“Okay, Dad. We will.”
“I don’t even know what to say, T.J. Your mom and I are still in shock. Your sisters haven’t stopped crying, and the phone is ringing off the hook. We just want to get you and Anna home. I’ve already talked to Sarah, and I’ll make sure she gets all the information as soon as I have it.”
We said goodbye, and I handed the phone back to the woman behind the desk.
“We’re pretty full,” she said. “But we do have a suite available. Will that be okay?”
I smiled and said, “That will be just fine.”
Anna and I walked into the gift shop and looked around, unsure where to start. It was divided in two. One side had racks of clothes – everything from souvenir T-shirts to formal wear – and one side had nothing but food. Candy, chips, crackers, and cookies lined the shelves.
“Oh my God,” Anna said, and took off.
I grabbed two shopping baskets from a pile near the front door and followed her.
I handed her one and laughed as she tossed Sweet Tarts and Hot Tamales into it. I picked up a bag of Doritos and threw them in, followed by three Slim Jims.
“Really?” she asked, raising one eyebrow.
“Oh, yeah,” I said, smiling at her.
After we filled one basket with junk food, we headed to a rack of toiletries.
“There’s probably soap and shampoo in the room, but I’m not taking any chances,” Anna said, grabbing more and adding toothbrushes and toothpaste, deodorant, lotion, razors, shaving cream, and a brush and comb.
Next, we picked out a T-shirt and pair of shorts for me. Anna waved a package of boxer briefs in my direction, and I shook my head but she nodded, laughed, and threw them in the basket. I reached into a barrel full of men’s flip-flops and picked out a black pair.
A nearby rack held sundresses and I selected a blue one for Anna. She found a pair of sandals to go with it.
Anna scooped up some underwear, and a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and we carried the baskets to the counter, charging everything to our room.
We rode the elevator to the third floor. I slid the key card in, and when we entered the room, the first thing I noticed was a huge king-sized bed piled high with pillows. A large flat screen T.V. hung on the wall across from the bed and four dining chairs and a table sat next to a roll top desk and mini refrigerator. The living room area had a coffee table, couch, and two chairs arranged in front of another T.V. The air conditioner blasted frigid air into the room. A tray of four plastic-covered glasses sat on a low table by the door. I unwrapped two, walked into the bathroom, and filled them at the sink. Anna followed me, and I handed one to her. She stared at it for a few seconds before she raised it to her lips and drank.
We checked out the rest of the bathroom. A giant glass-walled shower occupied one corner of the room and a marble counter with two sinks and a basket of soap and shampoo stood between the shower and a deep Jacuzzi tub. Two white robes hung on a hook by the door.
“I’m going to call Sarah, so I can get my mom and dad’s number. I told her to have them wait by the phone. How many hours behind Chicago are we?”
“I think eleven. When I talked to my dad he said it was already 8:00 p.m there.”
Anna sat down on the bed and grabbed the pad of paper and a pen from the nightstand. She picked up the phone and dialed. “It’s busy. I’ll try her cell.” Dialing again, she waited and then hung up the phone. “It just kept ringing.” Anna frowned. “Why isn’t she answering?”
“Because she’s probably calling everyone you know and they’re calling her back. Her phone will probably be ringing for the next several days. Let’s get in the shower. You can try again as soon as we get out.”
We stayed in the shower for almost an hour, scrubbing and laughing. Anna couldn’t stop washing, even after I told her she was definitely clean.
“I’m never going to take another bath for as long as I live. I’m officially only taking showers,” Anna said.
“Me, too.”
When we finished, we dried off and put on the bathrobes. Anna squeezed toothpaste onto two toothbrushes and handed one to me. We stood in front of the double sinks brushing, rinsing, and spitting. She put her toothbrush down and said, “Kiss me right now, T.J.”
I picked her up and set her on the counter, then took her face in my hands. We kissed for a long time.
“You taste incredible,” I said. “You smell pretty good, too. Not that I ever minded when you didn’t.”
“This is better, though,” she said, resting her forehead on mine
“Yes.”
We left the bathroom, and I stretched out on the bed with a room service menu in one hand and the T.V. remote in the other. “Anna, take a look at this.” She was tearing into a package of sweet-tarts but she plopped down next to me and checked out the menu. She handed me the bag of Doritos and I opened them and crammed a handful into my mouth. Nacho cheese had never tasted so good.
It was hard deciding what to order because we wanted everything. We finally narrowed it down to steak and French fries, spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, and chocolate cake.
“Oh, and two giant Cokes,” Anna said.
I called room service and placed our order. Anna grabbed the key card and something off the low table by the door and said she’d be right back.
“You’re naked under that robe,” I reminded her.
“It won’t take long.”
I channel-surfed. Every station was broadcasting tsunami coverage. Anna came back into the room carrying a small bucket. I sat up. “Is that ice?” I asked.
She put a piece in her mouth and said, “Yep.” She lay down on the bed next to me and I watched her suck on it. She sat up and untied my robe. Opening it, she ran her hand gently along my side. Despite the pain, my body responded to her touch immediately.
“You have some spectacular bruises developing here,” she said. “What happened?”
