Two days later and Jessica is discharged. She didn’t need surgery and the tubes she had inserted did what was hoped without further intervention. With continued oxygen therapy, and after they’d placed a G-tube in her so she can get some much needed calories and nutrients in her, her medical team agreed resting at home was the best continued treatment.
“Don’t even think about asking Taylor to leave,” Gabriella says to Loncey as we walk into the kitchen. After Loncey had carried Jessica to her room, and I’d followed carrying some bags, overtaken easily by an overexcited Prince who had jumped on us all the moment we arrived, Taylor had stayed up there with her, saying she was going to help get her into some clean pyjamas, do her skincare and make her comfortable in bed. AsI’d followed Loncey downstairs I’d wondered if they were simply to exhausted to argue, or if perhaps they realised just how much that would mean to both Taylor and Jessica.
“I wasn’t going to!” Loncey protests.
“Good,” Gabi says and I expect her to say more, and I can tell Loncey does too, but she doesn’t.
“I should make y’all some dinner,” Loncey moves to the sink to wash their hands.
Gabi pulls a dish out of the fridge. “No need, I defrosted this lentil lasagna you put in the freezer,” she says. “There should be enough for four.”
“Actually, we already ate,” I explain. “Our stomachs are all out of sync with the travelling and we grabbed a couple of sandwiches from the hospital cafeteria.”
“You brave souls,” Gabi teases. “So what are you going to do with your evening then?”
I turn to look at Loncey at the same time they look at me. “Stay here, of course,” they reply.
“Why?”
“Because Jessica might need-”
“Jessica has me and Taylor,” their mother tells them as they turn the oven on. “And you only have one more day together before Maeve has to go home. You should make the most of it.”
“I really don’t-” I begin but it’s my turn to get cut off.
“Go out, do something,live,” Gabi emphasises. “You only have so much time together, you need to enjoy it.”
Even though I wouldn’t have changed the last few days for anything, being able to support Loncey and to help out in whatever small ways possible, Gabi’s words don’t just land in my ears, they burrow their way into my heart.
Because I am going home on a flight first thing the day after tomorrow. We don’t have much time left. And we haven’t once discussed when we will see each other again. I don’t know ifLoncey’s reluctance to do so is rooted in the same place mine is – fear that it will be a long time and admitting that makes it more real just how long distance is – but I do know that they have avoided talking about it just as much as I have.
Maybe we could go somewhere just the two of us and have that conversation, actually come up with a plan that will make that reality slightly less awful.
I’m half-convinced Loncey has exactly the same idea when I turn to look at them.
“Actually, there’s a place I want you to see.”
“I swear to God if it’s another deli making rabbit food…”
Loncey laughs. “No, it’s got nothing to do with chicken kale salads but it is related to my other obsession.”
“The stars?” I ask.
“Yes, Maeve,” they say with a slow smile. “The stars.Ourstars.”
I smile back. “Will you be bringing your paints?”
“I could. Want me to paint your back again?”
“Not this time. I have something else in mind.”
*****
Four hours later and darkness has settled over Nevada, and I say that because that’s exactly what stretches out in front of me. We’ve left the city behind us and we’re heading west, driving down an impossibly flat, long road and I’m once again being reminded of the vastness of this country. It’s just so big and so open. At least it is in this corner of the United States. It’s perfect for looking up and studying the stars and I wonder where Loncey is taking me so we can do that, because I’m fairly confident that’s exactly what we’re going to do.
“Do you do this a lot?” I ask. “Leave the city behind you and come out to the desert?”
It’s dark so it’s not clear precisely what is surrounding us, but the car’s headlights illuminate a strip of the land close to the Interstate we’re driving down and I can see sparse greenery emerging from dusty gravel. In the distance, and thanks to a not-quite-full moon, I can see the lumpy silhouettes of large rocks and desert mountains that remind me of the backdrop of a cowboy movie.
