He lowers his phone and gives a sheepish smile, pulling down his mask to expose his grin. His face is fuller than it has been in months, silver stubble against skin that is once again a ruddy, healthy pink.
The momentary absence of his mask makes me nervous, but I take a deep breath and let it go. As he adjusts to his new liver, we’ve had to be careful in large crowds. His immunosuppressantmedication makes him more vulnerable to illness, and his body can’t handle a major illness right now.
My dad hams it up, waving to the camera. The audience cheers, the strangers behind and beside him leaning over to clap him on the shoulder in support.
I didn’t think people would have much of an investment in him besides the investment they have in me, but so manyAdventureversewatchers reached out to me during the airing of the season to tell me how similar their story was to mine.
One of them—Genie—was the reason I joined a support group for children of ill adults. She’s the reason I trust my dad to put his mask back on when he’s ready. He’s my parent. He can take care of himself. He can take care of me.
“Dad,” Jonathan says. “Were you disappointed to not get to see Noelle in Siena?”
“Jonathan, I have to be honest, I hate Italy,” he says with a wince, ducking as if the audience might start pelting him with tomatoes. “Bad memories. So, I was happy to be out of there as quickly as possible.”
JSP laughs, and it’s definitely fake. I wonder if Dad disrespecting Italy feels like we’re crossing into banned-from-Vienna territory. He pivots. “What was watching this season like for you? Because we got to see a lot of Noelle’s insecurities—”
“Thanks, JSP,” I cut in dryly.
He shrugs. “Am I wrong?” Addressing my dad, he continues, “Were her concerns about your health something you were aware of, going into this season?”
My dad’s face falls a little. He fiddles with the nose bridge indentation at the top of his mask, like he’s considering pulling it back up to hide his face. “Simply put? No. I should have been, but I wasn’t. Over the last year, I’ve leaned on Noelle more than I should have.”
“Dad—”
“Let me finish, kiddo,” he says authoritatively. “I wasn’t thinking straight. I wanted my little girl around me as often as possible, in case…” He clears his throat. “In case…in case she lost me.”
The audience makes sympathetic noises.
“Thank you,” he says over his shoulder. “But I involved her in my care way too much. I didn’t let her be a kid. We’ve talked a lot since the show began airing and hopefully now she knows that she’s free to live her life. I have my brother, Stu, fly in from Houston every other weekend to make sure I’m all stocked up so Noelle can focus on her schoolwork. She needs to. She almost failed her calculus course, you know?”
“Dad!” I say, widening my eyes at him.
“What, sweet pea? You did, right?”
I bury my face in my hands as everyone in the studio laughs.
“We’ll let Noelle off the hook for that one,” JSP says. “We’re almost out of time, folks.”
The audience groans.
“I know, I know,” he says, placatingly, doing asettle downmotion with his hands. “But before we go, I want to introduce our next season. Take a look at this.”
He points to one of the nearby screens, which plays a trailerfor Season 26. It’s a returnee season, and the fans go crazy at the first confessional.
“I feel great to be back,” Killian Grace, half of the show’s first-ever winning team, says from a modest light blue couch in his living room.
“We feel great to be back,” a voice corrects off-screen. The camera swivels to settle on Hugo, Killian’s best friend and team partner.
The cheering in the audience doubles at the beloved team on the screen.
The subreddit is probably going nuts right now. They’ve been fancasting Killian and Hugo on returnee seasons for years.
Several other iconic teams pop up on the screen, giving talking head interviews and competing in snippets of challenges from their original seasons. Finally the video fades, showing theAdventureverselogo under the wordsSeason 26: Heroes vs. Villains.
The applause is thunderous. The people love a returnee season.
“Oh, I forgot. One more thing before we go. Dad,” JSP says to my dad, glancing up from one of his index cards.
“Yes, Jonathan?” My dad’s eyes twinkle under the stage lights.