“There was a huge tree trunk in the water.”
“You don’t get along well with those,” she pointed out.
“This one hit me.”
Anna put another ice cube in her mouth and kissed my neck and my chest.
“How long until room service gets here?” she asked.
“They didn’t say.”
Anna kissed my stomach and moved lower. When I felt her mouth on me, I gasped because it had never been cold before. I closed my eyes and rested my hands on her head.
When room service knocked on the door a little later, I tied my robe and answered it. The man that delivered the food put everything on the table and as soon as I added a tip and signed the check, we spread it out, taking the lids off.
“We have silverware,” Anna said. She held up a fork and stared at it for a second before spearing a meatball.
“And chairs.” I said, pulling one out and sitting down next to her. I handed her some garlic bread and cut a piece of steak. I groaned when I put it in my mouth. We fed each other bites off our forks and drank our Cokes. Our stomachs filled up fast; we weren’t used to such heavy food, or so much. Anna carefully wrapped up all the leftovers and put them in the refrigerator.
We stretched out on the bed afterward, to let our food settle. Anna played with a piece of my hair and put her head on my shoulder, tangling her legs with mine.
“I’ve never been so content in my life,” she said.
I muted the T.V. We had been watching coverage of the tsunami while we ate, amazed at the amount of devastation. Indonesia seemed to have been hit the hardest and the death toll had already reached the tens of thousands.
“I feel terrible saying this because so many people have died, but if it hadn’t been for the tsunami, we’d still be on that island,” Anna said. “I don’t know how much longer we would have lasted.”
“I don’t either.” I stretched my fingers toward the nightstand and turned the clock radio on, fiddling with the dial until I found an American music station. Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” was
playing, and I smiled.
Anna sighed. “I love this song.”
She snuggled closer, and I held her tight.
“Has it hit you yet, T.J.? That we’re safe and we’re going to see our families again?”
“It’s starting to.”
“What time is it?” she asked.
I turned my head toward the clock. “It’s a little past two.”
“It’s one in the morning in Chicago. I don’t care. I’m going to try Sarah again. There’s no way she or my parents are sleeping anyway.”
Anna sat up and reached for the phone, pulling the cord across my body. “I’ll try her home number first.” She dialed and waited. “It’s busy,” she said. “Maybe she’ll answer her cell.” Anna dialed the number and waited. “It went straight to voice mail. I’ll leave her a message,” she said, but then she hung up without saying anything. “Her mailbox was full.”
“Try again in a little while. You’ll get through eventually.” She handed me the phone and I put it back on the nightstand. “Anna?”
She snuggled back into my arms. “Yeah?”
“What about John? Don’t you think Sarah probably called him?”
“I’m sure she did.”
“What do you think he’ll do when he finds out you’re alive?”
“He’ll be happy for my family, of course. Other than that, I don’t know. He’s probably living in the suburbs with a wife and a kid by now.” She paused for a minute and said, “I hope he gave my stuff to my parents.”
“Where will you live?”
“With my mom and dad. Wherever that is. They’ll want me to stay with them for a while. Then I’ll get my own place. I still can’t believe they sold their house, T.J. They always talked about buying something smaller someday, maybe a condominium, but I didn’t think they’d actually do it. I grew up in that house. It makes me sad to know they don’t own it anymore.”
I kissed her, and then I untied her robe and slipped it off her shoulders. We made love and fell asleep afterward. When I woke up it was 5:00 p.m. Anna slept soundly beside me. Staring at the ceiling, I thought about our conversation. I had asked her about John, but I hadn’t asked the only question I really wanted an answer to.
What about us?
Chapter 41 – Anna
I opened my eyes and stretched. T.J. was leaning back against the headboard with the T.V. on low, eating a Slim Jim.
“That was a good nap.” I kissed him and swung my legs out of bed. “I have to pee. Do you know what I love the most about this bathroom?” I said, looking over my shoulder as I walked toward the door.
“Toilet paper?”
“Yep.”
When I got back from the bathroom, T.J. made me try a bite of his Slim Jim.
“Admit it. It’s not bad,” he said.
“It’s okay, but I’m a lot less picky than I used to be. Where did I leave those Sweet Tarts?”
I found them on the dresser. I wasn’t used to air conditioning so I wrapped my robe tighter around my body and snuggled back under the covers next to T.J.’s body. I was stiff and sore, more than I’d been when they first pulled me from the water, and I was thankful for such a soft bed.
At 10:00 p.m. I tried Sarah. It was 9:00 a.m. in Chicago, but I got a busy signal on her cell phone. “I still can’t get through,” I said. I called her home number but it just rang. “Her machine isn’t picking up either.”
“I’ll try my dad. Maybe he’s talked to her.” T.J. dialed his home number and waited. He shook his head. “Their line’s busy, too. I guess they’re both getting a lot of calls. We can try again in the morning.”
T.J. put the phone back and stroked my hair. “I don’t know how I’m going to get used to not sharing a bed with you every night.”
“Then let’s not get used to it,” I said. I propped myself up on my elbow and looked down at him. I wasn’t ready to let him go, no matter how selfish it made me feel.
He sat up. “Do you mean that?”
