“We could stay all our lives if we wanted to,” she adds. “We could live here.”
“We already do,” you say.
“Or…,” she says, “we could let ourselves come back to the surface. That’s what he was trying to do. And I think that’s what he would want us to do.”
You’ve been especially attuned to sounds since you came back from the woods, and you hear so many of them now. The whir of hospital machines. A janitor’s cart, rolling on a bad wheel. The hushed tones of patients’ families. It’s the complete opposite of the woods in every way.
You sit down in the hallway and lean up against the wall. The donor looms above you. Diana looks down at you, and then, after a moment of contemplation, she joins you, your shoulders touching.
“It’s hard to remember who I was before,” you say.
Diana stares across the hall into Troy’s room.
“You were a kid all alone on a roof,” she says.
You wish her depiction wasn’t so accurate. But in a way, those hours before you met her were the “before.” In your darker moments, you’ve wished that the two of you never met. But then you remember how alone you felt.
“I never asked you. Why did you climb up to see me that first night on the garage?” you ask.
She huffs out an uncomfortable laugh.
“I was drunk,” she says.
You pause.
“Okay,” you say.
“Ugh, I don’t know,” she says. “Maybe that’s not it. You were alone on your birthday, on top of a garage.”
“Oh,” you say. “So it was pity…”
“No,” she says. “That’s not it either. I think when I saw you, it just felt like something I would do. It felt familiar.”
“Being alone?”
“Yeah,” she says. “But we don’t have to be anymore, if we don’t want to.”
She leans against you, and you close your eyes.
And it’s in that moment, one that you wish would last for an entire hour, that you hear the commotion from down the hall. The slap of the footfalls comes first. Then a door bursts open, and you see Will, sprinting like he did on that first day at the gas station, his eyes nearly closed with determination. Behind him is a red-faced male nurse. The nurse is yelling and trying to get a breath at the same time.
“Sir,” he is saying. “Sir. I told you that is not allowed…”
He’s not in great shape, the nurse. And it’s hard to tell what his winded warning is in reference to until you get a better look at Will. He’s back in a tracksuit, bright red this time. And he’s holding something. Something that seems hard for him to grab hold of. Your mind races, but you can’t for the life of you think about what kind of contraband he would be transporting through a hospital.
“Troy!” he screams. “Troy. I’ve got him. He’s here!”
It starts to click then, and as Will thunders closer, you also see the short, flailing limbs of a terrified long-haired dachshund, better known to most people as a wiener dog.
“Oh my god,” says Diana, and rises to her feet. “Oh my god.”
“Secure the door behind me!” Will yells. “I repeat: Secure the door behind me!”
You get up too, and you don’t hesitate for a moment. You and Diana are in lockstep as Will crashes into Troy’s room, clutching Turbo. You take one look at the nurse, and you know you cannot let this man in the room. If you can survive a bear attack, this poor guy has no chance. And in this particular context, the consequences seem laughable. What will they do? Arrest you and send you to juvie, where you will be given an actual bed and prepared food?
You slam the door behind Will, and Diana and you brace yourselves against it, ready to move heaven and earth to make this reunion happen.
“Enough is enough, Troy!” says Will. “This dog is bereft, bro. You are his sole reason for living, and you need to wake up right now!”
