The stretch came wheeling into our tiny little house swiftly scooping up the confused and reluctant boy who just minutes ago had been dead.
"I'm not hurt!"
He cries attempting to scramble away from the scared, annoyed EMT.
"I'm not sick!"
He cries out again hiding behind Otto.
Otto whispers something in his ear, that always seems to calm him down.
Geoff lets the EMT do his work as he gets strapped onto the large people-carrier. The EMT's partner an obviously more professional parametic rolled Geoff away as he longingly gave us looks of confusion.
My heart's still beating as fast as a train.
We drive close behind the ambulance it's horns screeching. What is happening to Geoff do we have to watch him die again?
Will he ever die?
The bright lights of the large vehicle flashes in our eyes as we are left to wonder.
Wonder in fear
____
I wake up softly a nice change from the usual quick jolting up in bed. My hand still grasping Geoff's. A small amount of sweat still occupies my neck though.
Some things never change.
I glance over to Geoff thankfully he is still peacfully sleeping he deserves that. Has he faded yet today? Maybe we should pull over.
"Hey Otto has Geoff um you know what yet?" I question the baggy eyed boy.
"No, I don't think so."
"Should we pull over for him?"
I question looking out at the field of corn. Too much fucking corn.
"He can't know where we are remember? Lets hope he sleeps the whole way there."
He whispers glancing at the compass that is guiding our way,
"Just keep quiet."
Ugh. That leaves me with nothing to do it's not like the view is that entertaining. I look over to Geoff how does he always look so graceful?
Even when he's sleeping in a car.
The holograms on his neck have expanded cascading to his jawline. Poor Geoff he wants so badly to hide those spots.
Should I sleep again?
Risk having another dream of that day? It seems to be the only thing I can dream of anymore.
Scratch that it is all I dream of anymore.
But it doesn't matter because we are headed to fix Geoff right now.
It's actually happening.
Lets just hope the price isn't high.
I know it will be.
We can hope though.
~~~
What seems like hours pass and Geoff somehow has stayed asleep.
"We're going to rent out a hotel room for the night,"
Otto exlaims squinting at the dimly lit road,
"This thing tells us which direction we're going but now how far it's going to be. It might take days who knows."
The compass sits in Otto's cupholder it points north, straight ahead.
The car turns into a shabby looking hotel called the 'cloudy INN' wow that doesn't sound shady at all.
It's good enough for tonight.
It's only a night.
We're close to being the one thing we've been dreaming about for four years.
Normal.
Otto steps out of the Mini Cooper and heads towards the front desk. Thank god he didn't make me check in.
After about twenty minutes he walks outside with a key.
Good they aren't full.
I definitely wasn't looking forward to sleeping in the car...again.
That was a nap it doesn't count.
Otto opens the back and announces, "Good news they only had one room left and we got it,"
He pauses grabbing his backpack,
"Bad news there is only two twins."
"I'll sleep with Geoff." I jump on the opportunity.
That seemed creepy but we are only sleeping nothing else.
Not like I would complain.
No stop thinking like that, bad Awsten, bad. I don't think Geoff will ever get to that point. He's gone through too much.
I slide the thought to the back of my brain. Out of mind.
This is serious.
"Alright." Otto replies tossing me my bag along with Geoff's.
"You get to carry his shit then."