While I Was Away(44)

Once everything was cleared up, she wanted to find him so she could apologize to him, herself. That proved very difficult, though. No one would tell her anything about him. Her name and number could be taken down and left in a message, she was assured, but she had a sneaking suspicion he'd never call her back. She had thought maybe she could talk another nurse into giving up his info, but it turned out his coworkers were annoyingly loyal to him.

Adele had been at it for twenty minutes, begging and pleading, and she didn't seem to be getting anywhere.

“I swear,” she tried again. “I'm not a stalker. I'm just a former patient who screwed up. My brains are basically scrambled eggs right now, take pity on me. I want to apologize, that's it. Can you call him right now? I'll talk to him on the phone here.”

“You almost got him fired,” Monica stressed. “Do you think he's gonna want to talk to you?”

“No, but that's all the more reason. I have to apologize, don't you get it? I have to tell him I made it right. Please, Monica. It's important. He did so much for me, and I never once got to thank him,” Adele said.

Puppy dog eyes didn't work on Monica, but sad, teary eyes seemed to do the trick. The nurse glared at Adele for a moment longer, then groaned and rolled her eyes before grabbing a piece of paper.

“I am not giving out his phone number,” she snapped as she snatched up a pen. “But I will tell you where he likes to hang out.”

“You're sure?” Adele asked, twisting her head sideways, trying to see the address as it was being scribbled down. “This is somewhere he goes a lot?”

“Oh yeah. You'll find him at this restaurant, for sure. Please don't be weird, and do not mention you got it from me.”

She handed over the scrap of paper and Adele squealed as she took it.

“Thank you! Thank you, Monica, you're the best.”

“Yeah, yeah, just remember you said that when he's cursing you out for stalking him.”

Adele refused to think of it as stalking. This was more like a mission. Possibly from fate, or maybe even from god, who knew? But her soul wouldn't know any peace until it was reunited with him. So she glanced at the scrap of paper and hurried out of the hospital.

I'm coming, Jones. Please listen to me this time. Please remember me.

*





“YOU THINK THIS IS A good idea?”

Her brother River was ducking his head so he could stare out the windshield of his truck.

“As good an idea as anything else I've thought of lately.”

River was playing chauffeur for her that afternoon. She could've call her parents or Ocean and asked them for a ride, but they would've asked too many questions. River was quiet by nature, and generally much more understanding. She appreciated his calming presence.

“So what's the deal with this restaurant? Good tuna melts?” he asked. She shrugged and looked out the passenger window, watching as they rolled past different buildings.

“I've never been there,” she replied. The GPS unit announced that they were a thousand feet away, and that their destination would be on the right.

“You had me drive you all the way across the city to go to a restaurant you've never been to?” he checked.

“Yes. I'll fill the tank, I promise,” she assured him, waving him away as she concentrated on the building numbers. Five hundred feet to go.

“I feel like we're in hipster-ville. They better have real food at this joint – I don't like kale,” he warned her.

“We're not gonna eat here, River. I just want to see if ...” her voice trailed off as they came to a stop at a red light.

“See what? Adele? Hello, earth to Adele?”

She didn't answer him. She didn't even hear him when he started repeating her name, and barely noticed when the GPS unit cheerfully called out “you have arrived”.

Out the passenger window, maybe fifty feet away, sat the restaurant Nurse Monica had told her about. Restaurant wasn't really the right word, though, no. Adele would never call the place across from her a “restaurant”.

Diner seemed like a much more appropriate word for it.

“Let me find a parking spot so we can – Adele!” River shouted as she abruptly climbed out of the car just as the streetlight turned green.

Adele still didn't hear him, though. She was too busy traveling across time and space, going back to a place that felt more like home than anywhere else she'd ever known.

A silver rail car style diner sat in front of her. Several steps – exactly six, she knew without counting – led to the front door, and though she couldn't really see much through the windows, she knew how the interior would look.

Red vinyl topped stools and matching booths.

She climbed the stairs.

Black and white tiles on the floors.

She slowly opened the door.

Grease stains on the menus.

She stepped inside.

And at the very end of the building, an old fashioned jukebox.

“Hiya, sweetie, what can I get for you?”

Dion and The Belmonts sang in harmony from the jukebox. The afternoon sun shined on the sparkly vinyl. And as if no time had passed at all, a harried looking waitress was hurrying up to her, a plastic menu clutched in her hand.