He fills the kettle and sets it to boil.
There’s a knock on the door, and Madison’s anxious face appears.
“Everything okay?” I’m up off the bed immediately.
She presses her lips together and fidgets with the door.
“I left my medication at home.”
I must have asked the students a hundred times to check that they had everything they needed, including any medication, but there’s so much to pack and think about, and they’re always excited about going away. I can understand how she could forget it.
“It’s an easy thing to forget,” I reassure her.
“I don’t know what to do. It’s four days…”
Her bottom lip wobbles, and she glances anxiously behind her. She won’t want any of the other students to see her, especially if she cries.
I put my arm around her shoulders and guide her inside. “Come and sit down, and we’ll figure out what we’re going to do.”
She sits on the bed, and I sit next to her. I’m aware of Joel sticking to the background, keeping busy roaming through the cupboards under the sink.
“What medication is it?”
I have a list of everything the students take, but I can’t remember off the top of my head. She mentions an anxiety drug, which explains why she’s so worried about it.
“It’s for anxiety, and this is a highly anxious situation. I think I need to go home.”
She’s starting to spiral, and I rub her back, trying to calm her.
At that moment Joel crouches in front of her, and the jolt of someone new captures her attention. He holds out a steaming mug.
“You want a chamomile tea?”
She nods and takes the mug from him.
“When I was in the military, we were always losing things.” He speaks quietly, softly, and I see the father in him coming through. The gentle side to his military hardness. “If we discovered we’d lost something while on a mission, do you know what we’d do?”
She shakes her head, as enthralled by his words as I am.
“The first thing is, we’d take a deep breath. Can you do that with me?”
She takes in a long, shuddery breath.
“Sometimes it takes two or three.”
She breathes deeply again, and by the third breath her hands have stopped shaking. “The breaths remind you that right here, right now, in this moment, you’re okay.”
She nods.
“Now that we have a clear head, it’s easier to solve the problem.”
He leans toward her. “First things first, we have to try the obvious. I know you must have searched your bag, but sometimes, when you’re not feeling like yourself, it can be easy to miss something. Sometimes, you need a second pair of eyes to see the things you can’t.”
I see where he’s going with this, and I stand up off the bed. “I’ll go get your bag.”
I leave Joel speaking quietly to Madison while I slip out and into the cabin next door. Dana is in this one with Becky, and they look up from their laptops when I come in.
“Which one is Madison’s bag?”