“Yes.” My heart pounded and my brain screamed that it was a bad idea, but I didn’t care. “We’ll be apart for a while. You need to be with your family and I do, too. But after that, if you want to come back, I’ll be waiting.”
He exhaled, a relieved expression on his face. He pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead. “Of course I want that.”
“It won’t be easy, T.J. People won’t understand. There will be lots of questions.” A knot formed in my stomach just thinking about it. “You might want to mention you were almost nineteen before anything happened between us.”
“You think someone will ask?”
“I think everyone will ask.”
***
I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. We had fallen asleep with the T.V. on and when I crawled back into bed, I picked up the remote and scrolled through the channels, stopping to watch the news for a while.
I sat straight up when CNN announced breaking news and there on the screen, under the caption ‘TWO FROM CHICAGO LOST AT SEA, RESCUED AFTER THREE-AND-HALF YEARS’ were pictures of T.J. and me, frozen at sixteen and thirty.
I reached over and gently shook T.J.’s shoulder.
“What, what is it?” he asked, still half asleep.
“Look at the T.V.”
T.J. sat up, blinked, and stared at the screen.
I turned the volume up just in time to hear Larry King say, “I think I speak for everyone when I say there’s a story there.”
“Holy shit,” T.J. said.
Here we go.
Chapter 42 – T.J.
I woke up before Anna and ordered eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon, toast, hash browns, juice, and coffee. When it arrived, I kissed her until she woke up.
She opened her eyes. “I smell coffee.”
I poured her a cup. She took a drink and sighed. “Oh, that’s good.”
We ate breakfast in bed and then Anna took a shower. I stayed by the phone in case my dad called. As soon as she was done in the bathroom, we switched places. When I walked out, drying myself with a towel, she stared at me.
“You shaved.”
She rubbed the back of her hand against my skin.
I laughed. “You told me if we were ever rescued I’d have to do it myself.”
“I didn’t really mean it.”
The phone rang at 11:00 a.m. My dad had chartered a plane and said we needed to be at the airport in one hour.
“Other than refueling, you’ll fly straight through. We’ll be waiting for you at O’Hare.”
“Dad, Anna’s been trying to reach her sister. Have you talked to her?”
“I got through to her twice. Her line has been busy, but ours has been, too, T.J. The news spread fast. The airport made special arrangements, and they’re allowing us to be at the gate when you land, but the media will be there too. I’ll do what I can to keep them at a reasonable distance.”
“Okay. I better go so we can get to the airport.”
“I love you, T.J.”
“I love you too, Dad.”
I dressed in the T-shirt and shorts we bought in the gift shop. Anna wore the blue dress. I fished the business card for the seaplane charter out of the pocket of my shorts and threw our filthy old clothes in the trash. We stuffed everything else into two plastic bags we found in the room.
After checking out, we took the hotel shuttle to the airport. Anna could barely sit still. I laughed and wrapped my arms around her.
“You’re wired.”
“I know. I’m excited and I drank a lot of coffee.”
The shuttle slowed to a stop at the airport entrance and Anna and I stood.
“You ready to get out of here?” I asked, taking her hand.
She smiled and said, “Absolutely.”
The flight crew – pilot, co-pilot, and one flight attendant – cheered and clapped when Anna and I ducked our heads and walked through the door of the plane. They shook our hands and we smiled and introduced ourselves.
/> I checked out the cabin. There were seven seats; five single seats separated by a narrow aisle and two attached seats. A narrow couch stretched along the wall. I couldn’t imagine what this must have cost my dad.
“What kind of plane is this?” I asked.
“It’s a Lear 55,” the pilot said. “It’s a mid-sized jet. We’ll have to stop several times to refuel but we should be in Chicago in about eighteen hours.”
Anna and I put our plastic bags in the overhead compartment and settled into the side-by-side leather reclining seats. A large floor-mounted table sat in front of us.
The flight attendant walked over to us as soon as we buckled our seat belts.
“Hi. My name is Susan. What would you like to drink? I have soft drinks, beer, wine, cocktails, bottled water, juice, and champagne.”
“Go ahead, Anna.”
“I’ll have water, champagne, and juice, please,” she said.
“Would you like me to make that a mimosa? I have fresh orange juice.”
Anna smiled at Susan. “I would love a mimosa. Thank you.”
“I’ll take water, beer, and a coke,” I said. “Thanks.”
“Certainly. I’ll be right back.”
We had zero tolerance for alcohol, and we got kind of hammered. Anna drank two mimosas and I had four beers. She couldn’t stop giggling, and I couldn’t stop kissing her; we were loud, too, and Susan did an awesome job pretending not to notice. She brought over a huge plate of cheese, crackers, and fruit, probably hoping it would sober us up. We inhaled it, but not before I insisted on trying to throw several grapes into Anna’s open mouth. I missed every time, which cracked us up.
When it got dark, Susan brought over blankets and pillows.
“Oh, good,” Anna said, hiccupping. “I’m a little sleepy.”
I spread the blankets over us and slipped my hands under Anna’s dress.
“Stop that,” she said, trying to deflect my hands. “Susan is right over there.”