[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
Chapter Two / 2013


Nick

"My name is Zeke the Freak and you're listening to WPPK.... We've got the Backstreet Boys here in the studio today, hot off a tour, just back from cruise, about to head over to Europe and hit the US with a mini-Christmas tour. Twenty years of this guys, how's it feel?"

"Exhausting," Kevin replied, taking the microphone into his hand.

We all laughed.

"Now you took a time out, so it must be even more so for these blokes, right?" Zeke the Freak waved his hands at the rest of us.

I stared at my hands as the guys talked, goofing off with Zeke.

"You're awful quiet over there, Nick. Let's talk. I hear you're engaged these days, huh?" Zeke asked after a few minutes.

I nodded, "Yeah, I am."

"Lauren, her name is? She's like a beauty queen or something?"

"It's actually the WBFF she competes in; it's like a fitness thing," I said, "She's a trainer. She's great. Funny. Great girl. I'm really lucky."

Zeke grinned, "Hey, good for you man, I remember when you were just a punky lil thing in baggy clothes saying you weren't ever gonna get married. Remember that?" He chuckled, "Seems like forever ago. Just about fifteen years. I guess that is forever in this industry." He laughed boisterously. "So when are you two getting hitched?"

"March, probably," I answered, "We're looking at having VH1 do a documentary."

Brian whispered something in Howie's ear and Howie laughed and shook his head, looking down at his sneakers. I felt my face flush. I knew Brian didn't approve of my plans to have VH1 film the wedding, but it's not like he had much room to judge - he'd let someone film his wedding, too.

"Awesome man, congratulations --" and then Zeke jumped off, announcing the Christmas festival date we were going to be doing in December and chatting with the other fellas about all the Backstreet Babies and stuff. I turned back to staring at my hands.

When the interview was over, we all got up and piled out of the studio, thanking Zeke for his time and heading out to the van that would take us all to the airport. Eddie pushed toward me through the crowd of people surrounding the five of us as we walked. "Hey, Nick, hey," he said, falling into stride beside me, "So I have a proposition for you... and you're free to say no, but I think it's a good idea so hear me out."

"I'm listening," I answered.

"Okay, so you know the Miracle Network?" he asked.

"Children's hospitals, right?" I said, "We did something for them in... what was that, 2006?"

Eddie looked fairly impressed. "Yeah. Good. Okay. So they contacted Ground(Ctrl) today, and they have this thing they're doing, partnering up with Make-a-Wish, they're doing a Christmas of Miracles program, they've got like twenty-five kids they wanna do stuff for, one kid for each day in December leading up to Christmas... TV special, blah-blah-blah, you know the song and dance... They're hoping you'd be interested in granting one of the miracle wish thingies. One of the kids wrote in and wants to meet you."

I shrugged, "You know my schedule better than I do, Eddie," I said. We ducked through the door of the radio station and I stood behind the other guys as they climbed into the van that was gonna bring us to the airport. "I mean I'm fine with whatever, just pencil it in... and keep and mind Lauren and I want at least a little time for just us..."

"Well he's in Nashville, I thought you might be able to tuck in a visit there before Christmas," he made a little tucking motion with his hand.

"Yeah whatever just set it up," I said. I climbed into the van and pulled the door shut behind me. Eddie waved from the outside of the van. I looked around at the other guys. AJ was unpacking his Beats and Howie was texting Leigh. Brian was on the phone and Kevin was unfolding his glasses from his pocket, squinting at his iPad. I sighed because I'd been stupid and packed my laptop in my carry on, which was with Lauren, probably on it's way to the airport now. Luckily, I'd thought to shove a book into my backpack. I pulled it out and furled the cover back and started reading.



Abbey

I balanced my coffee cup on the stack of books I was carrying and used my elbow to catch the handle of the door, kicking it open and squeezing my way into the lobby. The secretary, a rotund woman named Giada smiled and waved as I walked by. "Morning, Abbey!" she sing-songed.

"Morning Giada," I called back, "Chilly outside!"

"Aye!" she agreed, "I wore a sweater to work today!" She waved her arm over her head, tugging on the sleeve of her sweater.

I walked on through the hallway to the elevator and rode it up to the fifth floor alongside an elderly man on the way up to the sixth floor with his physical therapist, who'd just walked him around in the parking lot. "How's the expeditions going, Phil?" I asked him, smiling, "Your new hip treating you good?"

"Better'n my old one," Phil chuckled, "Much like my second wife."

I laughed and exited the elevator car as it dinged and the doors opened up. "Keep an eye on ol' Speedy Gonzalez there," I told Oscar, Phil's PT. Oscar laughed and waved as the door closed behind me and I walked down the hallway with my books.

At the nurse's station, I called out greetings to Jessie and Andrea, the two LNAs on duty, who were dutifully entering data into the computers, and nodded a greeting to Monica, the doctor who was in the middle of rounds across the ward, before ducking into my destination. The room was quiet, the TV on but turned down, the lights low, curtain pulled halfway to maintain privacy. I stepped around it, putting the books on the table. Over my shoulder, I could hear Phineas and Ferb chattering away.

