“Yes, Mrs. Evans.”
She smiles. “Good boy.”
* * * *
I finally get over to see Connie a few hours later. She’s in far better shape than Susa. Her sons are with her, and I lean in to give her a hug.
She starts crying. “She saved me.”
I haven’t heard the whole story. Carter told me snippets, but I didn’t even process most of it. I was too busy staring at Susa and imagining her pregnant with our baby.
“I’m so sorry about Mike.”
She grabs my hand and squeezes. “She put the oxygen mask on me, and got my life vest on me, and got me out of the plane, and gave me crabs.”
Her sons burst out laughing.
“Um…crabs?”
“Crabs. On the island. She was the first one to see them. She couldn’t eat much, so she’d give me hers to eat.”
“Oh! Crabs.”
“And water. She made me drink. I…I would have died if it wasn’t for her.”
I gently squeeze her hand. “I’m glad you both made it. It’s a miracle.”
She nods. “I think I might want to resign my post, though.”
I laugh. “You know workman’s comp will pick this all up, right?”
She finally smiles. “You’re going to win, you know. If she can get us home again, she’s going to get you re-elected.”
I nod. “I tried to talk her into us both quitting, and she said no.”
“Probably was alotmore profane than that, on her part, knowing her.” She smiles.
“It was.”
We chat for a few minutes longer, then I go talk to Governor George Forrester. I knock on the open door and the man sitting next to the man in the bed looks up.
“Governor Forrester?” I ask.
“That’s what they tell me,” the guy in the bed says.
“Owen Taylor.” I walk in and shake his hand. Carter’s told me a little bit about what Susa went through, and the personal information she and this man exchanged.
No, I don’t begrudge that he held her, comforted her.
Ordered her to drink.
At least when she was close to giving up, maybe he helped keep her alive when she wouldn’t have made it otherwise.
I had to, at the very least, meet this man and shake his hand.
The other man stands. “I’ll run get some coffee, George.”
“Thanks,” Forrester says.
