Ralph stood in the doorway of his bedroom in East Point, Georgia for the first time in over five months, staring into the room uncomfortably. It didn't feel like his room anymore. It felt like an abandoned space that belonged to the past.
What made his chest sting a little more fiercely was seeing the folded up air mattress sitting in front of his closet. He and Jack didn't have time to pack it away before they left for school nearing the end of August. His mom had insisted that she'd clean it up later after the boys had gone, and she had. But she'd left it there, sitting on the floor; now a physical reminder of the Jack Ralph had lost to the island.
Ralph plopped down on his bed and rubbed the end of his comforter between his fingertips. He had forgotten how soft mattresses and blankets were. It was like sitting in a pile of cotton candy compared to sleeping in the shelters they'd built on the island.
Jeffery and Laurie Langley were also getting settled in their own bedroom now. Laurie put her pyjamas, robe, and pink slippers on before checking in on their son while Jeffery finished his shower.
Laurie peaked her head into her only child's room. The light was off, and she was surprised to find Ralph sleeping soundly on his bedroom floor. She thought about picking him up as best she could and getting him into his own bed.
Where would he have slept on the island?
On the ground, outside, she'd guessed. Like the food choice he'd made today, Laurie thought that this just might be another weird thing Ralph may do until he's readjusted to being part of society again.
"He asleep?" Jeffery asked from their king size bed when his wife returned to the room.
"On the floor" Laurie informed him.
"He's sleeping on the floor?" Jeffery sought to clarify.
"He isn't used to sleeping in a bed, Jeff. Between that and his diet, it might be awhile before his behaviour and habits start to resemble those he used to have" Laurie thought aloud. She crawled into bed with her husband, and sighed a deep sigh of relief knowing that for the first time in five months, she could sleep knowing her baby boy was safe and sound.
Paige Merridew was growing impatient. Jack had been back in the examination room at Senterra Princess Anne Hospital for almost an hour after the Langleys had taken off.
"At any point did you fall from a height greater than your own height?" the late night doctor asked Jack in the examination room.
"No" Jack answered simply.
"Any memory of hitting your head at all?"
"No" Jack repeated.
"I think that just about covers all the questions. Could you remove your t-shirt and sweatpants for the physical exam, hun?" the doctor asked him.
"No problem" Jack responded as he pulled his shirt over his head before removing his sweatpants.
"You haven't had the chance to shower, huh?" the doctor asked as she stared Jack up and down.
Jack glanced down at how dirty his torn up briefs had become over the last five months. His face, neck and chest were covered in smeared charcoal and blood stains.
"That obvious?" Jack joked.
After the exam was finished, Jack pulled the search and rescue clothes back on and was brought back out to the waiting room where Paige sat.
"What's the verdict?" his sister asked as she looked up from her magazine.
"Nothing broken" Jack shrugged carelessly. "She said I'd have to show 'em this to get out of here" he informed her as he held up the copy of his cleared medical examination report.
"Ready then?" Paige asked.
Jack nodded, and the two Merridew siblings made their way out the exit doors the Langleys had walked through just over an hour earlier.
"You must be Merridew" the uniformed Army soldier standing at the door said as he took in Jack's clothes.
"Guilty" the blond boy said as he handed over his report to the solider. He skimmed it quickly before shoving it into the folder he held in his other hand.
"I'll need to see your ID, ma'am" the soldier addressed Jack's sister.
"No problem" she said as she rummaged through her $749 purse for it.
The solider verified her ID, making Jack's release from military custody official.
Jack followed Paige in silence through the hospital parking lot. She pulled out the keys to a vehicle Jack realized he had never seen before as they approached it and climbed in.
"Who's car is this?" he asked from the passenger seat.
"Rental" Paige answered simply as she started the car. Of course it was. Jack felt stupid for asking. Money was no object to a Merridew.
"Where are you taking me?" Jack asked after they drove in silence for ten minutes.
Paige turned to look at him, a confused glare on her face. "Home. Where else would we go?"
"Dad's okay with that?" Jack wondered.
"Has to be. You're a minor" Paige pointed out.
"Thought maybe foster care" Jack joked. He was only half kidding, and Paige knew it.
"He's not that bad" his sister defended their father.
"Not to you, he isn't" Jack countered. "He's gonna kill me before we even get in the door."
"Why? Did you cause the plane to go down?" she joked. She was only half kidding, and Jack knew it.
"Not this one" Jack chuckled. "But he'll find something to be at me mad about. Always does."
"Just give him a chance" his sister suggested.
Jack didn't say it, but he'd given his father a thousand and one chances. He'd never change. He'd never even be willing to try.
"So what's with all the dirt and blood?" his sister spoke suddenly into the quiet.
"Huh?" Jack turned to look at her.
