiling his thanks, and sat back in the chair with Alisan to figure out a four-letter word for “pearl-shaped pasta” noticing that for the first time all day, he felt hungry.