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“I never stopped looking for you,” she tells me, taking my face in her hands. “Neither did your parents or my parents or Ethan,” she adds, motioning to the guy standing behind her. “Every single day. I didn’t care if it was freezing or snowing. I needed you to be alive.” And again when she says the word “alive” the tears kick back up. “I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too. Alex saved me,” I spit out, swallowing back the sob that threatens. “He’s the reason I’m still alive. You said he’s okay. Where is he? I need to see him.”
“Ethan just came from his room. They have him on oxygen and his breathing is improving,” Zoey says, nodding, as she looks over her shoulder.
“Hi Delaney,” the guy says. “I’m Ethan Morrison. Sorry that we have to meet this way.” He extends his hand to me, and I place mine in his, shaking it briefly. “Alex is doing well. They admitted him, but you should be able to go up and see him soon. I’m glad you’re doing well. I wanted to come by and introduce myself and see if there’s anything you need.”
I exhale hard, realizing I have been holding my breath, waiting to hear about Alex, not caring in the least that my boss or should I say the biggest boss of all, is asking me if I need anything. All I really need is Alex.
“I don’t need anything,” I say, my voice still shaky, now hoarse with the rawness of all the tears I’ve shed. “I just need to see Alex.”
Zoey smiles now, running her hand down my cheek. “I knew he’d grow on you. You two were made for each other.” She pulls me in for another hug, holding me for a few seconds longer than we normally would, but today isn’t a normal day. Today is the day I thought would never come. As much as Alex tried to exude positivity and convince me we weren’t going to die in that old rundown cabin, my mind was starting to convince me that we were.
Every day that passed felt like it was pulling us closer to death, closer to running out of food, closer to Alex getting sicker, closer to people giving up on us.
“How did they find us?” I ask, still confused on what even happened. I remember sleeping and hearing the helicopter, firing the flare gun, but after that, everything is a blur.
“Ethan hired the American Avalanche Association to track the path of the avalanche, and while they did a ton of work, it never led us to you and Alex. He had helicopters scoping the area daily, but again, they always came up short. Turns out you were farther than any of us expected, and it was a construction crew who were doing a drone survey. They saw the smoke from the cabin and knew it was empty. You were all over the news, so they called the police and well, the rest is history. You’re here and that’s all that matters.”
Zoey is talking so fast that I nearly miss the story of our rescue. It was a fluke, a random happening that led to us being found. That feels about right though. It was a miracle that Alex and I survived the avalanche in the first place.
“Where are my parents?” I now ask, wondering why they aren’t here yet. The entire time I was out in the woods, all I kept thinking was that they had to be worried, that they had to be out looking for me. Zoey even said they were there, that they looked for me just like she did, but where are they now?
“I called them, and they said they were on their way. They got the call before I did.” She shrugs and a lump forms in my throat at the idea that maybe they’re still mad at me. Maybe they think I did this on purpose, getting caught in that avalanche as a way to get their attention and get them to forgive me for being such a massive fuck up.
It sounds incredibly childish to even think that. I never once doubted that they’d be looking for me or that they would fear the worst. Unlike Alex who had serious doubts that his father even cared about him or his well being. Maybe I believed in them more than I should have though. I never wanted to put my parents in this situation or anyone for that matter, but now it feels like I’m being punished.
But just as I start to think my parents are going to hold a grudge against me for the rest of my life, my mom comes tearing into the room with my dad following closely behind.
“Delaney,” my mom says, tears running down her face and as soon as I see her, I start sobbing again. It’s like a never-ending stream of tears. I thought seeing Zoey was emotional, but nothing can top the feeling of seeing my parents for the first time in weeks. Everything that was once forcing us apart is long gone, the past means nothing now.
“Mom, I’m so sorry,” I cry, not sure what I’m apologizing for, but I feel the need to say it.
“Delaney, stop. There’s nothing to apologize for,” she says, holding me in her arms and letting me cry.
Zoey and Ethan quietly slip out of the room, leaving us alone. It’s then that I notice the nurse is gone too. I’m sure I’ll need her to come back so I can get out of this place. All I want to do is go see Alex and then have both of us go home. There’s no way I can sleep without him, let alone leave here without him either. We have been together for too long for anything to split us up now.
My dad steps toward us, holding a large bag in his hands, his eyes brimming with tears, and at the sight of him, my own tears start flowing again. Crying, that’s pretty much all I’ve done for the past several hours. I’m going to need an IV drip soon, my body dehydrated from all this crying. It’s not going to be surviving in the wilderness that does me in, it’s going to be all this damn crying.
“Laney,” he says, his name for me when I was little, and my heart clenches at the sound of it. It’s what Alex called me to get under my skin and boy did it work. I used to hate it. I told my dad not to call me that around age eleven, feeling like I was too old for such a babyish nickname, but now it’s music to my ears.
He reaches into the bag, pulling out not only my baby blanket that I slept with until I left for college, but also my favorite food, a sandwich from a local deli.
“I couldn’t show up here empty handed,” he says, dropping a kiss on the top of my head. “A Delaney Street sandwich for my Delaney.” He holds the sandwich out to me, and of course, his comment about the sandwich name has me in tears.
“That’s why we’re late,” my mom clarifies. “Your dad insisted on stopping at the deli. Don’t worry, he made sure to tell them the sandwich was for you.”
I laugh, picturing my dad at the deli telling them the sandwich was for me and reminding them that my name is Delaney. It was one of his favorite things to do when I was a kid. I used to think he was trying to get a free sandwich out of them, but now, looking back, I think he was really proud of the fact that he picked such a unique name, even if I share it with a sandwich. Purely coincidental.
My parentsand I talk for an hour, the nurse coming back in to check my vitals again, a doctor stopping by to tell me that everything looks good. They had taken some blood and he examined my feet and hands, checking for signs of frostbite, but miraculously, everything is checking out. Other than the mental trauma that I’m sure is going to stick around for a while, I’m doing okay. The doctor even told me I’ll be released tonight.
While I’m relieved that I won’t have to spend the night at the hospital, in this sterile, lonely room, I also don’t want to go home. I need to find Alex because there’s no way he’s not freaking out about where I am, just like I am about him.
“Dad?” I ask. “Can you find out where they took Alex? He was the guy who was with me.” I swallow hard, trying to keep the tears at bay. “He’s the reason I’m still alive and I need to see him. I need to make sure he’s okay.”
“Of course. I’ll ask the nurses and if they won’t tell me, I’ll hunt him down for you,” my dad replies, winking at me as he leaves the room immediately. I have nothing but confidence in my dad to find Alex and report back to me.
It’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders when my dad leaves the room, taking care of the one thing that I feel like I don’t have control over. Finding Alex, making my way to his room to be with him is my only thought now.