"I brought you your books," I said, and I tossed my purse onto the chair, leaned down and kissed his forehead.

Matty's eyes were closed, but they flickered opened. He looked at the stack of books and smiled, "You don't think we're going to be here very long this time," he said quietly.

I shook my head, "Of course not."

"Good," he mumbled and he closed his eyes again, taking a deep breath.

I pushed the table to the foot of his bed and reached for my purse, extracting his bookends, shaped like owls, and set the books up in alphabetical order, the way he liked them. He watched me through his eyelashes.

"Did you have a good night?" I asked him, glancing back and forth between him and the books as I straightened them. "Anything exciting happen while I was gone?"

"Nothing exciting ever happens here," he said. "Mostly just Andrea and Monica came in and poked me with needles and I slept," he replied.

Satisfied the books were neat, I sat down in the chair beside his bed, putting my purse down on the floor, and lifted my coffee to my mouth.

"Anything exciting happen to you while you were gone?" Matty asked.

I shook my head. "Made waffles. Served coffee. Same old, same old." I worked at a Waffle House downtown, we served a lot of truckers on their overnight routes. Of course interesting things happened. Nothing I was going to tell a six year old about, though. I forced a smile.

Matty nodded.

"Did you start looking through the catalog yet?" I asked. I'd left a Toys R Us catalog on Matty's table the night before and told him to circle all the things he liked and to use a 5-star rating system on them for how much he wanted things he circled.

"I started to," he answered halfheartedly.

"Well you need to work on that," I said, "Christmas is gonna be here before you know it, the last thing you want is Santa Claus to have no idea what to bring you."

"Mom, please," Matty said, his voice lisping ever so slightly in a way that reminded me of when he was much younger and his lower two front teeth were both out at the same time. "I know Santa's not real, it's okay."

I forced another smile. "Well, you the last thing you want is me not knowing what to bring you."

"There's just not a lot of toys that I want," he said.

I took a deep breath, "I know, sweetie, I know you just want to get better, but that's not a present that I can give you." I felt tears spring into my eyes. "We're just going to pray that this time you get to be home for Christmas and we'll have a tree and a turkey and there'll be lots of Christmas music to play and movies to watch. We can watch the whole 24-hours of Ralphie on TV, if you like."

Matty nodded.

I reached out and put my hand on his hand. "It's gonna be okay, buddy..."

He sighed.

I was about to ask him if something else was bothering him when Monica came in, followed by Andrea pushing the vitals cart. "Well good morning, Mommy, how was your night?" Monica asked, smiling as she went over to Matty's side and took his arm as Andrea handed her the blood pressure cuffs.

"Busy as usual," I answered.

"Do you ever sleep?" Andrea asked with a chuckle.

"I take a nap in the afternoon," I replied.

"Usually during the two-hours of back-to-back Myth Busters," Matty added.

"It should be a crime to miss Myth Busters," Monica said, smirking.

"It was a repeat today," Matty went on, "They were testing what the best tool to be armed with against an angry horde of zombies."

Monica chuckled. "That sounds pretty intense."

"Yeah," he said, "They confirmed that an axe is, like, way more effective than a gun in the zombie apocalypse because Adam and Jamie tested them both and the gun only killed seven zombies and the axe killed fourteen so the axe is, like, twice as effective --"

He babbled on while Monica and Andrea continued their routine check-ups, listening to his heart beat and breathing, and getting his pulse, blood pressure, and various other vitals. When they'd finished, Andrea took the sheet and the cart and pushed it back out to the nurse's station while Monica hung her stethoscope over her neck and listened as Matty continued on about the other experiments conducted on the Myth Busters. Finally, when he paused to take a breath, Monica announced, "So I have some good news for you."

"Yeah?"

"The Children's Miracle Network and Make-a-Wish Foundation are doing a joint project for the holiday season - the Christmas of Miracles, they're calling it. They're filming 25 children being granted wishes that they've submitted to air during the Christmas season, and, Matty, they selected the wish you submitted." Monica grinned.

Matty's eyes were wide.

"The wish you submitted?" I looked at him in surprise, "You submitted a wish?"

"Whoa," he whispered, "No way. Really?"

"Really." Monica smiled at Matty.

I looked at Monica, "But the point of the wishes is that kids that are terminally ill get to have a wish, Matty's not that bad."

Monica took a deep breath, "We need to talk, Abbey." She looked at Matty with a smile, then back to me. "Why don't you come with me to my office?" she suggested. "We'll be right back, little man," she added, ruffling his hair. She reached in her pocket and pulled out a pumpkin-shaped lollipop and held it out to him with a wink.

"Thanks," he said, but I could see the nervousness in his eyes, despite her attempt to keep things sounding lighthearted.

I kissed his forehead again, "We'll be right back," I agreed, and I followed the doctor out of the room.