"Your face, bimbo. Why all the markings?"
"Uh, it was a symbol of some sort, I guess. You wouldn't get it" Jack attempted to dismiss her.
"A symbol of what?" Paige persisted. "Or I guess you aren't really supposed to talk about the island yet, right? Before all the legal kinks are worked out or something the marine guy said" she went on.
"Right" Jack agreed simply, just relieved she'd found him a way out of answering the question.
"But I have to ask; is it true some people died? On the island, I mean. We already knew almost half of your troupe didn't survive the plane crash."
"Squadron" Jack said simply.
"What?"
"Cadets are in squadrons, not troupes" he clarified while failing to provide any answers to the rest of his sister's comment.
The Merridew kids' flight from Virginia left just before 2 AM. They arrived back to their family home in Dalton at 6:30 the next morning. Evan Merridew was sound asleep in his double master bedroom on the second floor.
Jack climbed up to the third floor where his room was. He stared aimlessly at the bedroom he hadn't seen in almost six months. He'd spent the last two weeks of the summer in East Point with Ralph, he now recalled. It had been a strangely long time since he set foot in this house.
He thought about Ralph's room, three times smaller than his own. Somehow, it had felt cozier to Jack than his own did now. There had barely been enough room to walk through Ralph's bedroom when the air mattress the Langleys brought up for Jack to sleep on was in the brunette boy's bedroom. Ralph had to crawl across Jack's mattress to get to the bedroom door without hurting himself. Jack began to remember one of their last nights in the Langley home before he and Ralph were back at the academy. He had been sleeping at 0330 in the morning, as any civilized person would be. When all of a sudden, Jack was startled awake as he felt something crawling on top of him. Jack had jumped out of his skin, scared shitless.
"It's just me! It's me" Ralph had whispered warningly.
"Shit, Langley, I nearly pissed myself" Jack whispered as his heart rate began to steady.
Ralph was practically sitting on top his sleeping friend, trapping the blond boy's leg underneath him in a tired haze.
"I'm gonna piss myself if I don't get to the bathroom" Ralph had whispered as he hauled himself off Jack and the air mattress. Just like that, the brunette boy had disappeared into the dark hallway.
Ralph had returned a couple minutes later, dragging his tired feet across the carpet. He hastily climbed on top of the air mattress and over Jack. All of a sudden, Jack latched onto his waist and trapped him. Ralph let out a loud, girly scream that quickly turned into a fit of laughter. Both boys were laughing between Ralph's shushing as he worried about waking his parents. Ralph was laying on top of Jack, his back to the older boy's front, as they both calmed down and laughter slowed into heavy breaths.
"Were you trying to give me a heart attack?" Ralph whispered as he tried not to start laughing again.
"No, but props to me if I did" Jack chuckled quietly.
It was silent for a moment before Ralph spoke.
"I'm too tired to move" he had said, sprawled on top of Jack in the darkness of his bedroom, with nothing but the glow in the dark stars stuck to the ceiling providing an insignificant amount of light.
"Then don't" Jack whispered simply. "Doesn't matter to me" he added in an effort to appear indifferent.
Ralph shifted slightly, sliding his weight a little so it wasn't directly on top of Jack. But he had stayed close, letting his head rest against the older boy's shoulder, Jack's arm still trapped underneath him. Jack couldn't bring himself to wrap his arm around his friend as his own heart began to pound inside his chest. Instead, he pulled the blanket up from beside him and covered both himself and Ralph. Jack felt tears welling in his eyes for some reason unbeknownst to him, as he let his head lean comfortably against Ralph's. He had been certain that the overtired brunette was dead asleep already, given that he'd only been half awake to begin with. But Jack couldn't fall back asleep for awhile longer. Not until he'd stopped focusing on whatever it was that was making him feel so uneasy, and only then did he finally drift off in the comfort and safety of Ralph's closeness.
....
Jack stared into the void of his dramatically large bedroom, filled with so many stupid, expensive things he hardly ever touched. He replayed that memory at Ralph's house in his head for a few minutes. He thought presently about Ralph, sleeping soundly in his own room back in East Point by now, in that comfortable space surrounded by all the love and acceptance a boy could ever need.
He thought back to the island, about how resentful and bothered he'd become by Ralph's very existence. When exactly had things gone so wrong between them? Jack couldn't put his finger on it as he removed the search and rescue clothing, tossing them to the floor. He walked to his bathroom across the hall in nothing but his dirty torn up underwear. He turned on the bathroom light to take a shower, and stared at himself. Back on the island, the paint had made him feel strong, superior, in control, on top of the world. He stared at his reflection now; the war paint, the mass amounts of dirt imbedded into his skin, the faded black charcoal rings around his eyes. In front of the backdrop of his pretentious, upscale, expensive bathroom, he just looked silly.