After school, Joan had gone to the hospital again, this time with Grace and Luke in tow. When they came to the ICU, they were told at the information desk that Adam had been transferred from the ICU to the regular ward, another good sign, they took it. When they got up to the ward and entered Adam's room, Mr. Rove was sitting in a chair next to Adam's hospital bed. His arms were lying on Adam's bed, his head resting on his arms. He had fallen asleep.
Joan went up to him and carefully touched his shoulder. "Mr. Rove?"
He started at Joan's touch but relaxed when he recognized Joan. He looked at Adam, who was still lying motionless, then mumbled sleepily. "I must have dozed off."
Joan told him, "Why don't you go home and get some rest. We'll stay with Adam for a while."
With a look of concern on his face, he asked, "Are you sure?"
Joan nodded. "Yes, we'll stay until you come back if you want. I can give you a call later."
Mr. Rove said, "Thank you," and shook Joan's hand gratefully before leaving the hospital room. Adam was in a two-bed room, but the other bed occupying the space closest to the window was empty. Joan could see that some of the heavy medical machinery from the ICU was not present here, but there was still a small but thankfully silent heart rate monitor next to his bed, as well as an IV stand with two IV bags feeding into Adam's arms.
Joan realized that Grace and Luke were standing at the foot of Adam's bed, looking at him with an expression that was a mixture of caution and intimidation. They both were probably as shocked as Joan when she had first seen Adam the ICU in the morning, looking so vulnerable and helpless.
Joan looked around the room and gestured at the two chairs standing around the small table in the corner, signaling for Grace and Luke to get them and move them next to Adam's bed. Joan sat down in the chair Mr. Rove had previously occupied, Grace and Luke sat down next to each other on the opposite side of Adam's bed.
Joan was the first to speak. Looking at Adam, she said, "Hey Adam, I'm back. Grace and Luke are here too."
Joan paused, hearing Grace say, "Hi Adam," and Luke simply adding, "Hey." Silence ensued, Grace and Luke were just staring at Adam. After a few uncomfortably quiet seconds, Grace intercepted, "Dude, this is seriously weird. What do we talk about?"
Joan felt a little insecure how to behave herself, but had decided not to let that keep her from acting as normally around Adam as possible. "I don't know. Every day stuff, I guess."
"Okay," Grace answered, but then stopped.
Joan looked at Luke and went on, "I know it's strange, I remember feeling the same way when we visited Kevin in the hospital before he woke up. Just pretend that he can hear and understand everything but can't answer, that makes it a little easier."
Joan could see that Luke was not feeling at ease but at Joan's words he remembered the time in the hospital with Kevin, so he tried to overcome any feeling of weirdness, looked at Adam and said, "Okay, so obviously you didn't miss much at school today. No, wait, Miss Lischak did another classic today. She got so wrapped up in her little world of physics equations, that she hit the wet blackboard sponge with her pointing stick and was covered all over with white chalk specks. Man, that was hilarious!"
Both Joan and Grace smiled at the image and Joan added, "Yeah, that was so cool. The look on her face afterwards was priceless. Oh, and Friedman and Glynis say hi, as well as my mom and dad and Kevin."
The trio went on talking about school stuff, complaining about the homework and Joan suggesting that they could maybe do some of the physics studying in Adam's room, just so it would feel like their study group was complete and Adam didn't miss anything.
After about an hour, Luke and Grace got up to go home. Joan told them she wanted to stay a while longer, so after Luke and Grace had left, she was alone with Adam. She took his hand again, somehow she had not wanted to do that with Grace and Luke present. It felt just as limp as this morning, but warm to the touch. They had clipped a pulse oximeter to his index finger to monitor his heart rate and blood oxygen saturation. Maybe it was just in Joan's imagination, but she thought that a bit of color had returned to Adam's face.
She spoke him again, "Hey, you're looking better than this morning. I don't know if you can hear me, but maybe you can. You know, when Kevin was in the hospital after his accident, I always talked to him too. Come to think of it, I never asked him if he remembered any of it."
She opened her shoulder bag and took out a thick hardcover book. "I know you can't read it yourself right now, so I will read it to you. It's 'The Neverending Story'. I've never read it, but I remember you talking about it, so now we can read it together. I got you the illustrated version, so I hope you like it."
Joan opened the book and turned the pages to go to the first chapter, which was oddly printed in dark red. She shifted to a more comfortable position in her chair and started reading aloud, being captured by the story almost immediately.
After she had finished the first chapter, she looked at her watch. She wasn't sure Luke had gone straight home, so she should give her mom a call, or maybe head back home. She dog-eared the page she had stopped at and placed the book on the white, sterile looking bedside table next to Adam's bed; maybe someone else would like to continue reading it to Adam. She said goodbye to Adam and left the hospital. On her way to the bus stop, she called Mr. Rove on her cell phone, as she had promised.
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