Clockwork [final]

Twenty

The remaining day they had to spend in hospital passed painfully slow. Minutes seemed like hours, especially to Derek. While he was in a lot of pain and knew that the hospitalization was necessary, all he could think about was leaving. Adette was a little less bothered, but he could tell she was getting restless too. By the time they were allowed to leave, neither of them could’ve been more eager to go.

  It wasn’t until they were outside the hospital that Derek realized something. “Where exactly are we actually going to go?” he asked.

“Good question,” she replied, but there wasn’t even a trace of worry on her face at the thought. It dawned on him that she’d clearly already thought about this. “I guess we’ll just have to go on a road trip.”

“A road trip? What about the car?”

“Already sorted. The hospital staff had it delivered to the car park for us.”

“What about Lassie?”

“I already called Melinda. She’s expecting us any minute now.”

She was clearly pleased with herself for managing to organize this without him knowing, and he had to admit it was brilliant; a road trip, what better way to get their mind off recent events? It gave the construction workers time to fix their house, too.

“Good job, Adette,” he laughed, “Turns out you can be just as sly as I can.”

She grinned proudly. “Why thank you, Derek, I was hoping you would notice.”

They climbed into Adette’s car feeling in considerably higher spirits than they had been the past couple of days.

“Do you even know how to get to Melinda’s house?” he wondered aloud.

“No,” she admitted, “But I have her address.”

Adette turned up the radio and started singing along loudly. She clearly didn’t even know the lyrics, let alone the song, but it made Derek laugh. Soon, he joined in, and by the time they got there they were both in hysterics.

“Why, hello, you two,” Melinda greeted, unable to keep the smile off her face, “You’re looking in considerably higher spirits.”

“As are you, Melinda,” Adette replied, and she meant it. She looked a little more well-rested and the bruise on her face was considerably lighter.

From out back, Lassie seemed to recognize the familiar voices and started barking excitably and scratching at the door. Melinda laughed. “We’d better get out to the back.”

Her house was exactly as they would’ve expected it to be. The walls were painted bright, crazy colours, and thoroughly adorned with all kinds of strange ornaments. They reached the garden and Adette felt a little ashamed at her own pitiful excuse for a garden; Melinda’s was beautiful, with carefully arranged trees and flowers sprouting from every corner. Melinda opened the door and Lassie came bounding in, barking and jumping up at Adette’s legs.

“Hello Lassie, hello!” Adette laughed, “I missed you too!” She scooped her up in her arms and kissed her forehead. Secretly, she was amazed; there wasn’t a scratch on her.

“I hope she hasn’t been too much trouble,” Adette fretted.

“Of course not! I was simply returning the favour that you did me. Things would’ve been a little lonely if she hadn’t been here to keep me company anyway.”

Adette smiled at her. “Well, thank you, I’m very grateful.”

Melinda smiled back for a moment before abruptly saying, “Do you want some coffee or tea before you hit the road?”